The Flying Leathernecks Details

This trite reworking by Nicholas Ray of many themes (and characters) familiar from films such as Howard Hawks's masterly 1943 movie Air Force is corny, obvious and not really good enough. John Wayne and particularly Robert Ryan seem distinctly uncomfortable in their leading roles, flying studio mock-ups of planes against Technicolor back projection and dutifully conveying a gung-ho spirit without any real enthusiasm. The acting honours are stolen by grizzled veteran Jay C Flippen, who's well cast as a wily sergeant, but this must go down as another terribly disappointing early work from Ray, whose Rebel without a Cause remains a key movie of the 1950s.

Empty, violent war actioner full of phoney heroics.