McConnell Story, The

Flight Journal, Feb 2003 by Farmer, James H

The McConnell Story

Warner Home Video; may be ordered from The Armchair Dog fighter; (800) 365-2104; $19.98.

Unfortunately, the 1955 Warner Bros. color feature "The McConnell Story" is the only one of three Hollywood Korean War F-86 Sabre films to have made it to home video. It features some superb color aerial shots that include sequences of the picture's central character, Korea's leading U.S. triple jet ace Joe McConnell (Alan Ladd) in flight while training on the F-80C Lockheed Shooting Star. He's later shown flying F-86Fs in Korea and at the controls of the beefy F-86H for the concluding Edwards AFB test sequence.

Despite the subject, the film is a squishy puff piece. The aerials and flight-ramp sequences, taken for the most part at Southern California's former George AFB, are informative, but they remain no more than a diversion for what is essentially a dated formula romance between stars Alan Ladd and June Allyson.

We endure hackneyed fistfights on the ground during McConnell's WW II boot camp days, and we witness the unlikely waltzing of a Sabre formation in Korean skies to an Armed Force's Network tune. Then there is the hand-wringing wife at home and a warm-fuzzy father figure in the form of a senior officer played by James Whitmore. Need we say more?

That said, "The McConnell Story" is superior to the first of the three F-86 films, United Artists' 1953 "Sabre Jet." It has the same hand-wringing pack of wives at a Japanese base watching daily at ramp-side as their husbands leave in short-range jets for Korea. The pilots, led by grim-faced group commander Robert Stack, seem to alternate routinely between flying F-80Cs and F-86Es-depending, it appears, on their mood on any given day!

OK; it isn't credible, but, oh, those color shots of Nellis AFB Shooting Stars and Sabres-the latter in both USAF and Red Chinese markings!

Missing from the video counter, however, is the 1958 feature from Twentieth-Century Fox, "The Hunters." The film is based on the novel of the same name written by Korean War Sabre pilot James A. Horowitz under the pseudonym "James Salter." Robert Wagner's brash screen character is, in fact, based on the 4th Fighter Wing's youngest American ace of the era, James F. Low. You'll see no phony theatrics here-at least not before the third act. The chemistry and friction between mature WW II vet-fliers played by Robert Mitchum and Richard Egan and the younger Wagner character are historically and dramatically on target.

So, too, is the look of the film; the aerial sequences are some of the finest ever captured on film. The picture features F-86F Sabres from William Field's 3525th Combat Crew Training Wing and F-84Fs ("MiG-15s") from neighboring Luke Field's 3600th CCTW and it features nearby Luke Auxiliary Field No. One as a remarkably credible "Korean" base. Finding the cumulus-cloud formations needed for the film, however, required a transfer of operations to West Palm Beach, Florida. F-86 hard-points and the USAF's new C-130As proved to be the perfect camera platforms for the spectacular aerials.

Though it has been reported that Horowitz is not overly impressed by the film, it is a stunning visual treat for the Sabre lover-clearly the best of three films. It's a superior aerial-combat film by most measures, and I remain frustrated by its absence from the video shelf.

Years ago, I met character actor James Whitmore backstage after one of his famed one-man shows. We discussed "The McConnell Story." Noting that he had appeared in so many service films, especially those that featured the USAF, I asked if he hadn't himself served in th Air Force.

A wicked smile crossed his lips as leaned back in his dressing-room "Hell, no," he replied, " I wasn't ii those peripheral services. I was a Marine. He was a first-rate gentleman, and I later learned, a highly decorated Pacific veteran. -James H. Fainter