Jet Attack (1958)

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

JET ATTACK is a wartime drama from AIP, the studio best known for their mildly entertaining monster and horror movies of the era. This one's talky and dull, lacking the kind of money necessary to shoot decent action scenes and thus going for hackneyed plotting overall. Three American pilots find themselves behind enemy lines in North Korea and must rely on a Russian nurse for aid. John Agar stars, but there's no suspense or tension of any kind, and the copious use of stock footage of planes and aerial combat doesn't really help any.

The other reviews pretty much sum up this disaster of a Korean War epic. In spite of that, I found it entertaining enough to keep watching, if only for John Agar, who has what has to be one of the most interesting resumes in Hollywood, ranging from Grade "A" to Grade "Z", and everything in between. But there is one element that some may have missed. Take a close look at the faces of the "North Korean" fighter pilots who give chase to John Agar and his pals in their stolen F-86's -- I mean MIG 15's. They were lifted right out of the film "Rodan", the 1956 Japanese Sci-Fi epic, including the climactic scene where the two planes collide -- the "North Korean" pilot in that scene is actually the Japanese pilot who collided with Rodan. De-colorized to protect the innocent, of course. Wonder how Edward L. Cahn managed to pull that one off.

If you're a fan of Mr. Agar, you might derive some small enjoyment out of his leading man role in this film and his character's (an all American pilot named Captain Tom Arnett) unlikely on-screen romance with Audrey Totter's Russian double agent character named Tanya Nikova. Also there a few amusing scenes featuring Nickly Balir as Radioman Chick 'Meathead' Lane.Aside from that, this is a very disappointing Korean war film with an unlikely premise - one in which far too many people are killed to try and save one man.

Here's yet another AIP quickie from the fast working hands of Edward L. Cahn. Someday I hope someone makes a film about him, or at least writes a book, because his prodigious output in 1958 and 1959 has never been outdone. Perhaps I'm not giving William Beaudine the credit he deserves...at any rate, this grade Z Korean war 'thriller' stars Audrey Totter as a Russian nurse in love with handsome John Agar. Ms. Totter was fine in her element---film noir---but as a Soviet double agent she just doesn't make the grade. Add in the California locations (complete with a Woody with a Soviet star painted on its side), the world's least convincing set of South Korean partisans (including what appear to be Polynesian dancing girls), and a preposterous finale involving stolen MiGs, and you have a turkey of Ed Woodian proportions.