Chain Lightning is a 1950 film directed by Stuart Heisler.
The opening scene shows a pilot named Matt Brennan (Humphrey Bogart) who is testing a new jet fighter. He defies orders and goes back up for another test.
Cut back to 1943, and Brennan is a B-17 pilot leading bombing missions over Germany. An aircraft engineer named Carl Troxell accompanies Brennan on a mission, and between the two of them they watch an experimental German jet plane run rings around the entire Allied air fleet. Brennan and Troxell barely make it back alive. Brennan is promptly ordered back to the U.S. He tries to marry his girlfriend Jo Holloway (Eleanor Parker), but there isn't time.
Cut forward several years, and Matt has been reduced to barely scraping a living giving flying lessons. Carl looks him up, and recruits him to test a new experimental jet fighter being built by businessman Leland Willis. Matt accepts, goes to a meeting with Willis, and also meets Jo, who is now Willis's secretary.
Although the film was released in 1950, Warner Bros. included it in the package of pre-1950 films sold to Associated Artists Productions in 1956, to allow the company to own all of Bogart's WB films. After subsequently being owned by United Artists, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Turner Entertainment, the film is back in WB hands after its 1996 acquisition of Turner.
Tropes:
- Ace Pilot: Matt, who apparently is the best pilot alive. Carl recruits him specifically because if Matt flies the JA-3, General Hewitt will sign off on the military acquiring the plane. Matt then makes a difficult flight from Nome to the North Pole to Washington, running out of gas but still making the landing.
- The Big Damn Kiss: A big passionate kiss between Matt and Jo closes the movie.
- Coming in Hot: Matt runs out of gas before he makes it to Washington and has to come in on a glide. The terrified air traffic control men send out a whole emergency crew, but Matt lands safely.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Leland Willis, who is not strictly criminal, but definitely sleazy. Carl Troxell has designed an improvement on the JA-3, the JA-4, which among other things has an escape mechanism that the JA-3 lacks. Willis is keeping the JA-4 a secret, because he wants to sell the military a bunch of JA-3s before he can then sell them the upgrade and make money twice.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Years after being a war hero, Matt has been reduced to giving flying lessons for $3 a pop. And when his student smashes up his only plane, he can't even do that, so he's pretty happy when Carl comes with an offer of a job.
- Flashback: An extended flashback set in 1943 establishes the relationships between the characters and the frustrated romance between Matt and Jo.
- A Glass in the Hand: Matt is holding a drink when Ed plays him the recording of Carl's last flight and crash. The glass shatters in Matt's hand before he screams at Ed to Get Out!.
- How We Got Here: The film starts with the climax, as Matt is going on his death-defying test. Then it skips back to 1943 and then 1950 as the story plays out.
- Love Triangle: Between Matt, Jo, and Carl, although it's very obvious that Jo is really in love with Matt.
- Nose Art: In the war, Matt flies a B-17 bomber that has been christened the "Naughty Nellie". There's a cheesecake photo of a woman in a swimsuit that Matt touches before boarding his plane.
- Romantic False Lead: And Carl seems to know it himself, being compelled to hire Matt in part to apparently see if Jo can get past her feelings for Matt. (She can't.)
- Technology Porn: This film is obviously meant in large part to show off cool flying technology, with jets zipping around, pilots in experimental flight suits, and lots of talk about power plants and pitot tubes and such.
- Visual Title Drop: Matt sees chain lightning as he flies through a storm on his experimental flight.
- Wet Blanket Wife: Jo, who's always telling Matt not to do stuff, like when she tries to stop him going on the dangerous test flight (he makes it) or when she races to the airport after finding out he's going to do the JA-4 test (he pulls that off too).
