This is a CinemaScope military drama from Warner Brothers and director Otto Preminger. Gary Cooper stars as US Army Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer in the air service during WW1. After the end of that war he set out to establish a permanent military aviation division, what would eventually become the US Air Force, despite the dismissals and protestations of older military brass. These disagreements lead to first Mitchell's demotion, and eventually to official charges and a much-publicized court-martial after Mitchell made disparaging comments in the press about the military's lack of aviation management. Also featuring Elizabeth Montgomery in her debut.
I was looking forward to this one and was disappointed in it. I'm a fan of Cooper's, and have defended him and his oft-disparaged acting abilities on this message board more than once. But in this film he is just plain awful, frequently unconvincing in his line deliveries, and failing to illuminate the man he's playing in the least. I've read that even Mitchell's family were disappointed in Cooper's casting, and said that 1955-era James Cagney was much closer to the real man. Cooper's lackluster performance could have been alleviated a bit by a sharper script or tighter direction, neither of which is present here.
The first half of the film kind of lumbers along from anecdote to anecdote before finally settling in during the second half as an uninspired courtroom drama. Prominently billed Rod Steiger, soon after his On the Waterfront Oscar nomination, doesn't show up until late in the proceedings as an assistant prosecutor, and it's interesting to see how both he and Cooper give bad performances but of completely different sorts, and I say this as a fan of both men. The movie nabbed an Oscar nomination for Best Writing, Story & Screenplay (Milton Sperling and Emmet Lavery.
I was looking forward to this one and was disappointed in it. I'm a fan of Cooper's, and have defended him and his oft-disparaged acting abilities on this message board more than once. But in this film he is just plain awful, frequently unconvincing in his line deliveries, and failing to illuminate the man he's playing in the least. I've read that even Mitchell's family were disappointed in Cooper's casting, and said that 1955-era James Cagney was much closer to the real man. Cooper's lackluster performance could have been alleviated a bit by a sharper script or tighter direction, neither of which is present here.
The first half of the film kind of lumbers along from anecdote to anecdote before finally settling in during the second half as an uninspired courtroom drama. Prominently billed Rod Steiger, soon after his On the Waterfront Oscar nomination, doesn't show up until late in the proceedings as an assistant prosecutor, and it's interesting to see how both he and Cooper give bad performances but of completely different sorts, and I say this as a fan of both men. The movie nabbed an Oscar nomination for Best Writing, Story & Screenplay (Milton Sperling and Emmet Lavery.