The pilot, co-pilot, and crew of a bomber try to hit a Korean bridge in bad weather.
Acting
John Ireland's thousand-yard stare out-acts the entire cardboard set.
Production
Micro-budget bomber interior that wobbles when actors move.
Sound
Chet Baker's actual trumpet playing, inexplicably perfect.
Director
Tom Gries
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Chet Baker was cast while on tour in LA; he learned lines phonetically and allegedly didn't understand the plot. Director Tom Gries later called it 'jazz improvisation on celluloid.'
Shot in 10 days for $68,000, this was part of a wave of Korean War films rushed out before the conflict's 1953 armistice faded from public memory—audiences wanted WWII heroics, got existential dread instead.
US
