Escadrille Panthère

"Men of the Fighting Lady" is a very good and highly unusual film. It's highly unusual because the screenplay is based on two different short stories by two different authors! And, even more unusual, Louis Calhern plays one of these authors, the famous writer James Michener. It's also a bit unusual because it's a Korean War film....and, oddly enough, Hollywood made very few Korean War movies.

The story is about a group of fighter-bomber pilots flying Panther jets from a US aircraft carrier. What happened to the men is described to Michener (Louis Calhern) by the ship's doctor (Walter Pidgeon)....a story about the pilots flying interdiction missions over Korea. The part of the story that is longest and most interesting is a true story of a pilot hit by shrapnel. The plan is badly damaged, he is blinded and he cannot eject...and another pilot trails him and talks him down onto the carrier deck!

The story is interesting and the acting quite good. But like too many war films, it's filled with lot of grainy stock footage that obviously doesn't fit. What's worse, occasionally it's VERY sloppy...such as when a dark blue Panther jet becomes a silver F-84 fighter plane! Another time, during a bombing run, a Panther becomes a WWII era propeller fighter, the F4U Corsair*! This is not only sloppy but insults the audience's intelligence.

Overall, worth seeing...despite the sloppy footage issue.



* To folks who know a ton about planes, yes I know that the F4U Corsair was also used in Korea....but a propeller fighter becoming a jet fighter...that's just stupid and obvious.