Load of rubbish!!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Presently, test pilot Humphrey Bogart (as Matthew "Matt" Brennan) is on a dangerous flight, which worries pretty Eleanor Parker (as Joan "Jo" Holloway). She fears Mr. Bogart may crash. We will have to wait to see if he does, when flashbacks end. In the cockpit, Bogart begins his flight past, with 1943... During World War II service, bomber pilot Bogart flies dangerous missions from England to Germany, helping the Allies win the war. On the ground, he romances Parker, who serving as a nurse...After the war, Bogart is hired as chief test pilot for aircraft manufacturer Raymond Massey (as Leland Willis). He re-encounters Parker, who is being romanced by designer Richard Whorf (as Carl Troxell). Bogart eventually takes the jet plane "JA-4" on a dangerous flight, which leads us back to the opening scene. This appears to be a well-crafted story, but it is not presented well. Bogart looks inserted uncomfortably into the stock aviation footage and the romantic triangle never gets off the ground.**** Chain Lightning (2/18/50) Stuart Heisler ~ Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor Parker, Raymond Massey, Richard Whorf

With some minor plot revisions, "Chain Lightning" would just about qualify as a remake of Humphrey Bogart's 1936 film, "China Clipper". In both stories, Bogey's character is a former military pilot who takes on a civilian job as a test pilot for demanding bosses. Raymond Massey portrays the owner of the Willis Aircraft Company, a role performed in the earlier film by Pat O'Brien. Both men are hard driving, ruthless individuals who put work and success above having a personal life, whose ambition test the people around them, including the Bogey character. The minor difference might be in the romantic interest for Bogart; in 'Clipper' there was none, here he's on again, off again with Jo Holloway (Eleanor Parker) in a romance that tests one's patience throughout the film.I don't know when the device was first used, but in this movie, the opening scene serves as the introduction to a flashback narrative that winds up back at the same point later in the film. The bookends are fairly successful in delivering a complete story, but left this viewer wondering how much of it was based in fact. A reference was made to breaking the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager's earlier 1946 flight, and it seems that the story builds on technological advances in the history of military flight building up to the invention of the ejector pod. Bogey's conflicted character is in it for the money right up to the point he hears his buddy's voice recorder message detailing how he lost his life in a failed test of a 'JA-4' experimental craft. Will he or won't he? If it means hurtling back to Earth to be with his one true love Jo, all systems say go.I must say, I was a bit dismayed by Colonel Matt Brennan's (Bogart) post war job prospects. He's shown running his own flight school and charging customers three dollars an hour for the privilege. When a novice crash lands his only plane, it's time to look for more meaningful possibilities. What he's offered at Massey's company turns out to be seven hundred fifty dollars per MONTH! The good old days swung both ways.Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey worked together once before in the 1943 war adventure "Action in the North Atlantic". Interestingly, Bogey was top billed in both films, while Massey's character was his boss in both. Sometimes things just work out that way.As mentioned earlier, the film doesn't elaborate on events portrayed when it comes to accuracy. Obviously the ejector pod was someone's good idea at some point in time, but the way it's presented here would have meant more in a historical context. Even so, this viewer was kept interested enough by events in the film, even if the romantic angle between the principals seemed forced. Perhaps the film makers couldn't decide between Bogey landing his girl the easy way or the hard way.

Humphrey Bogart NEVER took himself too seriously, and LOVED poking fun at any Hollywood types who DID. Mentioning Errol Flynn in Bogie's presence would usually evoke a sneer.Bogie often said of himself "You're looking at a guy who's made MORE bad movies than anyone else in Hollywood"!Yeah, along with the great ones, Bogie made his share of howlers. Which brings us to CHAIN LIGHTNING!In a lot of ways, this film's a REAL stinker, but it's a ton of fun just the same. From an aviation technology standpoint, the film was 10 years ahead of it's time; the mythical JA-3 that Bogie flew had a level of performance that was totally unheard of at the time of the film's release... Alaska to Washington DC nonstop via the North Pole, at almost Mach 2.At the same time, the film gives us an interesting glimpse into some of the engineering problems attendant to supersonic flight that were just being addressed in the period... like the JA-4's escape pod.Some of the stuff presented was just plain WRONG, and the film makers KNEW it. Like Bogie flying thru clouds of meteor dust at 70,000 feet. And like the instrument we catch a quick glimpse of in his cockpit, reading GROUND SPEED... a value which was strictly a mathmatical concept which COULDN'T be directly read at that time.Don't look too closely at ground shots of the JA-3... you might notice the thin steel cable that's connected to the nose wheel. The JA-3 couldn't move on it's own, and to set it in motion that cable had to be pulled by an off camera truck! Just the same... the performances here are just plain FUN!Bogie LOVED playing parodies of "tough guys", and those that he viewed as phony heros, and his character Matt Brennan was a broad, overblown sendup of these guys. "How do you want it Willis... the EASY way, or the HARD way?" Bogie growls at his boss, Raymond Massey, over a radio circuit. Typically laconic phony heroics; I don't see how Bogie managed to keep a straight face delivering that line. I suspect that the oxygen mask he was wearing at the time was hiding a mile wide GRIN as he said it! Bogie's just BEAUTIFUL to watch with his delivery of a dozen trite clichés all through the film!As Bogie's buddy (and fellow scenery chewer) is James Brown, one of Hollywood's unsung hero character actors. Brown was apparently a Warner's contract player who, along with another Bogie movie "Tough Guy" staple, Joe Sawyer, would later make their marks on television in in THE ADVENTURES OF RIN TIN TIN; Brown playing Lt. "Rip" Masters, and Sawyer playing Sgt. O'Hara.Contrasting Bogie's private little joke of a performance was Richard Whorf's role as Carl Troxel, the earnest aeronautical engineer. Intense and serious, he's a perfect counterpoint to the laid back, world weary Matt Brennan.One thing that I noticed... to save money on the production, the producer pulled a slick trick with the sets.If you'll notice, the radio shack / operations room in Alaska is the SAME set later used for the radio room at Washington National Airport; they just shot the same set from two different angles! In any case... Bogie flies the airplanes, and gets the girl by the last scene. A bit corny and old fashioned, but what's not to like?I give it a thumbs up all the way.

Humphrey Bogart sometimes must have been desperate for proper roles and earning his meal ticket, how could we otherwise explain he fills roles like this one ? Decidedly overaged for the physical stress he is exposed to in his bomber- and test pilot roles as well as for the chase for the much to young Red Cross Nurse he is wooing, he moves in really thin air literally in this role. We know he can make it, but it is a real thin layer of substance over this heroic vs. business conflict designing new jet planes. Only for the died-in-the-wool Bogey Fans.