Editing Strategic Air Command (film)

{{short description|1955 film by Anthony Mann}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
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{{Infobox film
| name           = Strategic Air Command
| image          = Strategic Air Command - 1955- Poster.png
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Anthony Mann]]
| producer       = [[Samuel J. Briskin]]
| screenplay     = [[Valentine Davies]]<br />[[Beirne Lay Jr.]]
| story          = Beirne Lay Jr.
| starring       = [[James Stewart]]<br />[[June Allyson]]<br />[[Frank Lovejoy]]<br />[[Bruce Bennett]]<br />[[Barry Sullivan (actor)|Barry Sullivan]]<br />[[Alex Nicol]]<br />[[Jay C. Flippen]]<br />[[Harry Morgan]]
| music          = [[Victor Young]]
| cinematography = [[William Daniels (cinematographer)|William H. Daniels]]
| editing        = [[Eda Warren]]
| studio         = Paramount Pictures  
| distributor    = [[Paramount Pictures]]
| released       = {{Film date|1955|03|25}}
| runtime        = 114 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         =
| gross          = $6.5 million (U.S. and Canada rentals)<ref name=Variety>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/variety201-1956-01/page/n673/mode/2up|title=1955's Top Film Grossers|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=January 25, 1956|page=1|access-date=2022-06-08|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref>
}}

'''''Strategic Air Command''''' is a 1955 American [[military aviation]] [[war film|war]] [[drama film]] starring [[James Stewart]] and [[June Allyson]], directed by [[Anthony Mann]], and released by [[Paramount Pictures]]. It was the first of four Hollywood films that depicted the role of the [[Strategic Air Command]] in the [[Cold War]] era.

''Strategic Air Command'' was the second film released in Paramount's new [[Widescreen#Film|widescreen]] format, [[VistaVision]], in color by [[Technicolor]] and [[Perspecta]] pseudo-stereo sound. It would also be Stewart and Mann's eighth and final collaboration and the last of three films that paired Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson, the others being ''[[The Stratton Story]]'' and ''[[The Glenn Miller Story]]''.
{{TOC limit|limit=2}}

==Plot==
In 1951, Robert "Dutch" Holland{{#tag:ref|"Dutch" Holland is referred to by his given name once – by Sally's father, a Protestant minister – in the film's opening scenes; he is referred to by his nickname thereafter, although "Robert" also appears on his desk nameplate. The fictional character is no relation to the real-life major leaguer [[Dutch Holland|Robert "Dutch" Holland]].|group=Note}} is a professional [[baseball]] player with the [[St. Louis Cardinals]]. A [[Boeing B-29 Superfortress|B-29]] bomber pilot during [[World War II]], Holland retains a commission as a lieutenant colonel in the [[Air Force Reserve Command|United States Air Force Reserve]], but is on inactive, non-drilling status. During [[spring training]] at [[Al Lang Stadium|Al Lang Field]] in [[St. Petersburg, Florida]], he is recalled to active duty for 21 months. He reports to his posting at [[Carswell Air Force Base]], a bomber base in [[Fort Worth, Texas]], to qualify in the [[Convair B-36 Peacemaker|Convair B-36]]. He arrives in a civilian business suit, for which he is rebuked by General Hawkes, the commander of SAC, and replies that his uniforms are "the wrong color" (implying he has been inactive at least since the Air Force replaced the brown [[United States Army Air Forces]] uniform with a distinctive blue service dress uniform, which had occurred three years earlier in 1949). The General's character is clearly patterned after the real SAC commander of the time, General [[Curtis LeMay]].

Holland is given a staff job with the bombardment wing at Carswell that involves a lot of flying. He soon has a B-36 crew of his own, selecting a former World War II colleague as his flight engineer, and becomes enamored with both flying and the role of SAC in deterring war. He is joined by his wife, Sally, who had not bargained on being an Air Force wife, and who struggles with his repeated absences and the dangers of flying. On any given night, Holland might find his aircraft on airborne alert far from the continental United States, in secret, only telling his wife when he returns days later. Even so, Sally tells Dutch that she is happy as long as they can be together, no matter what he decides to do with his life.

The B-36 is a complex aircraft when introduced, but improvements are under constant development. One challenge was leakage from the fuel tanks, but a new fix is introduced to permanently resolve the issue. On their next flight, Holland's crew has to fly their B-36 from Carswell AFB to [[Thule Air Base]], Greenland. The fix does not work and one of the engines bursts into flame, causing the entire left wing to catch fire. The crew is forced to abandon the aircraft and bail out over the ice and snow of Greenland before arriving at Thule while Holland and his radar navigator stay on board for a [[forced landing]], which causes Holland to injure his right shoulder.

Holland becomes a favorite of General Hawkes, and he is rewarded with a revised assignment flying the new [[Boeing B-47 Stratojet]] at [[MacDill Air Force Base]], [[Tampa, Florida]], across the bay from St. Petersburg where his old baseball team continues to conduct its spring training. Promoted to "full bird" [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] and made deputy wing commander of his B-47 wing at MacDill AFB, Dutch decides, to Sally's displeasure, to remain in the Air Force, rather than return to baseball at the end of his active duty obligation.

On a full B-47 wing deployment exercise that involves flying nonstop from MacDill to [[Yokota Air Base]] in Japan, the crew encounter severe wind and storms. Low on fuel, they divert to [[Kadena Air Base]], Okinawa. As they prepare to land, Holland realizes that his shoulder injury from the B-36 crash was worse than he thought, and his arm is almost immobile. He is unable to operate the engine power levers (throttles) during final landing phase, and he has to rely on his co-pilot to do so, while Holland works the flight controls with his left arm and both feet.

This injury not only bars Holland from further flying and causes the Air Force to medically discharge him, but also appears to threaten his baseball career. General Hawkes suggests that he would make an excellent team manager.

==Cast==
* [[James Stewart]] as Lieutenant Colonel (later Colonel) Robert R. "Dutch" Holland
* [[June Allyson]] as Sally Holland
* [[Frank Lovejoy]] as General Ennis C. Hawkes
*[[James Millican]] as Major General 'Rusty' Castle
* [[Bruce Bennett]] as Colonel (later Brigadier General) Espy
* [[Barry Sullivan (American actor)|Barry Sullivan]] as Lieutenant Colonel Rocky Samford
* [[Alex Nicol]] as Major I. K. "Ike" Knowland
* [[Jay C. Flippen]] as Tom Dolan, manager of the [[St. Louis Cardinals]]
* [[Harry Morgan]] as Master Sergeant Bible, a B-36 flight engineer.

==Production==
[[File:Stewart on set.jpg|thumb|Stewart seen later in his Air Force career with a B-52.]]
In real life, during [[World War II]], Stewart had been a [[Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress|B-17]] instructor pilot, a [[Consolidated B-24 Liberator|B-24]] squadron commander, and a bomb group operations officer, completing 20 combat missions. At the time of filming, Stewart, much like the character he portrays, was also a [[colonel]] in the [[Air Force Reserve]], serving with the Strategic Air Command when on duty and at the time was qualified as a pilot on the B-47,<ref name="Torch95">{{cite journal|title=A Little Bit of All of Us|journal=Torch: Safety Magazine of AETC|volume=2|issue=5|page=4|publisher=[[Air Education and Training Command]]|year=1995}}</ref> although much of the B-47 flying was performed by his friend and fellow Air Force pilot, Maj. (later Col.) A.W. Blizzard, Jr. Stewart's military service and lifelong interest in aviation greatly influenced the making of the film. He pushed for an authentic but sympathetic portrayal of the [[Strategic Air Command]], which led Paramount to put together a strong cast of Hollywood veterans and production people including [[June Allyson]], [[Frank Lovejoy]], director [[Anthony Mann]], and the top stunt pilot of the day, [[Paul Mantz]]. The film accurately portrays (from the perspective of the 1951 starting point of the script) the duties and responsibilities of an Air Force strategic bomber pilot, and the demands such service places on family life.<ref>Thomas 1998, p. 166.</ref>

Mann later said the film "was to promote the Air Force and the idea of SAC which in 
itself had its own restrictions, just being a military subject. Therefore, the co-operation of the Air Force was vital, and we were held within the bounds of what they 
wanted. The story itself was restricted and the whole concept of its shooting was confined to what they would let me show, which is perfectly all right. I went into it 
purely as a service to the Air Force, and as Jimmy Stewart was of the Force, we accepted this handicap and just tried to make an exciting film, not out of the characters which were paper-mache, but out of the B-36 and B-47 - we tried to dramatic them as our two 
great characters."<ref name="mann">{{cite magazine|title=Interviews with Anthony Mann|magazine=Screen|volume=10|date=July–October 1969| first1=Christopher|first2=Barrie|last2=Pattinson|last1=Wicking|url=https://archive.org/details/Screen_Volume_10_Issue_4-5/page/n31/mode/2up|page=38}}</ref>

The film includes dramatic [[aerial photography]], credited to Thomas Tutwiler, for which it was awarded a special citation by the American [[National Board of Review]]. It is also the only motion picture to highlight the [[Convair B-36 Peacemaker|Convair B-36]] (depicted in the theatrical release poster), the largest mass-produced piston-powered aircraft ever built, and the first bomber for the [[hydrogen bomb]]. The propeller-driven B-36 was then near the end of its service life and was about to be replaced by the jet-powered B-47 Stratojet, followed by the [[Boeing B-52 Stratofortress]]. The aerial footage was accompanied by a dramatic and soaring musical score composed by [[Victor Young]].

The film was made with the full cooperation of the [[U.S. Air Force]], and it was filmed partly on location at [[MacDill Air Force Base]], [[Tampa, Florida]];<ref name=Natola>{{Cite book |editor=Mark Natola |title=Boeing B-47 Stratojet |publisher=Schiffer Publishing Ltd. |year=2002 |isbn=0764316702 |page=162}}</ref> [[Lowry Air Force Base]], [[Colorado]], and [[Carswell Air Force Base]], [[Texas]].

The baseball scenes were filmed with the cooperation of the [[St. Louis Cardinals]] at their [[spring training]] home of [[Al Lang Field]] in [[St. Petersburg, Florida]], just across [[Tampa Bay]] from MacDill AFB.<ref name="Reflections"/>

Stewart's character is based on the real-life military career and an actual mission flown by Brigadier General [[Clifford Schoeffler]], who crashed during an Arctic B-36 mission and survived. Brigadier General Schoeffler was on site at Carswell Air Force Base during the filming of ''Strategic Air Command'' as a consultant.<ref name="Reflections">[http://www.7bwb-36assn.org/reflect.html "Reflections."] ''7bwb-36assn.org.'' Retrieved: August 21, 2011.</ref>

Some commentators have speculated that the plot was inspired by [[Boston Red Sox]] legend [[Ted Williams]], a World War II veteran, who was recalled for Korean War service as a [[U.S. Marine Corps]] aviator, at the height of his baseball career.<ref>Crowther, Bosley. [https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E05E7DF113AE734A25752C2A9629C946492D6CF "Review: Strategic Air Command (1955)."] ''The New York Times,'' April 21, 1955.  Retrieved: August 21, 2011.</ref>

==Reception==
The [[Gottlieb Storz House|Storz Mansion]] in [[Omaha, Nebraska]], was the scene of opulent parties celebrating the film. Its premiere was held in Omaha, the home of [[Offutt AFB]] and of SAC Headquarters. The premiere party was held at the Mansion, with guests that included Stewart and Allyson, as well as the [[Strategic Air Command]] commander, [[General]] [[Curtis LeMay]].<ref>[http://www.rustycans.com/COM/month1104.html "Can of the Month: Storz."] ''RustyCans.com.'' Retrieved: May 12, 2008.</ref>

Shot in the new [[VistaVision]] process, the film was the sixth highest-grossing film of 1955.<ref>Dewey 1996, p. 356.</ref> Critics were lukewarm about the performances of all except for Stewart, who was called "capable", "charming", and "competent".<ref>Jones, McClure and Twomey 1970, p. 178.</ref> 
Public reaction centered on the spectacular aerial footage, so much so that the [[Convair B-36|B-36]] and B-47 aircraft were arguably the real stars of the film. Its release led to a 25 percent increase in Air Force enlistments.<ref>Jacobsen 1997, pp. 297–308.</ref>

''Strategic Air Command'' was followed by two additional military aviation films that were also supportive of SAC's mission, ''[[Bombers B-52]]'' (1957), and ''[[A Gathering of Eagles]]'' (1963).

The B-47 cockpit used in the film is now on display at the [[March Field Air Museum]] at [[March Air Reserve Base]] (former [[March AFB]]) in [[Riverside, California]].<ref>[https://www.amazon.ca/dp/fun-facts/0792109309 "Strategic Air Command Nominations and Awards."] ''amazon.ca.'' Retrieved: August 21, 2011.</ref>

==Awards and nominations==
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
! Award
! Category
! Nominee(s)
! Result
! Ref.
|-
| [[28th Academy Awards|Academy Awards]]
| [[Academy Award for Best Story|Best Motion Picture Story]]
| [[Beirne Lay Jr.]]
| {{nom}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1956 |title=The 28th Academy Awards (1956) Nominees and Winners |access-date=August 20, 2011 |publisher=[[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706094007/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/28th-winners.html |archive-date=July 6, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
| [[National Board of Review Awards 1955|National Board of Review Awards]]
| Special Citation
| For the aerial photography
| {{won}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{cite web |url=https://nationalboardofreview.org/award-years/1955/ |title=1955 Award Winners |publisher=[[National Board of Review]] |access-date=December 20, 2024}}</ref>
|}

==Home media==
[[File:StrategicAirCommand Blu-ray.jpg|thumb|right|Strategic Air Command blu-ray from Olive Films]]
In October 2016, ''Strategic Air Command'' was released by Olive Films on DVD and [[Blu-ray]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/a-few-words-about-%E2%84%A2-strategic-air-command-in-blu-ray.349743/|title = A Few Words About - A few words about...™ Strategic Air Command -- in Blu-ray}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of American films of 1955]]

==References==

===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=Note}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{Refbegin}}
* Coe, Jonathan. ''James Stewart: Leading Man''. London: Bloomsbury, 1994. {{ISBN|0-7475-1574-3}}.
* Dewey, Donald. ''James Stewart: A Biography''. Atlanta: Turner Publishing Inc., 1996. {{ISBN|1-57036-227-0}}.
* Jacobsen, Meyers K. ''Convair B-36: A Comprehensive History of America's "Big Stick".'' Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Military History, 1997. {{ISBN|0-7643-0974-9}}.
* Jones, Ken D., Arthur F. McClure and Alfred E. Twomey. ''The Films of James Stewart''. New York: Castle Books, 1970.
* Thomas, Tony. ''A Wonderful Life: The Films and Career of James Stewart''. Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1988. {{ISBN|0-8065-1081-1}}.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|id=0048667|title=Strategic Air Command}}
* [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/strategic-air-command-am19877 ''Strategic Air Command'' at AllMovie]
* {{TCMDb title|id=4246|title=Strategic Air Command}}
* {{AFI film|id=51673|title=Strategic Air Command}}
* [http://impdb.org/index.php?title=Strategic_Air_Command Entry at impdb.com]
* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/strategic_air_command/ Strategic Air Command (1955) on Rotten Tomatoes]
* [https://archive.org/details/strategic.-air.-command.-1955. Strategic Air Command full film at archive.org]

{{Anthony Mann}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strategic Air Command (Film)}}
[[Category:1955 films]]
[[Category:Cold War aviation films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Victor Young]]
[[Category:Films about nuclear war and weapons]]
[[Category:Films directed by Anthony Mann]]
[[Category:Paramount Pictures films]]
[[Category:Strategic Air Command|Film]]
[[Category:Films about the United States Air Force]]
[[Category:Films produced by Samuel J. Briskin]]
[[Category:1950s English-language films]]
[[Category:1950s American films]]
[[Category:Films set in Fort Worth, Texas]]
[[Category:Films set in St. Petersburg, Florida]]