''Fighter Attack'' is a 1953 American
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
directed by
Lesley Selander
Lesley Selander (May 26, 1900 – December 5, 1979) was an American film director of Western (genre), Westerns and adventure film, adventure movies. His career as director, spanning 127 feature films and dozens of TV episodes, lasted from 1936 to ...
. The film stars
Sterling Hayden
Sterling Walter Hayden (born Sterling Relyea Walter; March 26, 1916 – May 23, 1986) was an American actor, author, sailor and decorated Marine Corps officer and an Office of Strategic Services' agent during World War II. A leading man for mos ...
,
Joy Page
Joy Page (born Joy Cerrette Paige; November 9, 1924 – April 18, 2008) was an American actress. She is best known for her role as the Bulgarian refugee Annina Brandel in ''Casablanca'' (1942). She was sometimes credited as Joanne Page.
Early l ...
and
J. Carrol Naish
Joseph Patrick Carrol Naish (January 21, 1896 – January 24, 1973) was an American actor. He appeared in over 200 credits during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Naish received two Oscar nominations for his supporting roles in the films '' Sahara ...
. It reunited Hayden and Selander, who had worked together on ''
Flat Top'' in 1952. The film is set in Nazi-occupied Italy and involves a U.S. fighter pilot's last sortie, and the help he receives from Italian partisans in an effort to complete his mission after he is shot down in enemy territory.
Plot
Just after World War II, American Steve Pitt (Sterling Hayden) seeks out Father Paolo (David Leonard) at an Italian village. A new priest tells him Paolo was executed by the Germans. Steve recalls the events of 1944, when as a fighter pilot in Corsica, he flew on a last mission over Italy because his friend Captain George Peterson failed to complete his assignment: to blast a tunnel leading to a German
ammunition dump
An ammunition dump, ammunition supply point (ASP), ammunition handling area (AHA) or ammunition depot is a military storage facility for live ammunition and explosives.
The storage of live ammunition and explosives is inherently hazardous. Th ...
. Steve is shot down, however, and parachutes into enemy-held Italy. Getting help from Nina (Joy Page), a young Italian partisan, she brings him to Bruno (J. Carrol Naish), the local partisan leader.
Bruno is afraid of Nazi retaliation if Steve is found with them. When he finds the tunnel, Steve, with Nina's help, convinces the others, including village priest Father Paolo, to help him destroy it. Father Paolo reveals that he has been hiding George Patterson. Before the attack can take place, jealous partisan Aldo (Arthur Caruso) betrays the band to the Germans because Steve is in love with Nina, but is killed himself. The group escapes an ambush and retreats to their cabin hideout.
The next morning, while Steve and George prepare to blow up the tunnel, American aircraft overhead are alerted to its location when Steve lights a flare. While the aircraft bomb the ammunition dump, the Italians attack a German artillery unit, turning the guns on the tunnel, destroying it, but Bruno is killed. Father Paolo and others help Steve and George escape in a small boat, with Steve promising to come back for Nina. As Steve ends his story, the new priest show him that Nina is still alive; the two lovers kiss and embrace.
Cast
*
Sterling Hayden
Sterling Walter Hayden (born Sterling Relyea Walter; March 26, 1916 – May 23, 1986) was an American actor, author, sailor and decorated Marine Corps officer and an Office of Strategic Services' agent during World War II. A leading man for mos ...
as Major Steve Pitt
*
J. Carrol Naish
Joseph Patrick Carrol Naish (January 21, 1896 – January 24, 1973) was an American actor. He appeared in over 200 credits during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Naish received two Oscar nominations for his supporting roles in the films '' Sahara ...
as Bruno
*
Joy Page
Joy Page (born Joy Cerrette Paige; November 9, 1924 – April 18, 2008) was an American actress. She is best known for her role as the Bulgarian refugee Annina Brandel in ''Casablanca'' (1942). She was sometimes credited as Joanne Page.
Early l ...
as Nina
*
Kenneth Tobey
Kenneth Jesse Tobey (March 23, 1917 – December 22, 2002) was an extremely prolific American actor who performed in hundreds of productions during a career that spanned more than half a century, including his role as the star of the 1957-1 ...
as Captain George Patterson
* Arthur Caruso as Aldo
*
Frank DeKova
Frank de Kova (March 17, 1910 – October 15, 1981) was an American character actor in films, stage, and TV.
Biography
De Kova was born in New York City. He was a teacher at a school in New York before joining a Shakespeare repertory group. He ...
as Benedetto
* Paul Fierro as Don Gaetano
* Maurice Jara as Ettore
* Tony Dante as Mario
* David Leonard as Father Paola in the credits (also referred to as Paolo by screen characters)
*
Jeffrey Stone
Jeffrey Stone (December 16, 1926 – August 22, 2012) was an American actor and voice-over artist. Stone was the model and inspiration for Prince Charming in the 1950 Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney animated feature film, ''Cinderella ...
as Lt. Gross
Production
''Fighter Attack'' was one of a group of films in the early postwar period that dealt with World War II. The producers relied on the assistance of the USAF and the Department of Defense to provide stock footage of period fighter aircraft. The opening credits indicated, "We desire to express grateful appreciation to the Department of Defense and the United States Air Force for the cooperation which was extended in the production of this picture."
["Notes: Fighter Attack."](_blank)
''Turner Classic Movies''. Retrieved: September 5, 2014.
Reception
''Fighter Attack'' "... was pleasingly filmed in the two-color
Cinecolor
Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two-color motion picture process that was based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and the 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and ...
process, as were many Monogram/Allied Artists 'A's of the period."
[Erickson, Hal]
"Fighter Attack (1953)."
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. Retrieved: September 5, 2014. Critics appraised the film as "... just a typical post war action movie with a cliche storyline, cliche action and cliche characters. It isn't necessarily terrible but there are a lot better war movies which you could watch instead."
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...
described it as "modest". Alun Evans, in commenting on its fast pacing in an 80-minute format, simply described it as "brisk".
[Evans 2000, p. 68.]
See also
*
Sterling Hayden filmography
Sterling Hayden
Sterling Walter Hayden (born Sterling Relyea Walter; March 26, 1916 – May 23, 1986) was an American actor, author, sailor and decorated Marine Corps officer and an Office of Strategic Services' agent during World War II. A l ...
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
* Evans, Alun. ''Brassey's Guide to War Films''. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2000. .
* Hayden, Sterling. ''Wanderer''. New York: Sheridan House, 1998, originally published in 1963. .
* Hyams, Jay. ''War Movies''. New York: W.H. Smith Publishers, Inc., 1984. .
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fighter Attack
1953 films
1953 war films
1950s English-language films
American war films
American aviation films
Films about shot-down aviators
Films about Italian resistance movement
Films directed by Lesley Selander
Films set in Italy
Italian Campaign of World War II films
World War II aviation films
1950s American films