For a picture that deals with flying, this one never gets off the ground.
With a writer like Sidney Sheldon on the screenplay (he wrote THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER along with some potboiler best-sellers), I expected at least a fair quota of witticisms. Wrong.
How JANE WYMAN selected this as a project in 1951 (three years after winning an Oscar for JOHNNY BELINDA), I have no idea. It gets worse as it plods on. All of it is entirely artificial, unappealing and witless.
Howard Keel and Van Johnson acquit themselves well despite the tiresome attempts at comedy made by the script--but Wyman is completely out of her element as a somewhat wacky dame who, on her first flight as a stewardess, forgets to bring the lunches aboard. This is supposed to be a cute situation that gets the story off to a hapless start. She soon finds herself being romanced by three different Mikes.
Barry Sullivan has another one of his thankless roles at MGM. And let's face it--Jane Wyman is a bit overage to be playing a perky young stewardess. It's the sort of fluffy role she would have been perfect for fifteen years earlier.
I kept hoping that after the first fifteen minutes the story would pick up and breeze along as a comedy should--especially with these players. Wrong again.
Skip it. You won't be missing anything.
With a writer like Sidney Sheldon on the screenplay (he wrote THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER along with some potboiler best-sellers), I expected at least a fair quota of witticisms. Wrong.
How JANE WYMAN selected this as a project in 1951 (three years after winning an Oscar for JOHNNY BELINDA), I have no idea. It gets worse as it plods on. All of it is entirely artificial, unappealing and witless.
Howard Keel and Van Johnson acquit themselves well despite the tiresome attempts at comedy made by the script--but Wyman is completely out of her element as a somewhat wacky dame who, on her first flight as a stewardess, forgets to bring the lunches aboard. This is supposed to be a cute situation that gets the story off to a hapless start. She soon finds herself being romanced by three different Mikes.
Barry Sullivan has another one of his thankless roles at MGM. And let's face it--Jane Wyman is a bit overage to be playing a perky young stewardess. It's the sort of fluffy role she would have been perfect for fifteen years earlier.
I kept hoping that after the first fifteen minutes the story would pick up and breeze along as a comedy should--especially with these players. Wrong again.
Skip it. You won't be missing anything.