So-so film was held up for 7 years , before being finally released , being spoiled by an absurd story , though saved only by the impressive flying scenes . It deals with Air Force Col. Jim Shannon (John Wayne) is tasked to escort a defecting Soviet pilot Lt. Anna Marladovna Shannon / Olga Orlief (cute-pie spy played by attractive Janet Leigh) who is scheming to lure Shannon to the USSR . Maj. Gen. Black (Jay C. Flippen) and Maj. Rexford (Paul Fix) assign Shannon to survey Anna , but things go wrong . Later on , they marry , but our protagonist suspects she is a spy planted to find out US secrets . Then Shannon pretends defect with her back to Russia to watch what he can find out , but they again flee .
This romantic comedy packs thrills , one-dimensional heroics , comic-strip dialogue , spy-game , ludicrous screenplay and a lot of sky-shattering scenes that are flashily breathtaking . Intimate as well as spectacular WWI airplane movie with an agreeable cast , overwhelming aerial scenes , though including a silly romance . It is one of the Greatest Air Spectacle of the Jet Age but it has a ridiculous plot that relies heavily on an ridiculous love story . This is an entertaining as well as showy Dramedy about relationship between two pilots as well as a tough commanding officer determined to improve efficiency , interwoven with nice aerial footage ; it was so big it took years to make with an inestimable help from the US Air Force , still taking advantage of Chuck Yeager's 1947 supersonic flight for publicity , offered his services as a stunt pilot . This was apparently one of the first films in which the US Air Force during the Cold War was featured , including spectacular aircrafts , such as : first Bell X-1 , Glamorous Glennis , Boeing EB-50A Superfortress , serial 46-0007 ,B-36 , F-94 Starfire F-80 Shooting Star , prototype Northrop XP-89 Scorpion ,Lockheed T-33As , B-36B by a Lockheed F-94A Starfire , among others . It appeared in a number of films afterward , notably Bombers B-52 (1957) , A gathering of eagles (1963) , Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), and By Dawn's Early Light . Amiable acting by John Wayne , in real life a staunch anti-communist, who shambles through the action with a permanent sympathetic grin , he plays a jet pilot in charge of Alaskian Air Force base who falls in love with a defecting pilot , a gorgeous Janet Leigh . Support cast is frankly excellent , such as Jay C. Flippen , Paul Fix , Richard Rober , Hans Conried and brief appearances by Bill Erwin , James Brown , Mamie Van Doren , Kenneth Tobey and Denver Pyle .
Brilliant cinematography in Cinemascope and Technicolor by Winton Hoch , John Ford 's usual cameraman , shot on location , the filming for the Russian air base was done at George Air Force Base, a World War II air base with many of its wartime structures still intact, giving the base a primitive appearance . Thrilling as well as rousing musical score by Bronislau Kaper . The film was produced by RKO in 1950 which was owned by Howard Hughes, although this was shot in the fifties , it took seven more years to be released because Hughes couldn't keep his hands off it . As he intended to show off the latest in aircraft technology in 1950 , when this film was shot . By the time it was released to the public, in 1957 , the aircraft featured were already obsolete . The picture was regularly directed by Josef Von Sternberg . His commercial breakthrough was Underworld (1927), a prototypical Hollywood gangster film . With The Last Command (1928), starring the equally strong-willed Emil Jannings , von Sternberg began a period of almost a decade as one of the most celebrated artists of world cinema . Both his film career and his personal life were transformed in the making of Blue Angel (1930). Chosen by Jannings and producer Erich Pommer to make Germany's first major sound picture, Von Sternberg gambled by casting Marlene Dietrich . Josef , subsequently , directed her in various prestigious pictures as Dishonored , The Devil Is a Woman , Blonde Venus , The Scarlet Empress and the greats hit : Shanghai Express ; being Jet pilot his last film .
