Jet Attack
- February 1958 (1958-02)
Jet Attack (also known as Jet Alert and released in the UK as Through Hell to Glory) is a 1958 American aviation war film set in the Korean War, featuring United States Air Force (USAF) aircraft.[1]
Plot
During the Korean War, scientist Dean Olmstead (Joseph Hamilton) designs a long-range radio transmitting and tracking device for the United States Air Force. During testing of the device, Capt. Tom Arnett (John Agar), leading an escort of North American F-86 Sabre jet fighters, is unable to prevent Olmstead's North American B-25 Mitchell bomber being shot down in North Korea. His commanding officer, Col. Catlett (George Cisar) plans a rescue of the scientist, whom he believes is still alive and may be undergoing interrogation by Soviet intelligence agents working with the North Koreans.
Arnett and Lt. Bill Clairborn (Gregory Walcott) are assigned to go into North Korea and bring back Olmstead. After parachuting behind enemy lines, they meet up with guerrilla leader Capt. Chon (Victor Sen Yung), who takes them to Tanya Nikova (Audrey Totter), a Russian nurse, who has been working as a spy for the guerrillas. Tanya had previously been romantically involved with Arnett, but proves invaluable to the mission. She knows that the scientist may be under care of her boss, Col. Kuban (Robert Carricart), a Russian doctor. After they discover Olmstead's whereabouts and bring him out of the prison camp where he was being treated for a concussion, the group is pursued by North Korean Maj. Wan (Leonard Strong). Tanya is wounded during the escape but manages to drive the Americans to an airfield. She dies, but the two American pilots and the scientist make good their escape in a pair of North Korean MiG-15 jet fighters. However Clairborn deliberately crashes his plane into a attacking Korean fighter being unable to discover how to fire the Mig's guns.
Cast
- John Agar as Capt. Tom Arnett
- Audrey Totter as Tanya Nikova
- Gregory Walcott as Lt. Bill Clairborn
- James Dobson as Lt. Sandy Wilkerson
- Leonard Strong as Maj. Wan
- Nicky Blair as Radioman Chick Lane
- Victor Sen Yung as Capt. Chon
- Joseph Hamilton as Dean Olmstead
- Guy Prescott as Maj. Garver
- George Cisar as Col. Catlett
- Stella Lynn as Muju
- Robert Carricart as Col. Kuban
Production
Jet Attack relied heavily on "stock war footage and studio shots".[2] The mismatched footage led to unintended continuity errors.[Note 1][3] California Air National Guard North American F-86A Sabres from the 196th Fighter Interceptor Squadron stood in for both USAF and North Korean fighters.[3]
Release
American International Pictures released Jet Attack as a double feature with Suicide Battalion.
Reception
The film was included in the 1978 book, The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and How They Got That Way), by Harry Medved, Randy Dreyfuss, and Michael Medved.[4] Like many other films of the period that were set in the Korean War, film historian Michael Paris considered it another of the "... features that had little to say that was new; most simply reprised situations common from earlier films and were a blatant attempt to profit from public interest in the war."[5]
See also
References
Notes
- ^ In the film, during the attack scene, a North American B-25 Mitchell bomber turns into a Martin B-26 Marauder.
Citations
- ^ "'Jet Attack'." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: March 15, 2015.
- ^ Pendo 1985, p. 237.
- ^ a b Santoir, Christian. "Jet Attack". Aeromovies. Retrieved: March 16, 2015.
- ^ Medved, Harry (1978). The Fifty Worst Movies of All Time (and how They Got that Way) (First ed.). Angus & Robertson. p. 288. ISBN 9780207958915. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
- ^ Paris 1995, p. 189.
Bibliography
- Paris, Michael. From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-7190-4074-0.
- Pendo, Stephen. Aviation in the Cinema. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. ISBN 0-8-1081-746-2.
External links
- Jet Attack at the TCM Movie Database
- Jet Attack at IMDb
- Jet Attack at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- v
- t
- e
- The Homicide Squad (1931)
- Law and Order (1932)
- Radio Patrol (1932)
- Afraid to Talk (1932)
- Emergency Call (1933)
- Laughter in Hell (1933)
- Death Drives Through (1935)
- Confidential (1935)
- Bad Guy (1937)
- Redhead (1941)
- The Omaha Trail (1942, uncredited)
- Main Street After Dark (1945)
- Dangerous Partners (1945)
- Born to Speed (1947)
- The Gas House Kids "in Hollywood" (1947)
- The Checkered Coat (1948)
- I Cheated the Law (1949)
- Prejudice (1949)
- The Great Plane Robbery (1950)
- Destination Murder (1950)
- Experiment Alcatraz (1950)
- Two-Dollar Bettor (1951)
- Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)
- Betrayed Women (1955)
- Silent Fear (1956)
- Girls in Prison (1956)
- The She Creature (1956)
- Shake, Rattle & Rock! (1956)
- Runaway Daughters (1956)
- Flesh and the Spur (1957)
- Voodoo Woman (1957)
- Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)
- Dragstrip Girl (1957)
- Motorcycle Gang (1957)
- Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)
- Jet Attack (1958)
- Suicide Battalion (1958)
- Curse of the Faceless Man (1958)
- It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)
- Hong Kong Confidential (1958)
- The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959)
- Guns, Girls and Gangsters (1959)
- Inside the Mafia (1959)
- Invisible Invaders (1959)
- Pier 5, Havana (1959)
- Riot in Juvenile Prison (1959)
- A Dog's Best Friend (1959)
- Vice Raid (1960)
- Cage of Evil (1960)
- Gunfighters of Abilene (1960)
- The Music Box Kid (1960)
- Noose for a Gunman (1960)
- Oklahoma Territory (1960)
- Three Came to Kill (1960)
- Twelve Hours to Kill (1960)
- The Walking Target (1960)
- Boy Who Caught a Crook (1961)
- Frontier Uprising (1961)
- Five Guns to Tombstone (1961)
- Police Dog Story (1961)
- Operation Bottleneck (1961)
- Gun Fight (1961)
- The Gambler Wore a Gun (1961)
- When the Clock Strikes (1961)
- You Have to Run Fast (1961)
- Secret of Deep Harbor (1961)
- Gun Street (1962)
- The Clown and the Kid (1962)
- Incident in an Alley (1962)
- Beauty and the Beast (1962)