DVD Review: FLYING LEATHERNECKS / Nicholas Ray (1951)
November 16th, 2008 by Scott Marks
Flying Leathernecks (1951)
Directed by Nicholas Ray
Written by James Edward Grant from a story by Kenneth Gamet
Starring: John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Don Taylor, Jay C. Flippen, William Harrigan and Janis Carter
Photographed by William E. Snyder in 
Running Time: 102 min.
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Rating: 
World War II had come to an end and the Korean war was just ramping up, but the main motivation behind this propaganda piece was to satisfy R.K.O. studio owner Howard Hughes flying fascination. In 1949, Hughes began production on Jet Pilot, another aerial blockbuster. Hughes obsessed over the second unit shots for so long that by the time he was satisfied, aviation technology had rendered his vision obsolete. Undaunted, Hughes decided to reshoot the flying sequences and the film didn’t see a projector’s arc until 1957. By the time the cute Cold War comedy was released, topical humor and the way America viewed the growing Red menace had changed, instantly branding the picture dated and obsolete.
Other than Macao, Nick Ray and Jet Pilot director Joe Von Sternberg had one thing in common: they were working for Mr. Hughes and the checks were as good as they were steady. Ray possibly undertook the project in part as a preemptive defense against HUAC who viewed him as a left-leaning, Tinsel Town liberal. They were right, of course, but Ray never went down for them. Undoubtedly Ray and Robert Ryan, both leftist liberals, locked horns with the Duke and his favored G.O.P. co-star Jay C. Flippen. Sadly, very little of their off-screen tension found its way into the finished product.
The production was one of the studio’s first shot in Technicolor. R.K.O., a second-rate lot with first-rate talent, was unable to spend the necessary money to recreate their bleeping tower in three-strip. What follows is pretty much close-ups of actors piloting rear-screen aircraft intercut with stock footage. My staff mathematician reasoned that ten percent of the film, if not more, is comprised of archival footage. On the ground, the filmmakers don’t have a story to tell. What is the objective of the film other than once again witnessing John Wayne win the war? The plot, what little there is, goes nowhere. Wayne’s crew suits up, takes to the air, kill “Japs” and returns minus a co-star.
Cinematographer William E. Snyder was brought on board to photograph airplanes, not paint with light.The high key demands dictated by the lumbering three-strip Technicolor cameras were taken literally by Snyder and his crew: there’s barely a shadow in this thing!
Normally a picture like this is populated with dozens of familiar faces, but even the supporting cast fails to deliver. Don Taylor’s contributions to cinema are always negligible. Not being a fan of Gunsmoke, a Milburn Stone appearance meant nothing. Jay C. Flippen serves up what little comic relief there is. Only Dick Wessell and Adam Williams brought smiles to our faces. Wessell makes a pre-Chopper Kane/A Fling in the Ring cameo and Williams will always be best remembered as the “we’ll laugh about it in the car” guy from North by Northwest. This was only babyface Williams’ second role and to the best of our knowledge it afforded him about the most amount of screen time he ever had. His character is introduced, familiarized and dead before the first cue mark.
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Tags: adam williams, Airplane, airplane fetish, aviation, aviation movie, dick wessell, flying leathernecks, flying leathernecks review, howard hughes, jay c. flippen, jet pilot, John Wayne, Nicholas Ray, Propaganda, r.k.o., robert ryan, the duke, World War II, world war ii movieMan decapitates wax Hitler on opening day of Madame Tussauds in Berlin
July 5th, 2008 by Scott Marks
Looks like an SCTV parody. “…and Dave Thomas as Der Fuehrer.”
BERLIN - Just minutes after Madame Tussauds opened the doors to its latest museum, a 41-year-old German man walked past security guards and proceeded to rip the head off a controversial waxwork figure of reviled Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
I’ve heard of saving Hitler’s brain, but this is extreme. Perhaps he was simply celebrating the recent discovery of the director’s cut of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. After all, it was one of Hitler’s favorite movies.
Reuters reports that a police spokesman said the angry man did what he had to do in order to protest the exhibit. The polizei were alerted and the man did not resist arrest. He was being investigated for enacting a paraffin putsch.
It took twenty-five workers four months to complete the project. They examined 2,000 photographs and pieces of archival material and the damn thing still looks more like Bruno Ganz than than the world’s greatest fascist dictator. The team also found inspiration from an upright model located in the London branch of Madame Tussauds.
One burning question remains: Why would anyone in their right mind drop their hard-earned dough to see a bunch of wax dolls? It all seems like such a profound waste of disposable income. Posing for a photo with an in-the-flesh celeb is one thing. Grinning beside a lifeless substitute is pathetic.
How the museum got around the fact that It is illegal in Germany to show Nazi symbols and art glorifying Hitler is unknown. The exhibit was cordoned off, but museum officials feared that visitors would view this as a photo-op and cross security ropes in order to pose with Schicklgruber.
Unobtrusive signs were posted asking visitors to refrain from taking photos or posing with Hitler “out of respect for the millions of people who died during World War Two.” There was no mention of refraining from dislodging the simonized effigy’s head.
The petroleum tableau depicted a down-trodden Dolf seated in his bunker during the last days of his life. Critics accused the profiteering museum of bad taste for placing a waxy depiction of a fascist lunatic responsible for the deaths of millions of people next to likenesses of movie stars and pop musicians.
Reuters described the replica Hitler as, ” Dressed in a grey suit, (gazing) downwards with a despondent stare, his arm outstretched on a large wooden table with a map of Europe on the wall of his gloomy bunker.
Had they placed the Hitler facsimile in close proximity to the George Bush dummy, no one would have bothered to take notice.
Tags: Berlin, decapitate, Figure, Germany, Madame Tussaud, Rip hed off, Statue, Wax Museum, World War IIFiled Under Rants
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