Düsenjäger (1957)

Düsenjäger: Directed by Josef von Sternberg. With John Wayne, Janet Leigh, Jay C. Flippen, Paul Fix. Air Force Colonel Jim Shannon is tasked to escort a defecting Soviet pilot who is scheming to lure Shannon to the USSR.

“If you want to see classic US jetfighters in action, this is a great flick. However, dramatically, it takes big cinematic license that an apparent WWII veteran and Korean War vet, (Wayne)would be wordly enough to embrace a Russian Communist officer romantically (Leigh). Remember, in this McCarthy era, that would have been a USAF career killer.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMy wife agrees that even though heu0026#39;s about thirty years her senior in the pic, Janet Leigh would still fall for the big guy. It sure looks like the Duke is having a good time in the movie, which is very tongue-in-cheek.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne little distraction among many historical inaccuracies, this is supposedly 1957 and in the colorized (?)version I saw recently o n AMC, it looks like Wayne is wearing a USAAF uniform. Also, the fighters in the movie seem to have an inexhaustable supply of fuel and oxygen.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNevertheless, Janet Leigh is delicious in the role.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall, a fun airplane picture and I recommend it as a great Saturday afternoon distraction. And it does accurately portray the fact women are more than equal to the task of combat flying–an idea way ahead of its time in 1957 (but perhaps not for Russia who had a number of women pilots in WWII combat roles).”