Writer: Steve Fisher
Composer: Marlin Skiles
Starring: Sterling Hayden, Richard Carlson, William Phipps, John Bromfield, Keith Larsen, William Schallert, Todd Karns, Phyllis Coates, Dave Willock, Walter Coy
More info: IDMb
Tagline: Bombshell story of the Navy's Hell-Divers ... scorching the Pacific skies!
Plot: During the Korean War, aboard the U.S.S. Princeton, Navy Commander Dan Collier reminisces about his first assignment on the same aircraft carrier in the war against Japan.
My rating: 6.5/10
Will I watch it again? No.
If there's one character type Sterling Hayden excelled at it was the hard-nosed, no nonsense, gettin' shit done kind of guy and that's exactly who he is here. He's the leader of these flyboys, he's got the 3rd most confirmed kills in the Navy and he expects nothing but the best from his boys even though they find him to be an uncaring S.O.B.. It's that kind of picture. Fortunately for the audience they get lots of chances to take down the enemy at sea and on a coastal base and I do mean lots. Usually movies like this give you a couple of action scenes in the air and that's it but not this one. Once the fighting starts it keeps going every few minutes. That's a huge plus in addition to seeing Sterling Hayden gnaw on some dialogue. The color areal combat photography is great, too. As you'd expect, all of the shots of the pilots flying (from inside and outside of the cockpits) is cheesily done but what are you going to do? If anyone can point me to some examples of the era when it was done well, please let me know. I don't know how else it could've been done back then but there must have been a way to cut down on the phony-ness of it. It's poorly done in this film. The uncredited list of actors on IMDb lists James Best and Alvy Moore in this but I didn't see them.
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