by Glenn Erickson
Bailout at 43,000
Brief Synopsis
Pilots risk their lives to test a new ejector seat for the B-47 bomber.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Francis D. Lyon
Director
John Payne
Maj. Paul Peterson
Karen Steele
Carol Peterson
Paul Kelly
Col. William Hughes
Richard Eyer
Kit Peterson
Constance Ford
Frances Nolan
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Action
Release Date
May
1,
1957
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
P.T.S. Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
United Artists Corp.
Country
United States
Location
El Centro--U.S. Naval Auxiliary Air Station, California, United States; Salton Sea, California, United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the teleplay "Bailout at 43,000 Feet" by Paul Monash on Climax (CBS, 29 Dec 1955).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 18m
Synopsis
When Maj. Paul Peterson is called back into active service by his former commanding officer, Col. William Hughes, he joins a team conducting tests on a downward ejection seat for the B-47 bomber. Although tests have been made utilizing articulated dummies, the time has come to place humans in the seat. The volunteer will freefall through space for thirty-three thousand feet before an automatic timer opens a parachute to return him safely to earth. Paul, married with a young son, is understandably nervous about this assignment and later learns that he has not been chosen for the first test. Instead, a playboy bachelor, Capt. Mike Cavallero, is selected to be the first to go. The night before the test, Mike goes nightclubbing with two women and meets an old friend, Capt. Jack Nolan, and his wife Frances. Jack, who flew with Mike in Korea, tells him that he has been assigned to assist the project. Later that night, Mike goes to the airfield to look at the seat being installed in the plane and admits to Paul, who has stopped by, that he is more than a little scared. The next day, the test experiences trouble when the parachute snaps open too early and there is no sign of life from Mike as the seat falls into the ocean. Later in the hospital, project doctor Maj. Irving Goldman informs Paul and a civilian engineer, Dr. Franz Gruner, that although Mike has a broken neck, he may eventually recover. Hughes decides that the tests will continue and that Lt. Edward Simmons will go next, to be followed by Paul. Meanwhile, Frances visits Paul, his wife Carol and their son Kit and after the two women discuss the problems of being married to pilots, they leave for an evening at the officers' club. Simmons, distrustful of German engineer Gruner, packs his own parachute before the test. During a bingo game at the club, word circulates that Jack has been killed in a B-47 crash. After Paul and Carol attempt to comfort Frances, they return home to find Hughes waiting with the news that Simmons is in the hospital, being operated on for appendicitis. Paul believes that the project is jinxed and is ambivalent about doing the test. However, he is also concerned that Hughes thinks he has gone soft and has lost respect for him. That night while Paul has nightmares, Carol slips out to beg Hughes not to use him for the test, but Hughes is unresponsive. The next day, partly motivated by the fact that Jack was killed because he could not bail out, Paul shows up to find Hughes suiting up to perform the test himself. Paul pleads with Hughes to let him go up as he now feels that he must go through with the test. When Paul ejects, all goes as planned except that he does not spread-eagle his legs as a signal that he is safe and this causes much tension on board the rescue launch. However, after Paul is examined and found to be fine, he states that he simply forgot to make the signal. Back at the base, Paul is greeted by Carol and Kit and, with their blessing, decides to continue in the project.
Director
Francis D. Lyon
Director
Cast
John Payne
Maj. Paul Peterson
Karen Steele
Carol Peterson
Paul Kelly
Col. William Hughes
Richard Eyer
Kit Peterson
Constance Ford
Frances Nolan
Eddie Firestone
Capt. Mike Cavallero
Adam Kennedy
Lt. Edward Simmons
Gregory Gay
Dr. Franz Gruner
Steven Ritch
Maj. Irving Goldman
Richard Crane
Capt. Jack Nolan
Crew
Jerry Bos
Wardrobe
Frank Fox
Assistant Director
George Gittens
Editing
Albert Glasser
Music Composition and Conducting
Hazel W. Hall
Script Supervisor
Frederick Hartsook
Dial Supervisor
Roger Heman
Sound Recording
Vic James
Technical Advisor
Alfred Keggeris
Set Decoration
Fred Lau
Sound Recording
Lionel Lindon
Director of Photography
L. B. Merman
Production Manager
Paul Monash
Writer
Fay Moore
Wardrobe
Howard B. Pine
Producer
Norman Pringle
Makeup Artist
Myrl Stoltz
Hairstylist
Frank Sylos
Art Director
William C. Thomas
Producer
Alvena Tomin
Costumes
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Action
Release Date
May
1,
1957
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
P.T.S. Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
United Artists Corp.
Country
United States
Location
El Centro--U.S. Naval Auxiliary Air Station, California, United States; Salton Sea, California, United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the teleplay "Bailout at 43,000 Feet" by Paul Monash on Climax (CBS, 29 Dec 1955).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 18m
Articles
Bailout at 43,000
Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff popularized the test pilots of the forerunner of NASA, the Air Research and Development branch of the Air Force. In the avionics boom of the 1950s, these fliers routinely risked their lives to help develop new jets. Hollywood showed its patriotism with films like Strategic Air Command (1955) and Toward the Unknown (1956), which assured taxpayers that Uncle Sam's defense money was being well spent. Writer Paul Monash adapted 1957's Bailout at 43,000 from his TV drama starring Charlton Heston and directed by John Frankenheimer. Director Francis D. Lyon's crew was given access to Air Force facilities and aerial footage. The show is unusual in its focus on a specific engineering problem. For the new B-47 bomber, the designers wish to make ejection safe by removing 'emotional' pilots from the equation. The test pilots balk at being guinea pigs for the prototype seats, one of which fires downward out of the fuselage. Their wives worry when a test ends in a fatality. Assignments must be changed after one pilot comes down with appendicitis, and another dies in an unrelated crash. Yet another is distrustful of a German-born engineer. In contrast to the unflappable bravado often depicted in '50s aviation films, '40s star John Payne plays the reluctant leading pilot with a neurotic edge. Young Karen Steele projects strength in her third role as an understanding wife of a military man, and favorite Richard Eyer of Friendly Persuasion (1956) is the adoring son. Richard Crane and Constance Ford play another pilot-spouse couple. Veteran actor Paul Kelly is Payne's commanding officer; he died of a heart attack not long after filming finished. Payne's pilot works through his nightmares and proves to have the Right Stuff. The finale reassures audiences that his misgivings about the ejection seats are unfounded, whereas tests of the real prototypes did indeed severely injure more than one airman.
by Glenn Erickson
by Glenn Erickson
Bailout at 43,000
Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff popularized the test pilots of the forerunner of NASA, the Air Research and Development branch of the Air Force. In the avionics boom of the 1950s, these fliers routinely risked their lives to help develop new jets. Hollywood showed its patriotism with films like Strategic Air Command (1955) and Toward the Unknown (1956), which assured taxpayers that Uncle Sam's defense money was being well spent. Writer Paul Monash adapted 1957's Bailout at 43,000 from his TV drama starring Charlton Heston and directed by John Frankenheimer. Director Francis D. Lyon's crew was given access to Air Force facilities and aerial footage. The show is unusual in its focus on a specific engineering problem. For the new B-47 bomber, the designers wish to make ejection safe by removing 'emotional' pilots from the equation. The test pilots balk at being guinea pigs for the prototype seats, one of which fires downward out of the fuselage. Their wives worry when a test ends in a fatality. Assignments must be changed after one pilot comes down with appendicitis, and another dies in an unrelated crash. Yet another is distrustful of a German-born engineer. In contrast to the unflappable bravado often depicted in '50s aviation films, '40s star John Payne plays the reluctant leading pilot with a neurotic edge. Young Karen Steele projects strength in her third role as an understanding wife of a military man, and favorite Richard Eyer of Friendly Persuasion (1956) is the adoring son. Richard Crane and Constance Ford play another pilot-spouse couple. Veteran actor Paul Kelly is Payne's commanding officer; he died of a heart attack not long after filming finished. Payne's pilot works through his nightmares and proves to have the Right Stuff. The finale reassures audiences that his misgivings about the ejection seats are unfounded, whereas tests of the real prototypes did indeed severely injure more than one airman.
by Glenn Erickson
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
An opening title card states: "The producers express grateful appreciation to the United States Air Force Air Research and Development Command for technical assistance and cooperation in making this picture." As noted in the Variety review, Bailout at 43,000 was "the 87th-and last-film to be made under the Pine-Thomas banner." The the vast majority of the films were produced for Paramount by William C. Thomas and the William H. Pine. Following Pine's death, his son, Howard B. Pine, produced an additional three films under the P.T.S. Productions, Inc. banner. Bailout at 43,000 was also the film film that Thomas produced.
The film was derived from a segment of the CBS Climax anthology television series. The program, which was also entitled "Bailout at 43,000," was written by Paul Monash and directed by John Frankenheimer, was broadcast live from Hollywood on December 29, 1955 and starred Charlton Heston, Richard Boone, Nancy Davis and Lee Marvin.
A Hollywood Reporter production chart of September 28, 1956 lists Richard Boone in the cast after John Payne, but according to a October 1, 1956 Hollywood Reporter news item, Boone had to "bow out" of the film due to another commitment. A October 12, 1956 Hollywood Reporter news item includes Darlene Fields in the cast, but her appearance in the completed film has not been confirmed. Actress Karen Steele was borrowed from Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., to whom she was under personal contract, for the production. The character portrayed by actor Gregory Gay is named "Reinach" in the film's pressbook and in the Variety review, but in the film he is called "Gruner."
The film's pressbook states that the film was shot at the U.S. Naval Auxiliary Air Station at El Centro, CA, and on the grounds of the Beria Corp., a government-subsidized industrial complex engaged in atomic energy tests at Salton Sea, CA. Bailout at 43,000 was actor Paul Kelly's last film. He died at age 53 of a heart attack shortly after finishing this role.
