I do not understand all the negative comments. I think next to 12 O'Clock High, this is the best aviation film ever made. You cannot expect the Chinese to lend us MiGs and trucks to make a movie, so using (captured) American vehicles is plausible. As a retired military officer and aviator, I have been to Japan and Korea and the film's background scenery is authentic. As for the aircraft, again, we couldn't borrow any MiG-15s, so the most similar U.S. aircraft was the F-84F. It had a flat nose, mid-fuselage swept back wings and high, swept back fail fins. That is as close to the MiG-15 as you can get. And unlike one reviewer said, the F-84 was not used for the MiG-15 in The McConnell Story (a horrible movie). They used F-86s. They just painted the noses a different color (like they used P-51s painted grey with black crosses for ME-109s in the 1948 movie Fighter Squadron with Robert Stack). And that movie was downright stupid, especially the scene where the F-86s were waltzing to AFN Radio. Also, to the reviewer who referred to the 4th and 51st Fighter "Wings." In the Korean War, they were Fighter Groups. The Regular Air Force didn't drop Groups (Reserves and ANG still use them) until way after the Korean War. And the aerial fighting sequences were accurate and believable. Remember, this movie was made before computer graphics were available, yet they were able to show reasonable tracer bullet effects. Plus the "military speak"was authentic. As far as the romantic side plot, it broke up the usual endless flying of most aviation movies. And remember, this depicted the early 1950s when women were not liberated as they are now. Also, MAJ Saville never crossed the line to having sex with Mrs. Abbott, even though she made it clear that she would let him, right before he said he would look after Carl. So he maintained his code of ethics, even for the 1950s. 'Buff said.

THE HUNTERS 1958This 20th Century Fox Cinemascope production was director Dick Powell's follow up to the excellent 1957 war film, THE ENEMY BELOW. This one also stars Robert Mitchum in the lead role. This time however the action takes place in the air over Korea in 1952. Also in the cast are, Richard Egan, Lee Phillips, May Britt and Robert Wagner. This one starts at an Air base in Japan. Personal are off loaded from the States, then, transferred to their units in South Korea. Mitchum plays a World War Two veteran pilot with the nickname, "Ice Man". He is one cool and deadly pilot. This will be his first action flying jets (F-86) in combat. Commanding his unit is another WW2 vet, Richard Egan. Also in the squadron is Lee Phillips, who has an over fondness for beverages of the alcohol variety. Staying in Japan is the pretty wife of Phillips, May Britt.The men end up at a base in Korea and are assigned to fly patrols in "Mig Alley", an area just south of the border with Red China. This is where the various Red Air forces are trying to gain the upper hand. Each side is out to eliminate the other using ambush tactics and flying skill. At the moment, the Americans have the upper hand, but not without losses on their part. There are several Red pilots making a name for themselves, particularly one who goes by the handle, Casey Jones. Of course Phillips' wife, May Britt and Mitchum are soon locking lips every time Mitchum is in Tokyo. But, as much as Mitchum would like to step up the action, he can see that Britt is still in love with Phillips. He makes it his mission to whip the drunk into a first rate pilot. Now enters hotshot jet jockey, Robert Wagner fresh from the States. The kid can fly, and after a rough start with Mitchum, is soon knocking Reds out of the sky at a fast rate. While on a patrol over Mig Alley, there is a nasty round of combat between the Americans and the Reds. Phillips is shot up and takes to his chute. Mitchum gets some payback by finally getting the best of the Red Ace, Casey Jones. He then decides to see where Phillips had bailed out.Mitchum spots Phillips hanging from a tree, and decides to crash land his Sabre nearby. He feels obligated to help Phillips. There is soon a squad of North Korean infantry closing in. Said infantry are shot up by Robert Wagner who is then shot down by ground fire. Mitchum and Wagner are now hauling the badly wounded Phillips towards the United Nations lines. They tackle a couple of North Korean soldiers at a guard post and arm themselves with several burp guns. Then they run into a family of refugees also heading south. Another squad of North Korean types show and liquidate the civilians. Wagner and Mitch step up and pay the Red swine in kind.Taking the dead civilians cart, they load up Phillips and continue south. They are soon grabbed up by a U.N. unit of Greeks and sent back for medical attention. Phillips is patched up and will be sent back to the States. Britt and Mitchum say their goodbyes as Britt thanks Mitch for saving her husband.For the most part, the film works quite well with some nicely handled action sequences. The film however slows to a snail's pace every time Miss Britt is on screen. The love triangle bit is just not needed, or should have been trimmed by a good 15 minutes. Still, it is a great looking Cinemascope production with excellent color. Powell does good work as the helmsman, while four time, Oscar nominated, Charles G Clarke, handles the cinematography duties.May Britt was another of a string of Swedish actresses who were to be the next, Ingrid Bergman. The list would include, Marta Toren, Viveca Lindfors, Signe Hasso and Inger Stevens. None of them were.

When the Chinese are searching for the downed flyers their convoy blatantly consists of WWII era American jeeps and half-tracks. This obvious anachronism serves to cheapen the appearance of otherwise OK escapist entertainment for Korian War buffs. of course as with the fake Migs they there was probably no way to procure authentic Chinese military vehicles. The producer could have spared us the agony of this technical deficiency that takes our mind off the story by eliminating the shot all together. The mere implication of vehicles would have been sufficient, or distant shots of road dust and then infantry advancing would have been sufficient. This goof is on the same par as using white actors made up to replicate Japanese soldiers in early WWII films

Apart from "M*A*S*H" (and even that is, to many people, better remembered as a TV series than as a film) there are not too many well-known Korean War films. I had never heard of this one, which details the part played by the US Air Force in that conflict, but I caught it when it was shown on British television last week.I note that one reviewer entitled his review "A must see for jet air-to-air combat enthusiasts". Whereas his review was, in fact, very helpful in terms of explaining the historical background to the film, that title did make me think "What about the rest of us? What does the film have to offer the average viewer, or even the average film buff, as opposed to the military aviation buff?" I suppose part of the answer to that question is that the film tries to be a character study of men at war. Apart from the military action in which American pilots take on the MiGs of the Chinese air force, the film also charts the relationships between squadron commander Major Cleveland Saville and two of the men under his command, Lieutenant Edward Pell and the depressive, heavy-drinking Lieutenant Carl Abbott. In addition, a romance develops between Saville and Abbott's glamorous Norwegian wife Kristina, who feels neglected by her husband.There are similarities between this film and "The War Lover" from four years later. That film was about the Second World War, but also starred Robert Wagner (who here plays Pell) as a young Air Force pilot who comes into conflict with his superior officer (played in that film by Steve McQueen). Like "The Hunters", "The War Lover" features a love-triangle involving that superior officer and one of the men under his command. There is, however, a difference. In "The Hunters" Saville, played by Robert Mitchum, is supposed to be cool and unemotional (he has won the nickname "The Iceman"), whereas Pell is a brilliant pilot but hotheaded and impulsive. In "The War Lover" it is exactly the other way round. Wagner's character, Lieutenant Bolland, is the conformist, by-the-book flier, whereas his superior, Captain Rickson, is the unorthodox but brilliant rebel against authority.Another difference between the two films is in the balance between the combat scenes and the scenes set on the ground. The air combat scenes in "The Hunters" are indeed very well done, far better than anything in "The War Lover" and the best that I have seen in any film of this period. Indeed, they can stand comparison with similar scenes in modern films, even though there were no computer-generated effects available to film-makers in the fifties, and are the main reason why I have given the film an above-average mark."The Hunters", however, is a much less impressive film when it leaves the skies and comes down to earth. The scenes at the end when Saville and Pell are trying to rescue Abbott, who has been shot down over enemy-held territory, are no more than routine war heroics. "The War Lover" was, on the human level, a powerful emotional drama, the main interest of which lay in the changing dynamics of the triangular relationship between Rickson, Bolland and their mutual love-interest, Daphne. In "The Hunters", by comparison, the romance between Saville and Kristina is perfunctory and unconvincing. The personality clash between Saville and Pell, moreover, is more apparent than real. Saville's nickname of "The Iceman" is largely undeserved. An officer who seduces a brother-officer's wife and who keeps discipline by punching on the jaw any subordinate who gets out of line (as Saville does to both Abbott and Pell) is hardly icy.When I reviewed "The War Lover", I stated that it may not be a particularly gripping war adventure but it is certainly gripping when seen as a human drama. "The Hunters", by contrast, has some great action scenes, but as a human drama it is unconvincing. 6/10