Just so...so bad

A Major Disappointment

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Presently, test pilot Humphrey Bogart (as Matthew "Matt" Brennan) is on a dangerous flight, which worries pretty Eleanor Parker (as Joan "Jo" Holloway). She fears Mr. Bogart may crash. We will have to wait to see if he does, when flashbacks end. In the cockpit, Bogart begins his flight past, with 1943... During World War II service, bomber pilot Bogart flies dangerous missions from England to Germany, helping the Allies win the war. On the ground, he romances Parker, who serving as a nurse...After the war, Bogart is hired as chief test pilot for aircraft manufacturer Raymond Massey (as Leland Willis). He re-encounters Parker, who is being romanced by designer Richard Whorf (as Carl Troxell). Bogart eventually takes the jet plane "JA-4" on a dangerous flight, which leads us back to the opening scene. This appears to be a well-crafted story, but it is not presented well. Bogart looks inserted uncomfortably into the stock aviation footage and the romantic triangle never gets off the ground.**** Chain Lightning (2/18/50) Stuart Heisler ~ Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor Parker, Raymond Massey, Richard Whorf

I saw this movie when it first came out and jets were practically unheard of. Three years later I was in Korea with the 335th FIS, and the King then was the F-86. The original movie showed a needle nose designed to break the air at high speed as a diver points his hands to break the water, and the air intakes were on the sides. The F-86 had one big intake in front which was dangerous because one of my best friends, a mechanic, was accidentally sucked up the intake while chocking wheels on the run-up strip when the pilot hit the throttle at 100%. He was gone in the blink of an eye. Bogie's plane could fly up to 60,000 ft and top speed of about 1600 mph. General Dynamics must have used this movie for the development of the F-16, because there seems to be a lot of similarities. I took an interest in some of the comparisons after seeing the movie "Afterburn".

In the recent film The Aviator, one of the points of Howard Hughes's life that was gone into great detail was his post World War II airplane crash in Beverly Hills while testing a new model. From what was shown in Leonardo DiCaprio's hauntingly accurate portrayal of Hughes, the casting of Raymond Massey in a paper thin version of the flamboyant aviator/businessman is pretty laughable. I'm sure Howard must have seen Chain Lightning and didn't like it a bit.Jets were certainly a new phenomenon in those years and had the Germans developed them sooner and additionally had invested in aircraft carriers, the course of history would have been markedly and tragically different. Humphrey Bogart is not bad as the Chuck Yeager like test pilot, in fact Yeager's historic flight breaking the sound barrier is referenced in the plot. Warner Brothers would have been better served with a straightforward biographical film about that flight. Richard Whorf is the earnest aircraft engineer who worries that Massey is sacrificing safety for flashy headlines. Sad to say, but Howard Hughes would have been the first to agree with Massey's position. Headlines did and still do sell military hardware, just a fact of life.Warner Brothers cheated on the aerial footages, you can plainly see the stuff is pretty routine. Now one thing about Howard Hughes, he certainly did know how to make aerial films exciting.Fairly clichéd subplot about Bogart reuniting with war time love Eleanor Parker who is now Massey's secretary. I would recommend it for fans of Bogey and that's about it.

Humphrey Bogart sometimes must have been desperate for proper roles and earning his meal ticket, how could we otherwise explain he fills roles like this one ? Decidedly overaged for the physical stress he is exposed to in his bomber- and test pilot roles as well as for the chase for the much to young Red Cross Nurse he is wooing, he moves in really thin air literally in this role. We know he can make it, but it is a real thin layer of substance over this heroic vs. business conflict designing new jet planes. Only for the died-in-the-wool Bogey Fans.