Sky Commando (1953)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Fred F. Sears

Writers:

Samuel Newman (screenplay)
Samuel Newman (story)

Release Date:

21 August 1953 (USA)

Genre:

War | Drama

Tagline:

The Coolest Customers You Ever Saw in the hottest planes that ever flew!

Plot:

Colonel Ed Wyatt (Dan Duryea) is regarded by pilots under his command as being a ruthless disciplinarian...

Plot Keywords:

Pilot

Cast

Dan Duryea	...	Col. Ed (E.D.) Wyatt
Frances Gifford	...	Jo McWethy
Mike Connors	...	Lt. Hobson 'Hobbie' Lee (as Touch Conners)
Michael Fox	...	Major Scott
William Bryant	...	Lt. John 'Johnny' Willard (as William R. Klein)
Freeman Morse	...	Danny Nelson
Dick Paxton	...	Captain Frank Willard
Selmer Jackson	...	General Carson
Dick Lerner	...	Jorgy
Morris Ankrum	...	General W.R. Combs

Runtime:

69 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White (Sepiatone)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #16509)

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Goofs:

Continuity: About twenty minutes into the film, an airfield emergency is declared with an aircraft coming in "on two engines". There then follows a polyglot of stock footage showing four four-engine B-24 Liberators, all with all engines turning, wartime-footage of a B-25 Mitchell twin-engine bomber crash-landing, followed by a flight of four four-engine B-17 Flying Fortresses approaching a field, and then, B-24s rolling out on landing. No attempt was made at matching footage of the aircraft types shown.

Not so much a movie as a raid on the combat footage library

This film, with the merest of story lines to hold it together, is really just an excuse to cobble together stock combat footage, both American and German, of a mixture of American bombers, mostly B-25 Mitchells, but also B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-24 Liberators, and an occasional B-26 Marauder, all of which get intercut without regard to any sense of continuity. All cockpit interiors are of a B-25, interior fuselage shots appear to be B-26s, and in the latter half of this so-called "film", on a mission in B-24s, the close-up of the cockpit is a B-26. High-level B-24 group footage is mixed with Ploesti low-level training and mission footage without any regard to believability. Several crash sequences created for the movie are hokey-looking models. What little new-shot footage of flying done is all of training B-25s in a southwestern U.S. location without unit markings or tailcodes, intercut with stock footage of flying formations in combat paintschemes. The same stock shots of German 88 mm. anti-aircraft guns are reused several times.

When the main pilot's "B-24" is hit, the long-shot of it going down is a Boeing B-17, followed by a cheesy Liberator model crashing. Cut to five "survivors", supposedly down in Yugoslavia, who are repatriated within minutes, with the film wrapping up almost immediately thereafter.

As for a plot, there really isn't one. Bad acting, poor script - stay away from this stinker unless you just want to see combat film.