Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

utgard14 After World War II is over, bomber pilot Humphrey Bogart becomes a test pilot who flies the jet planes Raymond Massey's company builds. There's also a bland romance with Eleanor Parker. It's Bogart's first movie released in the 1950s, a decade he sadly would not survive. Bogie does fine but, truth be told, he's too old for the part. Richard Whorf plays his romantic rival. You'll forget him as soon as the movie ends. Eleanor Parker does what she can with her part as "the prize." Raymond Massey is solid as always. James Brown is the clichéd country bumpkin pilot. The plane stuff is interesting, even exciting in spots, but the story is so dull and put together in as workmanlike a manner as possible. When you chip away the advanced technology, you're basically left with one of those 1930s movies about the perils of flight. Only those were usually more fun than this. Not something I'd recommend unless you're an aviation buff or a Bogart completist.

classicsoncall 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.

skallisjr I first saw this in a theater when it first came out. I was 13 at the time, and knew nothing about piloting an aircraft. So I thought it was pretty keen. The next time I saw it, I was 49 years old and owned an aircraft. What a difference the years make! The story is simple: a pilot makes an epic flight in an experimental jet and sets a record.Spoilers ahead: One movie critic said that the flying footage was "uninspired." How charitable! They were awful! The shots of Bogie were all the same, a head shot in pilot gear, with only slightly more animation than a statue. All the views of him piloting use that same shot.As he flies the jet through the upper stratosphere, he encounters some sparklings outside the cockpit. He radios that he's flying through "meteor dust," with all the animation of pointing out that below and to the right was a famous landmark. And if the "meteor dust" was that prevalent, wouldn't he be concerned about what it might do to his engine? Understand: I like Bogart films. But this one would have been better if they'd cut the aviation sequences out.

Nazi_Fighter_David In 1950, jet planes were a relatively recent phenomenon and their emergence offered new possibilities for the long-defunct test-pilot genre of film… In "Chain Lightning," Bogart is a World War H bomber pilot hired as a test-pilot who, after the death of his designer friend (Richard Whorf), successfully tries out a newly designed ejection cockpit… However, there is as little value in a film in which a line like "JA-3 to Fort George. I am fifty miles North of you—ooooops, I just passed you!" is fairly commonplace… Eleanor Parker offers the only creative acting in the role of Raymond Massey's secretary and Bogart's love interest