Main Cast
Sterling Hayden
Rear-Adm. John Madison Hoskins
Alexis Smith
Sue Hoskins
Ben Cooper
Seaman P.J. 'Zuggy' Zugbaum
Dean Jagger
Vice-Adm. Thomas L. Semple
Virginia Grey
Dorothy Buracker
Hayden Rorke
Capt. William Buracker
Douglas Kennedy
Capt. Walter Riley
Louis Jean Heydt
Capt. Walter F. Rodee
Richard Crane
Lt. Johnson
Morris Ankrum
Vice-Adm. Arthur Dewey Struble
User Reviews
CinemaSerf
This is another film that is really let down by it's title. One that suggests more of a swashbuckler - or a romance, at any rate - than a biopic of American Admiral Hoskins (Sterling Hayden) who was a pioneer of the use of jet aircraft from aircraft carriers. As it is, it's an OK depiction of the struggles of the man against the elements, technology, human frailty and government to get his ideas implemented. Hayden is a charm-free actor here, his dedication to his task is laudable, but cheerless and any semblance of romance with wife Sue (a rather prim Alexis Smith) left me cold. It does have oodles of wonderful original aerial photography to augment it, though - and that helps. Sadly, though, this is all as flat as the deck on the "USS Princeton".
