7cb1d79195 In 1952, during the Korean War, two American pilots become bitter enemies over the same woman but must shelf their personal feud when confronted by deadly Chinese MIG fighter jets in battle. In 1952,the Korean War rages on, American officers land in Kyoto. Among them are Major Ceve Saville, assigned to a fighter squadron, and Lieutenant Carl Abbott. The latter neglects his charming wife Kristina, who is sinking into bitterness. In Korea, Saville meets again Colonel Dutch Imil, a former brother in armswellother friends. Back in Japan Saville falls in love with forsaken Kristina, which arouses Abbott&#39;s jealousy. The two men turn into implacable rivals. But during a mission against Chinese Migs, Abbott is hurt and Saville decides to rescue him… Copyright August 1958 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Paramount: 26 August 1958. U.S. release: September 1958. U.K. release: 2 November 1958. Australian release: 16 October 1958. Sydney opening at the Regent. 9,679 feet. 108 minutes.<br/><br/>SYNOPSIS: Air Force major promises his girlfriend that he will look after her pilot husband in the Korean War.<br/><br/>NOTES: Filmed with the co-operation of the Department of Defense and the United States Air Force.<br/><br/>COMMENT: Nobody realized it at the time, but &quot;The Hunters&quot; was to be Dick Powell&#39;s final movie. He then went into the TV series &quot;Dick Powell Theater&quot; (that&#39;s really stepping from the ultra-big screen to the ultra small). He died of cancer in his Hollywood home on the night of 2 January 1963. He was 58.<br/><br/>One can forgive a silly, trite, conventional, Z-grade, dime-a-dozen story like &quot;The Hunters&quot; when at least it plays true to the viewer and doesn&#39;t raise expectations and issues which it hasn&#39;t the slightest intention of pursuing. This is the sort of cop-out script that wastes the talents of Bob Mitchum and May Britt here. If the story was just meant to servea peg on which to hang some high- flying action, why is there so much story and comparatively so little action? The only person to emerge with any credit from this film is surprisingly enough Robert Wagner who is reasonably effective in a standard war pictures role – the one about the guy whose lack of team spirit causes… but who… <br/><br/>Mitchum and Britt are wasted. This rubbish is right about the level of Richard Egan who isridiculousthe script here. Powell&#39;s direction is thoroughly routine on the ground. Admittedly there is some excitement in the aerial combat scenes – but this is mainly thanks to CinemaScope. I read that the book on which this movie is based was one of the best to portray combat pilots. So I rented it last year from Netflix and enjoyed the photography of classic 50&#39;s era fighters and watching Robert Wagner act like a 50&#39;s rebel. Today I finally got around to reading James Salter&#39;s book, The Hunters, on which the movie is based. The book is actually about the tension between Cleve (the Robert Mitchum Character) and Pell (the Robert Wagner character)and it has an extraordinarily dramatic climactic battle and an ending that brought tears to my eyes. But virtually nothing in the book is in the movie! This is a classic case of Hollywood raping a serious book thinking they would clean up at the box office. If they had stayed true to Salter&#39;s novel, the movie would be a classic instead of a curio that we watch for a Technicolor thrill.
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