''The Wild Blue Yonder'' (also known as ''The Wild Blue Yonder, The Story of the B-29 Superfortress'') is a 1951 war film directed by

Allan Dwan Allan Dwan (born Joseph Aloysius Dwan; April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter. Early life Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dwan, was ...

. (The film was re-released in 1958.) The film stars Wendell Corey,

Vera Ralston Vera Ralston (born Věra Helena Hrubá; July 12, 1919 or 1920 or 1921 or 1923 February 9, 2003) was a Czech figure skater and actress. She later became a naturalized American citizen. She worked as an actress during the 1940s and 1950s. Earl ...

, Forrest Tucker and Phil Harris. ''Wild Blue Yonder'' deals with the

Boeing B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...

air raids on Japan during World War II.

Plot

In 1943, Capt. Harold "Cal" Calvert (Wendell Corey) is sent on a course at Smoky Hill, Kansas, to learn to fly a new bomber, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. His instructor is his cousin, Major Tom West (Forrest Tucker), an officer who the other pilots think has shirked his duties by claiming engine trouble on the raid over the Ploesti oil fields. Cal stands up for Tom when a crewman taunts his cousin in front of Helen (Vera Ralston), a nurse that Tom has been seeing. Cal and the other students learn that the pressurized B-29 can fly higher, faster and farther than any other bomber. On a test flight, when an overconfident Cal pushes a B-29 higher than instructed, a sudden decompression nearly ends in tragedy. One of the crew is sucked out of the aircraft, but is able to use his parachute. Tom is furious and reprimands Cal for endangering the test program, which the Air Force brass is monitoring closely. Maj. Gen. Wolfe ( Walter Brennan) finally declares that the pilots and the B-29s are ready for combat. He leads them to bases in China where they will launch attacks on Japan. Cal's first missions are harrowing, although the B-29s prove to be extremely effective. When the group is transferred to Guam, Tom is reunited with Helen, who is also assigned there. Cal is flying continually on high altitude missions, but Gen. Curtis E. LeMay ( William Witney), the new commanding officer, changes tactics to more accurate low altitude raids that will produce more damage. Helen is slowly falling for the more heroic Cal, and when he and Tom are on a mission together in a mass raid on Tokyo, their B-29 is hit by anti-aircraft fire. With Cal wounded and Tom at the controls, the stricken aircraft barely makes it back to the base. Tom goes back into the fiery wreckage to save a trapped crewman, but is killed when the aircraft explodes. Several weeks later, as the war ends when B-29s drop the most devastating weapon of all, the atom bomb, on cities in Japan, Cal and Helen remain together.

Cast

* Wendell Corey as Capt. Harold "Cal" Calvert *

as Lt. Helen Landers * Forrest Tucker as Maj. Tom West * Phil Harris as Sgt. Hank Stack * Walter Brennan as Maj. Gen. Wolfe *

William Ching William Brooks Ching (October 2, 1913 – July 1, 1989) was an American character actor who appeared in numerous films and on television during the later 1940s and 1950s. Ching may be best known for his supporting role in Rudolph Maté's 1950 f ...

as Lt. Ted Cranshaw * Ruth Donnelly as Maj. Ida Winton *

Harry Carey Jr. Henry George Carey Jr. (May 16, 1921 – December 27, 2012) was an American actor. He appeared in more than 90 films, including several John Ford Westerns, as well as numerous television series. Early life Carey was born on a ranch near ...

as Sgt. Shaker Schuker * Penny Edwards as Connie Hudson * Wally Cassell as Sgt. Pulaski *

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...

as Sgt. "Pop" Davis * Richard Erdman as Cpl. Frenchy * Phillip Pine as Sgt. Tony * Martin Kilburn as "Peanuts" * Jay Silverheels as Benders * Jack Kelly as Lt. Jessup *

Hall Bartlett Hall Bartlett (November 27, 1922 – September 7, 1993) was an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. Early life Hall Bartlett was born in Kansas City, Missouri, he graduated from Yale University Phi Beta Kappa, and was a Rhodes Sc ...

as Lt. Jorman * William Witney as Gen. Curtis E. LeMay

Production

The working title of the film was "Wings Across the Pacific". The production relied heavily on USAF and Marine Corps assistance. Location photography took place from April 3 to mid-May 1951 at March Field Air Base and Mojave Airport Marine Base in California, Davis-Monthan Field in Tucson, Arizona, and

Walker Air Force Base Walker Air Force Base is a closed United States Air Force base located three miles (5 km) south of the central business district of Roswell, New Mexico. It was opened in 1941 as an Army Air Corps flying school and was active during World ...

in Roswell, New Mexico, where the 22nd Bomb Group's 2nd Squadron was flying B-29s operationally. The aerial scenes of the bombing of Tokyo were filmed above Santa Catalina Island.

Reception

''The Wild Blue Yonder'' was well received by the public, but fared poorly with critics. At best, reviewer Alun Evans considered it a "tame tribute to the B-29 bomber ... routine heroics against the Japanese ..." Bosley Crowther of '' The New York Times'' wrote, "... this soggy saga of bomber airmen in World War II plows monotonously through every cliché of aerial war films before it hits the mud and then it bogs down in the bathos of mawkish heroics and tears." On September 24, 1951, on a special Lux Radio Theatre broadcast honoring the 50th anniversary of motion pictures, the lead actors, Corey, Ralston and Tucker, recreated brief scenes from ''The Wild Blue Yonder''."Notes: The Wild Blue Yonder (1951)."
''Turner Classic Movies''. Retrieved: September 14, 2014.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Evans, Alun. ''Brassey's Guide to War Films''. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2000. . * Orriss, Bruce. ''When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War II''. Hawthorne, California: Aero Associates Inc., 1984. .

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wild Blue Yonder (1951 film), The 1951 films American aviation films American black-and-white films Boeing B-29 Superfortress Films scored by Victor Young Films directed by Allan Dwan Republic Pictures films Films about the United States Army Air Forces World War II aviation films American war films 1950s war films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films