Flying Leathernecks (1951) - Ray's gung ho, Technicolor aviation spectacle

♥♥♥

The thrill of aviation, male rivalry - and a beautiful dame - is all promised on this characteristically red-white-and-blue poster for Nicholas Ray' Flying Leathernecks

Major Kirby takes command of a squadron of Marine fliers before the pivotal WWII battle of Guadalcanal is about to take place.

Flying Leathernecks is a very pro-American war romance-drama, which is perhaps most memorable for the many authentic WWII color clips that are edited into the beautifully Technicolored story. This gives the film an aesthetically messy quality, and some of its effects are dated by today's standards.
The plot is fairly standard for its time: A lax squadron gets a new major, - in this case John Wayne (Island in the Sky (1953)) is the just hammer of a man, - and the Tune Is Changed. In Flying Leathernecks, Robert Ryan (Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)) is the cowardly opponent. At no point are we worried, however, that good will not prevail.
Flying Leathernecks provides entertainment, including some funny supporting characters, SPOILER and its ending take us back to a trite American Dream-type of 1950s fantasy family, which is certainly fascinating.
It is written by James Edward Grant (Special Delivery (1976)), with story by Kenneth Gamet (Santa Fe (1951)), inspired by real-life battle of Guadalcanal hero, Major John L. Smith, and directed by great Wisconsinite filmmaker Nicholas Ray (55 Days at Peking (1963)). A leatherneck is a nickname for a Marine.

Related posts:

Nicholas Ray: Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
55 Days at Peking (1963) or, Peking anno 1900

Watch a 1-minute clip from the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 2.6 mil. $ (North America rentals only)
= Unknown
[Flying Leathernecks was released 28 August (USA) and runs 102 minutes. Ray hired Ryan, because he thought of him as the only actor who could "kick Wayne's ass". Aviator and film producer Howard Hughes financed the film and decided to use color. Shooting took place from November 1950 - February 1951 in California. A near-catastrophe took place on the set in relation to a dynamite explosion. Without budget and foreign box office numbers known, it is impossible to say, if the film was a theatrical hit or miss. Wayne returned in The Quiet Man (1952), Ryan in The Racket (1951). Ray returned with uncredited work on The Racket and as credited director of On Dangerous Ground (1951). 4,037 users at Rotten Tomatoes have given Flying Leathernecks a 3.4/5 average rating.]

What do you think of Flying Leathernecks?

The Conqueror (1956) - John Wayne's inauspicious turn as Genghis Khan

♥♥♥

The colorful poster for Dick Powell's The Conqueror

QUICK REVIEW:

The story of Genghis Khan's becoming the greatest war hero in the world gets told here as a pure, happy cock-and-bull story, or like a western removed to the East, complete with Pedro Armendariz (From Russia With Love (1963)), Lee Van Cleef (For a Few Dollars More (1965)), Susan Hayward (The Snows of Kilimajaro (1952)) and John Wayne (True Grit (1969)) in the title role.

Particularly Hayward and Wayne seem to compete in trying to be the most absurd in their roles; vampy, horribly mercurial Hayward wins. Although Wayne also does his part (in)justice with hammy lines such as, "I call that women's talk, my mother!" (Script by Oscar Millard (Angel Face (1952)).)
The Conqueror is very stiff throughout and amusingly theatrical, not unlike Yul Brynner's concurrent turn as Cossack war hero in J. Lee Thompson's Taras Bulba (1962).
Yet the film as such is also well-paced, lavishly produced (by Howard Hughes (Hell's Angels (1930)) in his penultimate film) and excitingly colorful, (in rich Technicolor.) It is directed by actor-director Dick Powell (The Hunters (1958)).
The Conqueror has become notorious as 'the film that killed John Wayne.' - Referring to the stomach and lung cancer that killed him in 1979: The movie was filmed near St. George, Utah, about 140 miles from a military site where nuclear tests may have affected the 200 some film crew with radiation, although the government had deemed it safe to be there. Reportedly, by 1981, 91 persons of the film's cast and crew had developed cancers, (leaving 46 dead at that time.) A lawsuit was never filed, and no-one was ever held accountable for the possible disaster.
- But it is said that Hughes felt bad about the film's production, and especially its shoot at the possibly hazardous site; so bad that he bought back all of its prints for 12 mil. $ and kept The Conqueror out of the public loop, (until Universal bought it from his estate in 1979, three years after his death.) Reportedly, Hughes saw the film - and the 1968 espionage thriller Ice Storm Zebra, - obsessively in his last years.

John Wayne ironically really wanted this one of his most inauspicious roles, as Dick Powell's The Conqueror

Titanic also in terms of real human tragedy, some might say. Here's the trailer for the film

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 9-12 mil. $
= Flop
[The film made 4.5 mil. $ of its gross in the US, where it was the 11th biggest hit at the box office of 1956, which, however, wasn't enough to make it a success. The Conqueror became known as one of the worst films of the 50's (and, to some, of all time.) - But not to Film Excess, it isn't!]

What do you think of The Conqueror?
Please, share any trivia knowledge about it that you may have