| Strategic Air Command | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Anthony Mann |
| Screenplay by | Valentine Davies Beirne Lay Jr. |
| Story by | Beirne Lay Jr. |
| Produced by | Samuel J. Briskin |
| Starring | James Stewart June Allyson Frank Lovejoy Barry Sullivan Alex Nicol Bruce Bennett |
| Cinematography | William H. Daniels |
| Edited by | Eda Warren |
| Music by | Victor Young |
Production company | Paramount Pictures |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 114 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $6.5 million (U.S. and Canada rentals)[1] |
Strategic Air Command is a 1955 Americanmilitary aviationwardrama film starringJames Stewart andJune Allyson, directed byAnthony Mann, and released byParamount Pictures. It was the first of four Hollywood films that depicted the role of theStrategic Air Command in theCold War era.
Strategic Air Command was the second film released in Paramount's newwidescreen format,VistaVision, in color byTechnicolor andPerspecta pseudo-stereo sound. It would also be Stewart and Mann's eighth and final collaboration and the last of three films that paired Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson, the others beingThe Stratton Story andThe Glenn Miller Story.
In 1952, Robert "Dutch" Holland[Note 1] is a professionalbaseball player with theSt. Louis Cardinals. AB-29 bomber pilot in the Pacific theater duringWorld War II, Holland retains a commission as a lieutenant colonel in theUnited States Air Force Reserve, but is on inactive, non-drilling status.
Duringspring training atAl Lang Field inSt. Petersburg, Florida, he is visited by a former World War II squadron mate, now-Major General "Rusty" Castle, who is visiting nearbyMacDill AFB inTampa, Florida for meetings. Inviting Rusty to a party that Dutch and his wife, Sally, are hosting at their St. Petersburg home that evening, Rusty informs Dutch that he is being recalled to active duty for 21 months, a decision that was made well above Rusty's level. Dutch subsequently reports to his posting atCarswell Air Force Base, a bomber base inFort Worth, Texas, to qualify in theConvair B-36. He arrives in a civilian business suit, for which he is later rebuked by General Hawkes, the commander of SAC who is making a no-notice inspection of Carswell, and replies that his uniforms are "the wrong color" (i.e., implying that Dutch has been inactive at least since the Air Force replaced the brownUnited States Army Air Forces uniform with a distinctive blue service dress uniform, which had occurred years earlier in 1949).[Note 2]
Holland is given a staff job with the11th Bombardment Wing at Carswell that involves a lot of flying. He soon has a B-36 crew of his own, selecting a former World War II colleague as his flight engineer, and becomes enamored with both flying and the role of SAC in deterring war. He is joined by Sally, who had not bargained on being an Air Force wife, and who struggles with his repeated absences and the dangers of military flying. On any given night, Holland might find his aircraft on airborne alert far from the continental United States, in secret, only telling his wife when he returns days later. Even so, Sally tells Dutch that she is happy as long as they can be together, no matter what he decides to do with his life.
The B-36 is a complex aircraft when introduced, but improvements are under constant development. One challenge was leakage from the fuel tanks, but a new fix is introduced to permanently resolve the issue. On their next flight, Holland's crew has to fly their B-36 from Carswell AFB toThule Air Base, Greenland. The fix does not work and one of the engines bursts into flame, causing the entire left wing to catch fire. The crew is forced to abandon the aircraft and bail out over the ice and snow of Greenland before arriving at Thule while Holland and his radar navigator stay on board for aforced landing on the Greenland ice cap, which causes Holland to injure his right shoulder.
Holland becomes a favorite of General Hawkes, and he is rewarded with a revised assignment flying the newBoeing B-47 Stratojet atMacDill Air Force Base, across the bay from St. Petersburg where his old baseball team continues to conduct its spring training. Promoted to "full bird"colonel and made deputy wing commander of his B-47 wing at MacDill AFB, Dutch decides, to Sally's displeasure, to remain in the Air Force, rather than return to baseball at the end of his active duty obligation.
On a full B-47 wing deployment exercise that involves flying nonstop from MacDill toYokota Air Base in Japan, Dutch's crew encounters severe wind and storms. Low on fuel, they divert toKadena Air Base, Okinawa. As they prepare to land, Holland realizes that his shoulder injury from the B-36 crash was worse than he thought, and his arm is almost immobile. He is unable to operate the engine power levers (throttles) during final landing phase, and he has to rely on his co-pilot to do so, while Holland works the flight controls with his left arm and both feet.
This injury bars Holland from further military flying and also appears to threaten his professional baseball career. Following the near-mishap, Dutch is ordered to report to General Hawkes at SAC Headquarters atOffutt AFB, Nebraska. General Hawkes chastises Dutch for flying the MacDill to Yokota mission with a debilitating physical condition but also commends him for his service and devotion to SAC's mission. General Hawkes advises Dutch that he can remain in the Air Force, but it would be limited to a non-flying staff officer capacity, which Dutch declines, accepting a medical release from active duty instead. General Hawkes tells Dutch that he doesn't blame him for declining but reminds Dutch that he plus the thousands of other Air Force Reservists who have been recalled to active duty with SAC for roughly two-year periods has been essential for SAC executing its deterrence mission and that Dutch's time with SAC was a major part of the command's success. Given Dutch's shoulder injury likely negating his return to a career as aMajor League Baseball player, General Hawkes suggests that he would make an excellent team manager and the St. Louis Cardinals ball club should consider him for such. The film closes with General Hawkes pointing out his office window at a fly-by of the newest combat-qualified wing of B-47s as Dutch and Sally look on.
In real life, duringWorld War II, Stewart had been an Army Air ForcesB-17 instructor pilot, aB-24 squadron commander, and a bomb group operations officer, completing 20 combat missions over Europe and having been twice awarded theDistinguished Flying Cross. At the time of filming, Stewart, much like the character he portrays, was also acolonel in theAir Force Reserve, serving with the Strategic Air Command when on duty and at the time was qualified as a pilot on the B-47,[2] although much of the B-47 flying was performed by his friend and fellow Air Force pilot, Major (later Colonel) A.W. Blizzard Jr.
Stewart's military service and lifelong interest in aviation greatly influenced the making of the film. He pushed for an authentic but sympathetic portrayal of theStrategic Air Command, which led Paramount to put together a strong cast of Hollywood veterans and production people includingJune Allyson,Frank Lovejoy, directorAnthony Mann, and the top stunt pilot of the day,Paul Mantz. The film accurately portrays (from the perspective of the 1952 starting point of the script) the duties and responsibilities of an Air Force strategic bomber pilot, and the demands such service places on family life.[3]
Mann later said the film, "...was to promote the Air Force and the idea of SAC which in itself had its own restrictions, just being a military subject. Therefore, the cooperation of the Air Force was vital, and we were held within the bounds of what they wanted. The story itself was restricted and the whole concept of its shooting was confined to what they would let me show, which is perfectly all right. I went into it purely as a service to the Air Force, and as Jimmy Stewart was of the Force, we accepted this handicap and just tried to make an exciting film, not out of the characters which were paper-mache, but out of the B-36 and B-47 - we tried to dramatic them as our two great characters."[4]
The film includes dramaticaerial photography, credited to Thomas Tutwiler, for which it was awarded a special citation by the AmericanNational Board of Review. It is also the only motion picture to highlight theConvair B-36 (depicted in the theatrical release poster), the largest mass-produced piston-powered aircraft ever built, and the first bomber for thehydrogen bomb. The propeller-driven B-36 was then near the end of its service life and was about to be replaced by the jet-powered B-47 Stratojet, followed by theBoeing B-52 Stratofortress. The aerial footage was accompanied by a dramatic and soaring musical score composed byVictor Young.
The film was made with the full cooperation of theU.S. Air Force, and it was filmed partly on location atMacDill Air Force Base,Tampa, Florida;[5]Lowry Air Force Base,Colorado, andCarswell Air Force Base,Texas.
The baseball scenes were filmed with the cooperation of theSt. Louis Cardinals at theirspring training home ofAl Lang Field inSt. Petersburg, Florida, just acrossTampa Bay from MacDill AFB.[6]
Stewart's character is based on the real-life military career and an actual mission flown by Brigadier GeneralClifford Schoeffler, who crashed during an Arctic B-36 mission and survived. Brigadier General Schoeffler was on site at Carswell Air Force Base during the filming ofStrategic Air Command as a consultant.[6]
Some commentators have speculated that the plot was inspired byBoston Red Sox legendTed Williams, a World War II combat veteran andMarine Corps Reserve officer, who was recalled to active duty for Korean War service as aNaval Aviator with theU.S. Marine Corps at the height of his baseball career.[7]
TheStorz Mansion inOmaha, Nebraska, was the scene of opulent parties celebrating the film. Its premiere was held in Omaha, the home ofOffutt AFB and of SAC Headquarters. The premiere party was held at the Mansion, with guests that included Stewart and Allyson, as well as theStrategic Air Command commander,GeneralCurtis LeMay.[8]
Shot in the newVistaVision process, the film was the sixth highest-grossing film of 1955.[9] Critics were lukewarm about the performances of all except for Stewart, who was called "capable", "charming", and "competent".[10] Public reaction centered on the spectacular aerial footage, so much so that theB-36 and B-47 aircraft were arguably the real stars of the film. Its release led to a 25 percent increase in Air Force enlistments.[11]
Strategic Air Command was later followed by two additional military aviation films that were also supportive of SAC's mission,Bombers B-52 (1957), andA Gathering of Eagles (1963).
The B-47 cockpit used in the film is now on display at theMarch Field Air Museum atMarch Air Reserve Base (formerMarch AFB) inRiverside, California.[12]
| Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Motion Picture Story | Beirne Lay Jr. | Nominated | [13] |
| National Board of Review Awards | Special Citation | For the aerial photography | Won | [14] |
In October 2016,Strategic Air Command was released by Olive Films on DVD andBlu-ray.[15]