Chain Lightning (1950) on Netflix
Wartime bomber pilot Matt Brennan becomes chief test pilot for an experimental jet fighter. He proposes a record flight over the North Pole and meets his old girlfriend, Jo Holloway.
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- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.0/101,792 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Matt Brennan flew B-17 bombers in World War II and now runs a civilian flying school. He is reunited with Major Hinkle, a buddy from his Army Air Force days. The Willis Aircraft Company hires Brennan as chief test pilot for the JA-3, an experimental high-speed jet fighter designed by Carl Troxell, who once flew a bombing mission over Germany with Brennan to check the B-17's performance. Brennan convinces Leland Willis that flying from Nome, Alaska, over the North Pole to Washington, D.C. at high altitude would set a record and impress the government. Troxell works on a safer version of the aircraft, the JA-4. Brennan also meets Jo Holloway, his old girlfriend, who works at the company.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Chain Lightning (1950)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Chain Lightning was based on a story by blacklisted communist writer Lester Cole, who used the pseudonym J. Redmond Prior; the Writers Guild of America officially restored his credit on the film in 1997.
- Chain Lightning was one of Humphrey Bogart's final Warner Bros. films, ending a 20-year association between the actor and the studio.
- Aerial sequence director Paul Mantz had a full-scale JA-3/JA-4 model built for $15,000, using a derelict Bell P-39 Airacobra fuselage reworked by expert lofter Vince Johnson.
- When Chain Lightning premiered at Edwards Air Force Base, where it had been shot, veteran pilots including Chuck Yeager easily spotted its artifice, such as the tow cable visible as the JA-3 is towed down the runway.
