Posted on 05/08/2022 9:36:35 AM PDT by Rummyfan
Photos that were not authorized to be reposted....
That was June Allyson’s usual role.
When I saw Fail Safe as a ten-year old it scared the hell out of me. Now if I catch it as an adult I find it laughable. Typical Hollywood fear-mongering and sorry that one of my favorite directors Sidney Lumet had anything to do with it.
Photos from Getty and the AP (and some other sources, I think), are copyright violations and legal trouble FR cannot afford.
And now my view of Red Dawn, is that the main purpose of the film was to paint the ChiComs in a good light, as our “allies” against the Soviets. China went all out in the 1980s to act like our friends to sucker us into leveraging our economy to them; it worked.
Not sure I agree with the 1st part about plot, but I do agree with the aviation scenes. As a resident of the Tampa Bay area, it is fun to see the scenes of downtown St Pete and MacDill. FYI: Al Lang Stadium is now an USL (United Soccer League) home for the Tampa Bay Rowdies. And that takeoff from MacDill with the RATO B-47 and turn to northwest shows how small Tampa was with that barely glimpsed 2 lane Dale Mabry road! FYI: This film is free to Amazon Prime members.
As for the plot, I think there was logic to the baseball theme as Jimmy Stewart did the 1949 "Stratton Story" (w/ June Allyson) with good box office and this 1955 movie was written for BOTH popular and SAC approval! If you take away that plot device of the recall to flying from Baseball, you lose much of the depicted loss & sacrifice shown.
There is also the need to put historical context to this film's era that I think the reviewer, Rick McGinnis, gives insufficient attention! First fact is that the B-36/B-47s of that era were the SOLE strategic attackers against the two strong enemies of Soviet Russia & Red China. The USSR had the Atomic Bomb in 1949 and Red China had not only taken the mainland China but had fought the UN/West forces to a standstill in Korea by 1953. At the time that this movie was filming, the Red Chinese were shelling the Republic of China islands of Quemoy & Matsu (1954-55). In Europe, Stalin probed vigorously for weakness as in the Greek Civil War (1944-49) and in bolstering the large Italian & French Communist (political) Parties.
What this presented to Truman and then Eisenhower was the dilemma of resisting two very large conventional militaries with a much smaller land military and the most powerful navy in world history. But neither of these were sufficient to actually attack either opposing power center. Thus the requirement of a 24/7/365 nuclear strike as the offset to a matching & EXPENSIVE upsize of the Army and staging it overseas!
To me this is the CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT of this movie that we do not understand today! As expensive and as dangerous as the Strategic Air Command was then, it was CHEAPER and more effective than its alternatives! Thus this 'silly plot line' of a ballplayer being dragged back to (cold) war and his growing acceptance that his service was required but also worthy of the mission!
Jed Eckert: Well... . who is on our side?
Col. Andy Tanner: Six hundred million screaming Chinamen.
Darryl Bates: Last I heard, there were a billion screaming Chinamen.
Col. Andy Tanner: There were... .
“I believe the reason the left hates “Fascism” has nothing to do with the Holocaust. The left hates Fascism because it was in opposition to Communism.”
Muy mucho correcto! May I present Francisco Franco Bahamonde...
Same reason the Bloods hate the Crips. It's all about the Uniform.
Well, then, this thread reminded me of a prior one in which I posted some B-36 pron links:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4046326/posts
Here’s some B36 aviation pron:
https://media.defense.gov/2020/Oct/14/2002517020/-1/-1/1/B-36%20PEACEMAKER%20PERSONNEL_SMALL.PDF
More pron:
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/b-36-peacemaker-keeper.html?edg-c=1
MEGA PRON:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/52188705/Convair-B-36-Peacemaker-a-Photo-Chronicle
I heard Curtis Lemay went to Frank Capra, one of the producers and sold them on making a recruiting film.
My father was air traffic control in SAC for many years. He told me once the lightning bolts were actually testicles, because once your in, SAC has you by the sack.
It was very detailed and procedural.
By contrast, if WWII were being fought today, most of the socialists in Hollywood would support the other side.
Actually, they did until Hitler attacked the Soviet Union.
Oh I get it. SAC was still around when I enlisted. I had the fortune to go to USAFE . Some of my buddies got SACumcized though!
Another patch showed the fist squeezing blood out of a turnip.
————-
The verbiage below the turnip depiction said, “…like heLL we can’t” or something close to that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IiICcSH8iY
Jimmy Stewart tells his favorite joke. (Don’t read the comments).
LOLOL...that’s a good one! I’ve never heard that joke or heard Stewart tell jokes.
Thanks for the link.
There is one where he reads a poem on the Johnny Carson show about his dog “Beau”, really good.
.
.
.
Ok - here it is. Then I have to get back to work! (I watched another one where he talks about his early flying days with Johnny.)
“Well, I started flying when I came out here. Flew out of Mine Field.”
“Mine Field? Never heard of it.”
“Well, they call it LAX now.”
Dog named Beau:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwGnCIdHQH0
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.