Jet Pilot (1957)

Air Force Colonel Shannon is assigned to escort defecting Soviet pilot Anna. He falls in love with her, but she is scheming to lure him back to the USSR. But Shannon has a scheme of his own.

Director:

Josef von Sternberg

Writer:

Jules Furthman

Stars:

John Wayne, Janet Leigh, Jay C. Flippen

Cast

Complete credited cast:
John Wayne	...	Col. Jim Shannon
Janet Leigh	...	Lt. Anna Marladovna Shannon / Olga Orlief
Jay C. Flippen	...	Maj. Gen. Black
Paul Fix	...	Maj. Rexford
Richard Rober	...	FBI Agent George Rivers
Roland Winters	...	Col. Sokolov
Hans Conried	...	Col. Matoff
Ivan Triesault	...	Gen. Langrad

Storyline

Air Force Colonel Shannon is assigned to escort defecting Soviet pilot Anna. He falls in love with her, but she is scheming to lure him back to the USSR. But Shannon has a scheme of his own.

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Plot Keywords:

pilot | ends with a kiss | warrior | semiautomatic pistol | battle | 

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Taglines:

Only the sky was big enough to hold the sweep and power of this epic-making picture!

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Romance | Thriller | War

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

October 1957 (USA)

Also Known As:

Düsenjäger

Filming Locations:

Edwards Air Force Base, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The gloss-black, prototype Northrop XP-89 scorpion appears in some scenes set in Russia.

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Goofs

When the fighter breaks off after the radar intercept, the markings on the plane are backwards (flipped film).

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Quotes

Lt. Anna Marladovna Shannon: Have you had many of them?
Col. Jim Shannon: Many what?
Lt. Anna Marladovna Shannon: Women.

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Crazy Credits

Advertising carried the credits "Starring John Wayne, Janet Leigh, and the United States Air Force."

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Connections

Featured in The John Wayne Anthology (1991)

User Reviews

Up Up in the Air in My Beautiful MIG

Howard Hughes original intension was to do another Hell's Angels for the Cold War Era. Remember that film was equally famous for the aviation shots as for the debut of Jean Harlow as sex symbol.

Well if sex and flying worked before, why not again. Hughes filmed some really great aviation footage and then worked to build a story around it, one with some sex. So he reworked the plot of Ninotchka and adapted it to the wild blue yonder.

The reason originally for the delay in release was that we were making great strides in aviation post World War II. So he re-shot and re-shot the aviation sequences and then eventually lost interest. Jet Pilot was released seven years after it was originally filmed and by then the planes really looked out of date. Our's and the Soviet's. One of the players, Richard Rober, in fact was killed in an automobile crash in 1952.

The only thing you can say about Jet Pilot is that the Russians were far in advance of us on feminist issues. Why then would you have the shapely Janet Leigh filling out a flight suit after allegedly going off course and landing in the USA?

Air Force Colonel John Wayne interrogates Janet about the latest in Soviet technology, but then he gets other things on his mind. After a while he's got the hots for her so bad, he marries her and they go back to the USSR to see what he can find out about their aircraft.

Does it sound pretty silly to you? Even for a propaganda film I doubt this one affirmed anyone's Americanism. Remember this was released on top of The Conqueror and between them they put and end to Wayne's seven year reign as number one at the box office.

By the way at the time this was being filmed, Howard Hughes was panting after Janet Leigh the same way he'd earlier panted after Ava Gardner. He got MGM to send her to RKO for three films, this, A Holiday Affair and the musical Two Tickets to Broadway. Poor Janet.

And poor everyone else connected with Jet Pilot.