BOMBERS B-52 (1957)

This one-hundred-six-minute CinemaScope production is Warner Bros.' answer to the more successful 1955 release, Strategic Air Command, filmed in Paramount’s VistaVision format. It was superior in cinematography and script authenticity, thanks to Bernie Lay, an airman himself, who brought firsthand details to the table. This film works in a few scenes on the ground reminiscent of the SAC film. Victor Young's opening male ensemble song and dynamic flying score from that film better captured the grandeur of this period. But I digress. Renowned composer Leonard Rosenman, on the other hand, wrote a soap opera opening theme that goes against the bold, three-dimensional title graphically spelled out on the screen. He did write a short, dynamic, but repetitive B-52 motif, addressed below. The film gets high points for location filming on two active SAC bases. This helps distance itself a bit beyond the B-movie category, along with the draw of top-billed Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., all on career upswings.

I have always found the film’s title a bit of strange syntax, like “Thunderbird Ford.” The film's alternate title (at left) could better convey the airmen's sleep-deprived twenty-four-hour missions and perhaps Malden's multi-hour angst over his daughter's late-night dating behavior. Irving Wallace's double-entendre about sleepless nights is alluded to in the second poster. For Paramount’s Strategic Air Command (sorry, Air Command Strategic), recruitment went up about 25% because of its inspiring screenplay, authentic depiction of the Air Force, and performances by James Stewart and fellow actors. I doubt the Air Force got that much of a jump following this movie’s premiere. Who wants to enlist and be supervised by a character like Malden? Most would gladly choose Stewart's ever-easy flight engineer, Harry Morgan.

Directed by Gordon Douglas, the film gets low points for Wallace's soap opera, adapted from a Sam Rolfe story, which I already warned you about. Outside the suds, the text is generally accurate about this period of the Air Force. Another low point is an over-the-top performance (once again) by the small-mouthed Malden. He can be hard to stomach as a bull-headed, self-centered career man. He is the quintessential overprotective father who thinks his daughter is still in junior high school. Comedy never seemed to fit him, and his sequence as a contestant on a popular quiz show provides proof. Yet his exceptional baseball knowledge nets him the four-grand prize, with enough left over to buy his daughter a new Ford convertible to keep her happy. On an early pleasure drive, she and father come upon a new "Thunderbird Ford," jacked up on the roadside. From underneath, the owner suggests the transmission has been poorly repaired. Maybe it is the battery. The preposterous encounter is simply to facilitate the meeting of the T-Bird owner, Zimbalist, with Wood.

From the film's opening, set during the Korean War, Malden has preconceived opinions about the handsome Zimbalist as a predator of females. Especially his daughter. After several years, the sergeant still thinks he knows "his kind." The scenes of him pacing the living room, awaiting his daughter's late date return with Mr. Z, blowing off steam to his wife, Marsha Hunt, and downing several cans of beer (between trips to the bathroom) are humorless. Hunt's low-key performance implies she may be detached from life in general. The reality is, she is the calming force in the family trio. 

If you are an aviation enthusiast of this era, the B-47 and B-52, as was the B-36 and the B-47 in the “SAC” film, will be your highlight and the main reason for remembering the movie. The takeoffs and flybys are welcome, but probably done better in A Gathering of Eagles (1962). Sound editing includes the unique B-36 low drone about three times during the characters' banter as if taking off in the distance. I do not know who suggested that. The banter between tanker and bomber pilots in one sequence sounds authentically humorous, but during a twenty-four-hour flight, Zimbalist's “travelogue” comments and accompanying low-altitude, back-screen projected visuals should have been left on the editing floor.

 
Rosenman wrote a majestic march-like theme for orchestra. Though it takes nearly half the film before we see a B-52, the theme in a slower tempo, along with an elevated camera position, is all goose-bumpy, casting long, early morning shadows for an impressive debut as its wings spread out over the tarmac. Once the plane is front and center, we hear the theme frequently. The theme should have debuted with this sequence. But just prior, it is hilariously misplaced during a twenty-second sequence of Malden riding a ubiquitous scooter several hundred yards. With the gallant theme pounding away, we expect him to end his ride next to the bomber as it fills the screen. Instead, he simply stops at the maintenance hangar after putt-putting past the gate. Piloting a scooter is just not very majestic.

During an emergency bailout of a climactic flight, a search begins to find Malden's location. Zimbalist personally wants to do it. Malden's stupidity comes to the forefront regarding his recollection from five years before. During the Korean conflict, Zimbalist demands that his fighter be repaired immediately for a flight to Tokyo. Malden thought it was for just a hot date. Zimbalist tells him it was 

actually for a timely mission. Rescued and recuperating in the base hospital, Wood apologizes for being only nineteen amid constant sobbing. She confesses that her dad is no longer an embarrassment. Planes are keen. We assume she will marry, move into Air Force housing, and Malden will cut back on the beer volume. At the closing of the film, she looks rearward from Zimbalist's repaired T-Bird, finally understanding the national importance of the eleven-ship B-52 formation roaring overhead. A large formation that would only be performed for a promotional demonstration. Like in this film.

Notes: Many note the twenty-year age gap between Zimbalist and Wood. Typically, an older male was expected in Hollywood. Note Clark Gable opposite Doris Day in "Teacher's Pet." Zimbalist, in his first screen lead, makes it work because he appears younger than reality. As many have documented, Warner's original choice was Tab Hunter. He and Wood were hot property, yet it made it implausible to believe he was a seasoned pilot by the Korean War, then achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel at such a young age. Plus, he would not have pulled off the demeanor or vocal authority that Zimbalist brought to the role. Consider a major script revision pairing Wood with the handsome co-pilot, Stuart Whitman, a decade younger than Zimbalist. But they appear the same age!