Air Strike (1955) User Reviews

I hope you enjoy stock footage...

[carguychris · 3/10 · 5 July 2011]

This film is enjoyable mainly as a historical artifact for aviation buffs. It depicts an era of naval aviation neglected in mainline Hollywood features- the mid-1950s after the Korean War but before the advent of supersonic naval jets. Almost all flying sequences were apparently assembled from stock footage of aircraft such as Grumman F9F-6 Cougars and McDonnell F2H Banshees flying from early post-WWII straight-deck US Navy carriers. We also see North American FJ-3 Furies, an F2H-2P Banshee, an FH-1 Phantom, and Sikorsky HO3S-1 helicopters.

Unfortunately, the movie offers little else to recommend it. The dialog is stilted, the script contains numerous red herrings, the plot is sometimes hard to follow, and the main characters are clichéd. The lead actors generally do a decent job of working with what little they were given, and the director does a better job of keeping the plot moving than in other 50s B-movie groaners, but this often doesn't amount to much. Almost all of the character interaction occurs in a handful of rooms on an aircraft carrier where background noise and enlisted personnel are remarkably absent, probably due to budget limitations. The extensive stock footage is not used very skillfully; some shots are blatantly repeated several times in rapid succession, and aviation buffs will spot numerous continuity errors as the characters "land" a different type of aircraft than they were "flying" in the previous scene. It doesn't appear that many flying sequences were shot specifically for this movie.

This movie is not stiflingly boring like "The Starfighters", but it's no "Bridges at Toko-Ri" or "Strategic Air Command"- not even close.

An air show, not an air movie.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 2 February 2021]

Lippert films wasn't known for its classics, just quickly made programmers (mainly crime dramas and westerns) that provided lots of action if little substance. This one has no substance and no real story, just a lot of technical information disguised as a movie. With a cast led by Richard Denning, Gloria Henry and Don Haggerty, this isn't much more than a series of air battles, explosions and stock footage, something that would have been fine had this been advertised as a docudrama for military training that later became available to the public or part of a TV anthology episode. Some of the airborne scenes feel quite claustrophic with air ships obviously studio set bound simply smothered by fog to indicate being in high altitude. Even though there are obviously some important air missions going on, more camera focus is spent on the equipment than the actors so this ends up really boring and instantly forgettable.

JET HOT ACTION BLASTS THE SKIES.....

[tarwaterthomas · 7/10 · 13 March 2022]

.....but it's through the use of an extensive amount of stock footage. In-between his science fiction movies, Richard Denning headed the small cast as Commander Stanley Blair, United States Navy who is assigned to the aircraft carrier U. S. S. Essex. A veteran of the Korean War, our hero tries to craft a top-notch attack squadron, but there is some serious rivalry between Lieutenant Richard Huggins (Don Haggerty) and Ensign James Delaney (William Courtney). Huggins' wife, nightclub singer Marg (played by former 1930s child actress Gloria Jean), wants him ashore for duty. Even though this movie was shot on an extremely low budget with plenty of boring dialogue, there is some suspense to be had. A training mission runs into some dense fog where the visibility is just one hundred feet and Huggins' fighter-interceptor has malfunctioning instruments and his radio transmission and reception is iffy. So guess who volunteers to lead Richard Huggins to a safe trapping aboard the Essex? That would be James Delaney. After a few tense moments, both flyboys arrive safe and sound aboard the carrier. Cy Roth' next movie as director was the British-made science fiction classic of some kind, FIRE MAIDENS OF OUTER SPACE (1956). He went to Great Britain after being blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee for insisting that AIR STRIKE have black and Jewish naval personnel as part of the plot, which would have been set during the Second World War. Roth raised hell through a letter to his Congressman and to President Dwight Eisenhower, but this was during the Joseph McCarthy era and the Red Scare and the director was declared persona non grata. Cy Roth passed away in 1969; he was just 57 years old. In making AIR STRIKE, Cy Roth's heart was in the right place. A bigger budget might have made a better film. I never heard of it until just a couple of weeks ago. And by the way, it should have been shown in its black-and-white presentation. That's all.