''Bailout at 43,000'' is a 1957 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by Francis D. Lyon and written by Paul Monash. The film stars John Payne, Karen Steele, Paul Kelly, Richard Eyer,

Constance Ford Constance Ford (born Cornelia M. Ford; July 1, 1923 – February 26, 1993) was an American actress and Model (person), model. She portrayed Ada Lucas Hobson on the long-running daytime soap opera ''Another World (TV series), Another World'', f ...

and Eddie Firestone. The film was released on May 1, 1957, by

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

. It was the last film from Pine-Thomas Productions then known as Pine-Thomas-Shane.

Plot

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

Colonel William Hughes (Paul Kelly) asks Major Paul Peterson (John Payne), who has been called back to active service, to join a team at the Air Research and Development Command conducting tests on a downward ejection seat for bombardiers in the new

Boeing B-47 Stratojet The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long- range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft ...

bomber. The first tests used articulated dummies, but human test subjects are needed. Besides Colonel Hughes, German scientist Dr. Franz Gruener (

Gregory Gaye Gregory Gaye (born Grigoriy Grigoryevich Ge; October 10, 1900 – August 23, 1993) was a Russian-American character actor. The son of an actor, he was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was the uncle of actor George Gaynes. He was a cad ...

), also is in charge of the test program, working directly with the test subjects. Captain Jack Nolan ( Richard Crane) is also assigned to the project. The first volunteer, Captain Mike Cavallero (Eddie Firestone), suffers a broken neck when his parachute opens too early. He survives the test but is hospitalized. The next subject is Lieutenant Edward Simmons, to be followed by Paul. When Mike is suddenly rushed to hospital with an appendicitis attack, Paul moves up. Worried because he has a wife and son, Paul is reluctant to go, but then finds out that Captain Nolan has been killed in a B-47 crash, and as the bombardier, he might not have been able to escape the aircraft. His wife (Karen Steele) begs his commanding officer to release Paul from his commitment. When Paul shows up to take the test, he finds Colonel Hughes suiting up. Imploring him to reconsider, Paul makes the case for doing the test to prove that a bailout is possible from the high-speed jet bomber. Flying with Dr. Gruener, Paul ejects, but when the ground observers ask him to indicate he is well by spread-eagling, he does not respond. On board the rescue launch, they pick up Paul and find he is fine; he was simply concentrating so hard that he forgot to spread-eagle. After he is cleared by the medics, Paul is greeted by Carol and his son Kit (Richard Eyer) and, with their blessing, decides to continue with the project.

Cast

* John Payne as Major Paul Peterson * Karen Steele as Carol Peterson * Paul Kelly as Colonel Hughes * Richard Eyer as Kit Peterson *

as Mrs. Frances Nolan * Eddie Firestone as Captain Mike Cavallero * Adam Kennedy as Lieutenant Ed Simmons *

as Dr. Franz Gruener *

Steven Ritch Steven Ritch (26 December 1921 – 20 July 1995) was an American actor, perhaps best known for his lead role in the 1956 film ''The Werewolf (1956 film), The Werewolf''. Early life Steven Ritch was born on December 26, 1921, in Providence, Rhode ...

as Major Irv Goldman * Richard Crane as Captain Jack Nolan

Original TV Play

''Bailout at 43,000 Feet'' was an episode of the ''

Climax! ''Climax!'' (later known as ''Climax Mystery Theater'') is an American television anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary Costa. It was one of the few CBS pro ...

'' dramatic anthology television series. The episode played on season 2 as episode 15, airing on December 29, 1955, directed by

John Frankenheimer John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits are ''Birdman of Alcatraz (film), Birdman of Alcatraz'', ''The Manc ...

, produced by Martin Manulis, hosted by

William Lundigan William Paul Lundigan (June 12, 1914 – December 20, 1975) was an American film actor. His more than 125 films include ''Dodge City (film), Dodge City'' (1939), ''The Fighting 69th'' (1940), ''The Sea Hawk (1940 film), The Sea Hawk'' (1940), ' ...

and starring

Charlton Heston Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923 – April 5, 2008) was an American actor. He gained stardom for his leading man roles in numerous Cinema of the United States, Hollywood films including biblical epics, science-fiction f ...

Richard Boone Richard Allen Boone (June 18, 1917 – January 10, 1981) was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns, including his starring role in the television series ''Have Gun – Will Travel''. Early lif ...

and Bart Burns.

Cast

as Lt. Paul Peterson *

Nancy Reagan Nancy Davis Reagan (; born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6, 1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American film actress who was the first lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989, as the second wife of President Ronald Reagan. Reagan was born in ...

as Carol Peterson *

ss Col. Hughes *

Lee Marvin Lee Marvin (February 19, 1924August 29, 1987) was an American film and television actor. Known for his bass voice and prematurely white hair, he is best remembered for playing hardboiled "tough guy" characters. Although initially typecast as th ...

as Capt. Cavallero * Bart Burns *Charles Davis *Gil Frye *John Gallaudet *Harvey Grant *William Hughes

Production

Carl Dudley originally expressed interest in buying the screen rights to the TV play. Eventually Bill Thomas of Pine-Thomas-Shane Productions got them. In adapting the episode for the screen, ''Bailout at 43,000'' was slightly revised, with tension heightened in the interaction between a former Nazi scientist and pilots engaged in the bailout tests. In August 1956 it was announced Boone would reprise his TV role. However in October he was replaced by Paul Kelly. Star John Payne was winding up his film career with ''Bailout at 43,000'', while Paul Kelly made his last film appearance, ending a long career that began in 1911 as a child actor in silent films. Karen Steele was borrowed from Sam Goldwyn Jr. The film was made with the full cooperation of the United States Air Force and featured a number of airfield and aerial sequences with Boeing B-47 Stratojet bombers. Filming started 1 October 1956.

Reception

''Bailout at 43,000'' was burdened by both its television episode origin and a

B-movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

budget, making it little more than what film critic

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...

called, "Routine material" "... not enhanced by flight sequences or romantic relief." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called it a "tedious film".The Screen: 'Bailout at 43,000' Is New Film at Palace New York Times 8 June 1957: 13. It was the last film from Pine-Thomas Productions.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Pendo, Stephen. ''Aviation in the Cinema''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. .

External links

* *
Original 1955 TV play
at

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

Review
at ''Variety'' {{Pine-Thomas 1957 films 1957 drama films American aviation films American drama films American black-and-white films Films directed by Francis D. Lyon Films scored by Albert Glasser United Artists films Skydiving in fiction Films based on television plays 1950s English-language films 1950s American films English-language drama films