Toward the Unknown

Toward the Unknown (1956)

Somewhere at a secluded U.S. Air Force Base lives a picked handful of very special men — the rocket pilots of outer space and the eerie experimental craft that rule the skies beyond the sky...

Tortured into a false confession while a POW in Korea, Major Lincoln Bond returns to active service as a test pilot. Determined to clear his name, Bond battles a hard-nosed base commander, prejudiced officers and his own insecurities.

Date of release
1956-09-27
TMDB
5.9 / 10 (14)
Runtime
1h 55m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Mervyn LeRoy

Casting

Interesting facts

Toward the Unknown, originally called Flight Test Center and titled Brink of Hell in its UK release, is a 1956 American aviation film about the dawn of supersonic flight filmed on location at Edwards Air Force Base. Starring William Holden, Lloyd Nolan and Virginia Leith, the film features the screen debut of James Garner.

Production

Like some other major stars of the era, Holden decided to try producing films himself, setting up Toluca Productions. In the end, however, he found the added work too much, and Toward the Unknown was the only Toluca film. As originally cast, starring roles had Clark Gable as General Banner and Gregory Peck as Major Bond, but contractual problems required a recasting, with Holden taking on the role of star as well as producer.

James Garner, who made his film debut in the movie, says director Mervyn LeRoy tried to "whip" him. "I jumped right back at him," he said. "He was famous for it, he'd just pick one guy and lord it over him for the whole picture. If he hadn't taken his pills early in the morning, he was nasty."

Toward the Unknown was produced with the full cooperation of the United States Air Force with principal photography taking place over the winter in 1955. As the first film to exploit the USAF's race into space in the X-plane program, the Toward the Unknown's tagline stated: "The screen's first story of man-piloted rocket ships, U.S.A.!" The extensive use of the Edwards AFB facility and its emergency dry lake beds, Rosamond Lake and Rogers Dry Lak…

Right out of the headlines of the day, Toward the Unknown also dealt with the controversial issue of military personnel undergoing torture and brainwashing, with the marketing campaign exploiting the mental anguish the character felt.

Toward the Unknown was a showcase of the contemporary United States Air Force fleet of combat aircraft: Convair C-131 Samaritan, Convair F-102 Delta Dagger, Douglas B-66 Destroyer, Lockheed F-94 Starfire, McDonnell F-101 Voodoo, North American F-86 Sabre, North American F-100 Super Sabre, Republic F-84F Thunderstreak, and Sikorsky H-19D Chickasaw, shown on the ground and in the air.

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

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