Internet Movie Data Base

If you haven’t used it, IMDB  (http://www.imdb.com) is a very good source of information about films. IMDB always lists the cast with links to each cast member’s career. It’s very thorough. How thorough? Type in “Linda Humble” (now Linda Smith) and you will find that she had an uncredited role in It Happened at the World’s Fair. One little movie part and IMDB picked it up.
Last evening we watched The Bridges at Toko Ri with William Holden, Frederick March, Mickey Rooney and Grace Kelly. I had lots of questions and skimming the readers' comments in IMDB answered most of them. The first question was answered in IMDB’s cast list. That was Dennis Weaver playing the small part of the Air Intelligence Officer early in his career. Since I played the role of Air Intelligence Officer circa ‘64-’68, his briefing style caught my eye. Fighter pilots were always a tough audience.
In 1955 the military gave the producers of Bridges full cooperation. Lots of great scenes of takeoffs and landings and other carrier ops. In the comments, DrHypersonic pointed out that the Korean War represented the last days of the straight deck carrier with hydraulic catapults and paddle waving deck officer. After Korea carriers were built with angled decks, steam catapults and Fresnel lens mirror landing systems. He also identified the fighter bomber used in the film as  a Grumman Panther, and added the little tidbit that future astronaut Alan Shepherd was one of the pilots flying the planes. Mackjay wrote in the comments that Bridges was one of five films Grace Kelley made in that year. She squeezed this one in between Country Girl and To Catch a Thief. Mackjay astutely notes that it doesn’t appear that Kelley was present on location for a lot of the production. Rear projection is obvious in her exterior scenes. She obviously didn’t make it to Japan with the rest of the crew. Fbzab reported that his dad was on the carrier used in the filming. In close ups of the cockpits the sailors would blow CO2 by the aircraft to simulate clouds but they had problems with seagulls passing jets supposedly going 400mph. Estebanhernandez reminds us that Holden made another Korean War movie that year—Love is a Many Splendored Thing. Glentom1 hated Mickey Rooney as the rescue helicopter pilot and didn’t believe that the Navy would entrust a helicopter to an enlisted man. But a quick Google search for “navy enlisted pilot” shows that they existed through the Vietnam War.
Several commenters made note that The Bridges at Toko Ri is an effective anti-war statement. Holden as Lt. Brubaker is called back to active duty ahead of some active duty reserve units and he is unhappy, believing his requirement to give up home, family and law practice is unfair. His fear is palpable after flying a recce mission over the bridges and he comes close to grounding himself. Of course, he ends up getting shot down, crash lands, hides in a ditch with Rooney who comes to rescue him but is also shot down. And, unheroically, they both are killed by the faceless enemies of freedom. At the end of the movie, the Admiral, played by Frederick March sits on the bridge and asks the question, “Where do we get such men?” Skimming the comments of IMBD, I couldn’t find an answer to that one.
During my second SEA tour in 1967 we lost at least one aircrew a week for the nine months I was there. You’d have breakfast or lunch with a guy and he wasn’t there the next day. It gets pretty edgy having meals with guys who are pretty sure they are going to die that night or some night soon. You get to know what fear looks like written on someone’s face. So, my comment, were I to add one on IMDB, would be that William Holden did a great job portraying that fear of going back to the bridges, at least what it looks like. I’ve seen it, been close to it, but since I didn’t have to fly really can’t comprehend how they dealt with it, stuffed it down deep and managed to fly through the night. I know this: it’s an awful lot to ask of someone.

Comments

[Phil]

Randy, My uncle (Mom's brother) was flying a Grumman Panther out of San Diego when it was lost at sea - they never found him or the jet. It happened in 1957, the year before I was born, Just a bit of personal history.