Chain Lightning (1950) **

Release Date: February 25, 1950

Running Time: 94 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor Parker, Raymond Massey

Directed By: Stuart Heisler

Chain Lightning is a prime example of a film with not enough story stretching things out to meet a runtime. The inevitable result is a film that drags for large periods of time and few scenes to liven things up. Further dampening things is a total lack of chemistry between the two leads. Humphrey Bogart and Eleanor Parker are not a good match and scenes meant to instill an emotional response in the audience fall flat as we feel nothing at all. Scenes involving the test pilot flights liven it up a little but everything comes crashing down when the drama is more earthbound.

Lt. Colonel Matt Brennan (Humphrey Bogart) was a wartime pilot in Europe during the war. On the ground he has a girl, Jo (Eleanor Parker) he wants to marry but is unable to secure the proper permissions when his commanding officer is unavailable shortly before Matt is to ship out to America. While in America, he stops corresponding with Jo, losing contact with her. The war ends and he finds himself wandering aimlessly from job to job until he is offered a position as a test pilot working for the Willis Aircraft Company as the chief test pilot for an experimental high speed jet fighter the JA-3 designed by Carl Troxell (Richard Whorf), a man he knew during the war. Matt’s old flame, Jo, is also there working as  Willis’s (Raymond Massey) secretary.

The JA-3’s tests go well and Willis has an idea to show it off by flying it from Los Angelos to Honolulu. Matt has other ideas, thinking that with some modifications the JA-3 could set out from Nome, Alaska, fly over the North Pole and land in Washington D.C., a trip over double the original plan. The trip will only be possible with modifications to the fuel tanks and the addition of detachable rockets to get the plane to 90,000 feet where it will meet less wind resistance and thus save fuel. Carl is against the flight, though, wanting to push his new plane, the JA-4 that he feels will be ready and superior to the JA-3.

When this film is focusing of flight sequences it is cruising, taught and engaging. The scenes, especially the flight over the North Pole, are exciting and well staged. Some of the effects are badly dated but that is more a sign of the times then poor production values. If more of the film took place in the air this would be a better picture. But alas there is way too much emphasis placed elsewhere.

The relationship between Matt and Jo is given quite a bit of screen time. Quite simply it doesn’t work. There is no heat between the two actors. When Matt finally gets to kiss Jo it is flat and not exciting. We see two actors playing a scene rather than two people deeply in love. When the two of them are together neither of them seems like they want to be there. The writing does them no favors either.

The pacing is glacial most of the time, livening up only during those flight scenes. This makes for an uneven film that mainly struggles because it has too little story for a feature film. It needed to be either tightened up or give the actors more story to work with. As it stands it is just two slow to hold interest throughout.