Strategic Air Command

n 1955, Paramount Pictures released the acters and events are fictionalized, Stew - Has a Thousand Eyes, Samson and second film in their new VistaVision for - art’s character was based on the real-life Delilah, Gun Crazy, Bright Lea f, Rio Grande, Imat (film shot horizontally, exposing eight military career of Brigadier General Clifford Scaramouche, The Quiet Man, Shane, perfs instead of the standard four) – the first Schoeffler. Three Coins in the Fountain, Johnny Guitar, film had been White Christmas , which was The Country Girl, Around the World in a fairly set-bound film. But Strategic Air Interestingly, James Stewart was a colonel Eighty Days , and that is only the very tip of Command , with its extraordinary aerial in the Air Force Reserve, was later pro - the Victor Young iceberg. He was certainly footage and location shooting, VistaVision moted to brigadier general and continued one of the most prolific composers in Hol - would really come into its own. The film to fly well into his later years. He was de - lywood history, sometimes scoring as many was, in a word, breathtaking. Add to that a termined that the movie give an honest but as ten films in one year. He received an as - great cast headed by James Stewart, June sympathetic portrayal of the SAC, which it tounding twenty-two Academy Award nom - Allyson, Frank Lovejoy, Barry Sullivan and does. Anthony Mann’s direction is superb inations and on two occasions he was Harry Morgan, the great cameraman and the flying sequences are breathtaking, nominated four times in a single year. More William H. Daniels and a terrific screenplay with some of the greatest aerial photogra - astoundingly, Young never won the Oscar in by Valentine Davies (book and film of Mira - phy ever filmed, rendered even more spec - his lifetime – he died at the young age of cle on 34th Street, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, tacular in Vista-Vision. The production 56 and won his only Oscar (for Around the The Benny Goodman Story, The Glenn values were A+ throughout. The film was World in Eighty Days) posthumously. He Miller Story) and Beirne Lay Jr., and you made with the complete cooperation of the also composed the music for many hit had a recipe for success. United States Air Force. songs which are now standards, including such classics as “When I Fall in Love,” Strategic Air Command was one of less Strategic Air Command was the sixth-high - “Moonlight Serenade,” “My Foolish Heart,” than a handful of films actually shown in est grossing picture of 1955. The New York “Street of Dreams,” “Stella by Starlight,” “I true VistaVision (with special projection Times’ Bosley Crowther began his review Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You” equipment) at their premiere engagements. with, “Never, in many years of looking at Air and many others. James Stewart and Anthony Mann had Force and aviation films, have we seen the done eight films together, all of them solid, familiar wide blue yonder so wide or so Young’s score for Strategic Air Command is entertaining and wonderful movies – Win - magnificently displayed as it is in the Vis - one of his greats. It has everything you’d chester ’73, Bend of the River, Thunder taVision process used to project Strategic Air want in a score – a rousing main title Bay, The Naked Spur, The Glenn Miller Command. ” He continued to rave, “And march, beautiful and emotional music for Story, The Far Country, The Man from what, one may ask, of the story that is told the drama, and, above all, some of the Laramie , and their final film together, Strate - in this scenic display? That, too, deserves greatest “flying” music ever written for the gic Air Command . Theirs was a unique col - a share of the credit for the total impact of screen. Young’s scoring of the flying scenes laboration and one that was very rare in the this film. For it is an adroitly sentimental and virtually turns those sequences into ballets film industry. Stewart and Allyson had also personalized tale of the sort that creates a of flight, a sky symphony of enduring been paired on two previous occasions, for nice dramatic profile of warm emotions beauty. The Stratton Story and The Glenn Miller against the background of machines. But Story . above all, there are those airplanes, the This is the world premiere release of Strate - roaring engines, the cluttered cockpits, the gic Air Command . The music masters were Briefly, Strategic Air Command is the story clouds and sky. These are the things that mono (the film was also mono, but its orig - of Robert “Dutch” Holland (Stewart), a pro make your eyes bug out and your heart inal engagements used the Perspecta baseball player with the St. Louis Cardinals, leap with wonder and pride.” soundtrack, a kind of fake stereo) and who is also a member of the United States mostly in very good condition, housed in Air Force Reserve. He finds himself re - And one of the primary reasons the heart the Paramount vaults. A couple of tracks called for a twenty-one month stint of active leaps with wonder and pride is the film’s only existed on acetates (which we cleaned duty. He reports to Carswell Air Force Base stunning musical score by Victor Young. up as best we could), and a couple were in Forth Worth, Texas, where he’s given a Young, born in 1900, moved to Hollywood too damaged to use at all. staff job with the bombardment wing. There, in the 1930s, where he was musical direc - he becomes hooked on flying and the job tor for many of Bing Crosby’s Decca record - There have not been nearly enough Victor he’s doing. Wife Sally (Allyson) joins him, ings. He began his illustrious film career in Young scores released on CD, and we’re but there is tension between them, as she 1936, eventually becoming one of Holly - especially thrilled to bring out this particular had not really ever thought of a life as an wood’s finest film composers. His body of example, as it presents all of Young’s Air Force wife, with all the absences and work is astonishing, and includes such strengths as a film composer and a brilliant risks involved for her husband. Ultimately, great scores as Golden Boy, Reap the Wild melodist. They don’t come much better. to Sally’s dismay, he decides to stay in the Wind, The Glass Key, The Palm Beach Air Force rather than return to baseball at Story, The Uninvited, The Great Moment, — Bruce Kimmel the end of his active duty. From there, much Ministry of Fear, Love Letters, To Each His drama ensues, both personal and in the Own, Golden Earrings, The Big Clock, line of duty. Even though the film’s char - State of the Union, The Paleface, The Night