CHAIN LIGHTNING

US, 1950, 94 minutes, Black and white.
Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor Parker, Raymond Massey, Richard Whorf, James Brown, Roy Roberts, Morris Ankrum.
Directed by Stuart Heisler.

Chain Lightning is a very conventional Humphrey Bogart vehicle - a picture of the development of jets from World War Two to 1950. He is not always persuasive as a test pilot. Eleanor Parker is long-sufferingly attractive as his eventual wife. There is a strong supporting cast including Raymond Massey. Direction is by Stuart Heisler, director of many thrillers in the '40s and '50s. There is discussion about Chuck Yeager, the hero played by Sam Sheppard who had The Right Stuff.

1. Audience interest in aviation and its history? Planes? The development of jets? The breaking of the sound barrier? The repercussions for commercial travel? For warfare?

2. Warner Bros. production, black and white photography, the cast, Bogart vehicle? Aerial photography?

3. The war footage and the background of World War Two? The test pilot sequences? The blend with domestic drama? Musical score?

4. The development of aviation in the 20th. century, the developments during war, manoeuvrability etc.? The types of planes, the missions? Battles? The repercussions for the fighters, the gunners? The development of the jets? Breaking of the sound barrier? Speed, height? Development of techniques, engines, design of planes? The commercialisation? The opening up of new routes e.g. over the North Pole? A history of aviation to 1950?

5. Structure of the film: the opening with the crisis, memories, audience expectation? Success of the mission? Success of relationships?

6. The war, the dramatisation of the missions? Matt Brennan and Carl and their encounters, tensions? Repercussions for later? The raids and the visuals of the bombs dropping, the planes, the aerial attacks? The end of the mission, the farewell, the singing? The encounter with Jo? The build-up to the wedding. its impossibility? Matt abandoning her? The tone for further developments?

7. The careers of fighter pilots after the war: flying circuses? Training schools - and the girl crashing the only plane? Possibilities in civil aviation? Matt attracted. accepting? Getting the feel of the plane, success and developments? Carl and rivalry? Jo and her work - emotional response, meeting her again, telling her of the letters he never posted? Tension between the two? Love and stubbornness? Willis and his persuasion, the Air Force? ideas? The flight over the Pole? The achievement? The suspenseful landing? Carl's death?

8. Willis and the developments of civil aviation, workers, ideas, Matt and his enlistment, the Air Force? The accident and the crushing of his legs? His push and the flight over the Pole? Successful American businessman?

9. Jo as attractive heroine, war, preparations for marriage, hurt, friendship with Carl, her job, work, encounters with Matt, his success, the final reconciliation?

10. Carl and the war, his efforts, clash with Matt, his style, working for Willis, enlisting -Matt, the attacks, his testing the plane and his death?

11. The Air Force and its backing, picture of civil aviation, the repercussions for commercial flights? The background to Chuck Yeager and the breaking of the sound barrier in the late '40s - The Right Stuff?

12. This picture of Americans in the '40s and '50s and the tradition of The Right Stuff?