The McConnell Story

The McConnell Story (1955)

A Stirring Salute to the Great American Spirit AND NOW a Stiring Tribute from a Great American

Joe McConnell was sure that he was meant to be a pilot, but was stuck as a restless army private. It seemed that his ambition was blocked at every step.

Date of release
1955-09-29
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (4)
Runtime
1h 46m
Genres
Drama, War, History
Director
Gordon Douglas

Casting

Interesting facts

The McConnell Story is a 1955 dramatization of the life and career of United States Air Force (USAF) pilot Joseph C. McConnell (1922–1954) directed by Gordon Douglas. McConnell served as a navigator in World War II before becoming the top American ace during the Korean War and was killed on August 25, 1954, while serving as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, California. The Warner Bros. production, filmed in CinemaScope and Warner Color, stars Alan Ladd as McConnell and June Allyson as his wife. Longtime Warners staff composer Max Steiner wrote the musical score for the film.

Production

The film was announced in May 1954, with Alan Ladd and June Allyson attached from the beginning. It was Alan Ladd's second consecutive film for Warner Bros. following Drum Beat (1954). Unlike that film, however, it was made for Warner Bros., not Ladd's own production company. Several months after The McConnell Story was announced, McConnell died in a crash. This required the script to be rewritten.

Principal photography for The McConnell Story took place from November 24, 1954, to late January 1955. Filming was aided by the USAF providing equipment and access to air bases. For the Korean air war sequences, eight Republic F-84F Thunderstreaks of the 614th Fighter-Bomber Squadron donned dark blue paint with red stars to portray Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s doing mock battle for the cameras with F-86 Sabres of the 366th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, bo…

For a sequence depicting the rescue of a downed Boeing B-29 Superfortress crew that McConnell was trying to protect, a Sikorsky H-19 of the 48th Air Rescue Squadron, Eglin AFB, Florida, was deployed to Alexandria AFB, Louisiana, for seven days in February 1955. Captain E. R. Thone and Airman First Class Ronald K. Opitz, of the 48th ARS, were the crew for the helicopter, TDY to shoot the rescue sequence.

Colonel William L. Orris, Commander Detachment No. 1, Air Force Operational Test Center at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico was a technical advisor for the film. The other technical advisor was Captain Manuel "Pete" Fernandez, third-ranking US jet ace of the Korean War who came home from Korea with McConnell in 1953. Fernandez also flew most of the F-86 aerial sequences in the film.

Shown on American Movie Classics, host Bob Dorian said that Ladd, who hated flying, filmed his scenes in mockups in front of blue screens. He also noted that Ladd and Allyson fell in love during filming; Ladd reportedly called Allyson's husband, actor/director Dick Powell, and told him, "I'm in love with your wife," to which Powell replied, "Everyone is in love with my wife."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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