Exoticalot
People are voting emotionally.
Rijndri
Load of rubbish!!
Teddie Blake
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
atlasmb
I find "Toward the Unknown" to be a pleasant film. The story is rather predictable and, like many films made with military assistance, it is a good Air Force promo. It doesn't hurt that I am a huge fan of William Holden, but I think the film's story is just plain enjoyable, even if not very dramatic or suspenseful.The action takes place at Edwards Air Force Base, where testing of experimental jets (and rocket-propelled craft) is conducted. Among the test pilots is Lincoln Bond (Holden), who comes with some baggage--primarily because he was captured during the Korean War and brutalized. He wants to get back into the testing program, but his psychological integrity is questioned.The craft shown in the film might seem tame from the perspective of the 21st century, but they were very exotic in their day. Man was toying with the edge of space and developing technologies that pushed the limits of human endurance. Anyone who was around during that era remembers the aura of mystery and excitement that surrounded the "X" programs. As a boy in the Columbus, Ohio area, I remember the sonic booms we seemed to hear almost daily. There was something magical about supersonic speed.The film can serve as a primer on the basics of the technology and it conveys some of the history. The nonchalance of the pilots may obscure the bravery required to pilot those machines, but the film accurately demonstrates the love of flight that drives pilots. Their joyful exuberance lies just below the surface of every scene.I recommend this film to anyone who is a fan of flying and to anyone who wants to learn more about the early history of supersonic flight. The story of Lincoln Bond and the men and women he works with may play second fiddle to the jets themselves, but it is a solid story worth watching.
secondtake
Toward the Unknown (1956)In some ways this is fascinating stuff—you get a glimpse of mid-50s American military aeronautics, and a specific mention (and micro-glimpse) of the rocket efforts marking early space technology. William Holden plays a troubled test pilot who leads us through the different planes and testing efforts via his own return and rise through the system. It's not bad.However.You can't quite call this a formula film—maybe a genre film if there is a genre called test pilots in trouble—but there is a canned quality to this whole thing that holds it back unreasonably. There is the woman from his past who loves him but also has an affair going with the general (the likable Lloyd Nolan) on the base (Edwards Air Force Base). There are the competing test pilots (all good actors known mostly for television). It makes for a good group that is forced into a thin plot about rivalry and camaraderie. The really best part of the plot (and the reason I watched the movie at first) is that Holden is a man who was in a Korean War prison camp, where he was abused and tortured and "brainwashed." It's this last thing that was so talked about at the time, and which was used to make some really terrific movies like "The Manchurian Candidate," and I wanted to see where it would go here. Well, a heads up, it goes nowhere. His prison camp experience causes a pivotal scene in the movie on the base, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with brainwashing.Too bad on that.Holden by this point in his career is not the leading man he once was, though this is just five years after his terrific comeback year with "Union Station" and "Sunset Blvd." But he's really good, holding his scenes together with the woman (Virginia Leith) who has the eyes (blue) and lips (red) to pop on the WarnerColor screen, but who can't act very well.Obviously if you like airplanes and the air force, this is a movie to definitely see. Some great footage of test aircraft in flight (real footage from the military). And of course the whole supersonic flying experiments were a big deal at the time. If all of this seems a bore and too historical for a good movie, you're partly right. It's not a great plot or drama. But it's not a terrible movie by any means. Director Mervyn LeRoy, rightfully a legend by now, and cinematographer Harold Rossen, equally a legend, together made sure that it held water and survives it's own flaws very well.
Reedmalloy
Before beginning this review of a good test-pilot flick, I went through all those previously posted to see if anyone noticed what I noticed. Surprisingly, no one did, surprisingly because so many aviation and Air Force buffs enjoyed "Toward the Unknown." That's not meant to be an indictment, because I missed it on my first viewing when admittedly I was not paying close attention. My second viewing was to judge the film and see if it is worth saving to DVR. It certainly is. A few comments first before I reveal the teaser hinted at in my opening:Most of the reviews and their comments are valuable concerning the aviation aspects of the film. Historical and background aspects such as the Bud Mahurin, Frank Everest, and Al Boyd connections are valid without my trying to improve on them. The set-ups, perspectives, and costuming used here by Mervyn LeRoy influenced "The Right Stuff" without a doubt.Likewise valid are comments on the performances. I fall into the camp that finds Virginia Leith a desirable adult woman but at best an average actress—her looks make me wish otherwise. William Holden delivers mainly a rehash of Harry Brubaker of "The Bridges at Toko-Ri." Lloyd Nolan is, well, Lloyd Nolan, cast because of his age and affability. That's okay with me, since I identified with him much more than Holden, particularly in the love triangle plot line. Jim Garner is barely a blip on the screen—one wishes his role was more like Mike Bailey of "Sayonara". Of the rest, Charles McGraw's reprise of his performance in Toko-Ri was the best, while Murray Hamilton, Paul Fix, and L.Q. Jones delivered solid performances of the roles they were typically type-cast in.I can't let one bone-headed review pass without comment, though. That "bad actor" Holden managed to take home a well-earned Oscar in his career, Leith is hardly "quite plain," and the way in which Lincoln Bond was thought to have "betrayed his country" was very much specified. Pay more attention to the dialog and less to your own snobbish ego.That leads to my contribution. Those of you who are Air Force film buffs will want to go back and watch for Beirne Lay's numerous references to his "Twelve O'Clock High." At least one scene, when Gen Shelby tries to cajole Banner into moving up to ARDC headquarters, is a virtual replay of an identical scene between Millard Mitchell and Gregory Peck in "Twelve O'Clock High." From there the scenes become easier to spot, among others: Davenport warning Savage "Your failure will be bigger than mine ever was", Joe Cobb's death in combat (I kept waiting for Holden to yell "Jump, you guys, jump," so close was the dialog when Joe Craven was in trouble), and Jesse Bishop's wanting a transfer out of the Air Force, echoed in Bond's wanting to resign. Banner's physical problems that suggest he might be forced to give up flying are from another Lay opus, "Strategic Air Command", made the year before.There are more, and this is not meant as a criticism. The recycling of plot devices to construct archetypal themes is as old as drama itself. Beyond Generals Banner and Shelby, Lay's use of counterparts from "Twelve O'Clock High" in his screenplay for "Toward the Unknown" is fuzzier, unless you consider that the film might be a retelling from Gately's perspective rather than Savage's. Incidents are assigned to characters where they best advance Lay's points, not for exact match-ups to the prior film. But it's fun spotting them. Tell Ted to stick to reviews of undying brains and watch this movie again.
tedg
Three things noteworthy about this movie, which though big in its day is almost completely forgotten now.It is one of a class of movies where the humans are second class citizens and the prime characters are machines. This class originated almost at the beginning of the form in clips featuring locomotives. Locomotives were the rough semiotic equivalent to fighter planes. Oddly, the script features two different episodes, one with a high performance fighter and another with a piloted rocket.These two "characters" are a different as can be and completely confuse the ethos of tough guy test pilot which is so celebrated.That ethos is the focus of the other two items of interest. William Holden, a bad actor by any measure, plays a POW from the Korean "conflict" who was forced to betray his country in some unspecified way. He now returns to test piloting and has to prove himself to the general, himself and his girl. Most of the exposition is clumsy, but it is a remarkably sophisticated notion in a genre that was exclusively jingoistic.The final surprise is the girlfriend. She is played by a little-known actress with a wonderful, rich silvery voice. She's quite plain and unremarkable unless you know "The Brain that Wouldn't Die," often pilloried as a bad movie. Actually, it is a terrific movie with comically low production values.She plays Jan, who for most of "Brain" is a disembodied but living head on a cookie sheet. The movie is often called "Jan in a Pan." You cannot see that movie and be unaffected if you are serious about movie ideas. And if you have seen it, you cannot see this without thinking about it.In this one, the girlfriend is a test pilot groupie. She is secretary and lover to the General of the place, who is both kind and bold (but 25 years older). When our hero Link shows up, she shuffles between their beds, ultimately staying with Link when the General leaves because she just likes to be around test pilots.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
