Strategic Air Command *** (1955, James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Lovejoy) – Classic Movie Review 7875

Director Anthony Mann’s 1955 Strategic Air Command stars James Stewart as Lieutenant Colonel Robert ‘Dutch’ Holland, who sacrifices his baseball career to join the US Air Force and fly A-bomb jets, while his sweet wife Sally (June Allyson) worries and waits.

The air footage is superlative and the boys’ action stuff is good, but director Mann goes all soggy with the romance. However, Stewart keeps it airborne, and he and Allyson share practised warmth and charisma in the last of their three films together. Beirne Lay Jr was Oscar nominated for his Best Motion Picture Story.

Stewart’s character is based on the real-life military career of Brigadier General Clifford Schoeffler, who crashed during an Arctic B-36 mission and survived. The film is also inspired in part by the true story of baseball great Ted Williams, the Boston Red Sox legend. In real life, Stewart had a life-long love of flight and, when he became the first Hollywood star to enlist in the Armed Forces in World War Two, he went into the Army Air Corps and flew more than 26 combat missions as the commander of a B-24.

Strategic Air Command is another big hit for the popular movie star pair of The Stratton Story (1949), which shares a baseball theme, and The Glenn Miller Story (1954), the latter also directed by Mann.

Also in the cast are Frank Lovejoy as General Ennis C Hawkes, Barry Sullivan as Lieutenant Colonel Rocky Samford, Alex Nicol, Bruce Bennett, Jay C Flippen, Rosemary DeCamp, James Millican, James Bell, Harry Morgan, Richard Shannon, Harlan Warde and Strother Martin.

Strategic Air Command is directed by Anthony Mann, runs 115 minutes, is made and released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Valentine Davies and Beirne Lay Jr, based on a story by Beirne Lay Jr, shot in VistaVision and Technicolor by William Daniels, produced by Samuel J Briskin and scored by Victor Young.

Stewart and Mann were trusted film partners and this is one of their eight collaborations, mostly classic Westerns, which include Winchester ’73, Bend of the River, The Naked Spur, The Far Country and The Man from Laramie.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7875

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

James Stewart in his US Air Force career piloting B-52s.