Sorry, this movie sucks

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Noticeable cast—Mrs. Wyman is the stewardess, Howard Keel is the 1st Mike, Van Johnson is the 2nd Mike, a certain Barry Sullivan, who resembles a fellow who played vampires in the '70s, Langella, is the 3rd Mike ;a bright stewardess meets three guys—one's an airline pilot who takes a rather noble view of his job, 'the whole world to fly around', dazzlingly tourism—bent (that's the future husband of Miss Ellie from DALLAS—Keel—perhaps even less likable as a dynamic youngster, without that contemplative bonhomie given by age); one's a scientist who studies Bioluminescence and looks like a poster—boy (Johnson, you've already guessed); one's a businessman who works in the advertising and might be the creepiest of the trio.This Jane Wyman comedy is not so much unfunny (because there are occasionally things which could make one laugh if in a movie theater), as it is uninspired and unlikable, a bit stale, if you take my meaning; and another thing—the settings bizarrely leave the impression of a rarefied world, as if the action takes place in a depopulated society, as if they barely gathered a few people for the stage. Other than that now, Mrs. Wyman plays a self—confident stewardess taking the first steps in the job, the movie would of required that conventional '50s hedonism of the sex comedies. Maybe more Mikes would of fueled the script up? The male stars, Van Johnson and Keel, are perhaps a bit better as comedians than Mrs. Wyman; but then again, the script is so lifeless ….It occurred to me that our Spader resembles Johnson—well, if added a bit of perfidiousness and malice to that missionary blandness ….It takes long to establish the basic comical situation, that a girl meets three men named Mike—Van Johnson enters after a ½ an hour; the too short scene, of a quiet and mild poetry, where he shows the stars (Ursa Major, Casiopeea) to the girl and the stewardess is touching—as are generally the people taking an interest in the stars.

Jane Wyman is great as Marcy Lewis, an ambitious flight stewardess, in the golden era of flying, where flight attendants and flight crew were somewhat celebrity. Those days are gone obviously. Most people fly the friendly or unfriendly skies. The film shows Marcy, a young woman from Ohio, with aspirations to become one of the best flight attendants anywhere. During her fabulous career, she is courted by three men who all happen to be called Mike. There is Captain Mike Denison, the pilot who she offends as he offers her a lift to the airport on her first day. Then there is Mike Tracy, the science scholar and bartender, and Mike Lawrence, the advertising executive. They are played by some of Hollywood's leading men like Van Johnson. The supporting cast is equally impressive with Phyllis Kirk. It's a good film despite the fact that it's outdated by decades. Of course, there is one scene where Marcy is constantly sexually harassed by two male passengers aboard the flight.

Perky, freshly-scrubbed, impertinent Jane Wyman trains to be a airline stewardess with American Airlines; once in the air, she clashes lightly with pilot Howard Keel and passenger Van Johnson, while on the ground she has a slight run-in with Barry Sullivan. All three men--all named Mike--quickly come around with romantic notions (this is the kind of '50's comedy where men can't wait to get hitched), but Wyman is so busy hatching ideas and shooting from the hip that she barely notices all the male attention. What begins as a smartly-written and executed glimpse at a stewardess's life in the sky is soon hustled right into romantic comedy territory. The question is obvious (whom will she choose?), yet I didn't find any of these potential suitors capable of handling Wyman, who is continually mouthing off in a wide-eyed, nonchalantly feminine way. This puff-piece, directed with snap but no flair by Charles Walters, is nearly impossible to critique seriously; if pressed, I would have to say the fist-fight in the photographer's apartment wouldn't really be worthy of the front page of the newspaper (did the fight last long enough for reporters and shutterbugs to show up?). Walters captures first-day-on-the-job jitters exceptionally well, but Sidney Sheldon's screenplay goes soft too fast. The final line between the men is amusing, but what we don't get see at the fade-out is a career girl who feels alive up in the air quickly tied down in suburbia with kids tugging at her apron. **1/2 from ****

For a picture that deals with flying, this one never gets off the ground.With a writer like Sidney Sheldon on the screenplay (he wrote THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER along with some potboiler best-sellers), I expected at least a fair quota of witticisms. Wrong.How JANE WYMAN selected this as a project in 1951 (three years after winning an Oscar for JOHNNY BELINDA), I have no idea. It gets worse as it plods on. All of it is entirely artificial, unappealing and witless.Howard Keel and Van Johnson acquit themselves well despite the tiresome attempts at comedy made by the script--but Wyman is completely out of her element as a somewhat wacky dame who, on her first flight as a stewardess, forgets to bring the lunches aboard. This is supposed to be a cute situation that gets the story off to a hapless start. She soon finds herself being romanced by three different Mikes.Barry Sullivan has another one of his thankless roles at MGM. And let's face it--Jane Wyman is a bit overage to be playing a perky young stewardess. It's the sort of fluffy role she would have been perfect for fifteen years earlier.I kept hoping that after the first fifteen minutes the story would pick up and breeze along as a comedy should--especially with these players. Wrong again.Skip it. You won't be missing anything.