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I love this movie so much

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

The Worst Film Ever

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Toward the Unknown (1956)In some ways this is fascinating stuff—you get a glimpse of mid-50s American military aeronautics, and a specific mention (and micro-glimpse) of the rocket efforts marking early space technology. William Holden plays a troubled test pilot who leads us through the different planes and testing efforts via his own return and rise through the system. It's not bad.However.You can't quite call this a formula film—maybe a genre film if there is a genre called test pilots in trouble—but there is a canned quality to this whole thing that holds it back unreasonably. There is the woman from his past who loves him but also has an affair going with the general (the likable Lloyd Nolan) on the base (Edwards Air Force Base). There are the competing test pilots (all good actors known mostly for television). It makes for a good group that is forced into a thin plot about rivalry and camaraderie. The really best part of the plot (and the reason I watched the movie at first) is that Holden is a man who was in a Korean War prison camp, where he was abused and tortured and "brainwashed." It's this last thing that was so talked about at the time, and which was used to make some really terrific movies like "The Manchurian Candidate," and I wanted to see where it would go here. Well, a heads up, it goes nowhere. His prison camp experience causes a pivotal scene in the movie on the base, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with brainwashing.Too bad on that.Holden by this point in his career is not the leading man he once was, though this is just five years after his terrific comeback year with "Union Station" and "Sunset Blvd." But he's really good, holding his scenes together with the woman (Virginia Leith) who has the eyes (blue) and lips (red) to pop on the WarnerColor screen, but who can't act very well.Obviously if you like airplanes and the air force, this is a movie to definitely see. Some great footage of test aircraft in flight (real footage from the military). And of course the whole supersonic flying experiments were a big deal at the time. If all of this seems a bore and too historical for a good movie, you're partly right. It's not a great plot or drama. But it's not a terrible movie by any means. Director Mervyn LeRoy, rightfully a legend by now, and cinematographer Harold Rossen, equally a legend, together made sure that it held water and survives it's own flaws very well.

The title makes it sound as if this were some science fiction movie but it's really a celebration of the United States Air Force, circa 1956 -- a kind of enjoyable infomercial. Lots of high-echelon guys in snappy blue uniforms, Ineractional antagonisms, personal demons, technical challenges, and a nice-looking dame thrown in.As for the plot, it could be a recycling of one of the Warner Brothers' frames from the 1930s. The general in charge of flight testing at Edwards Air Force Base is Lloyd Nolan, but it could have been Pat O'Brien. The younger test pilot, anxious to prove himself after being tortured by the North Koreans, is William Holden but it could have been Jimmy Cagney. The pointless comic relief is supplied by the adjutant, Edward Brophy -- I mean L. Q. Jones. The dame is the general's secretary, Virginia Leith, who would have been somebody like Barbara Stanwyck in 1935.Overall, though it lacks originality in the narrative, it's an interesting movie, especially if you like the jet fighters and experimental rocket ships of the mid-50s. There's not much of it because most of the screen time is taken up with the muted competition between Holden and Nolan, both for the first "double-rocket" ride in the X-2, and for the affections of secretary Leith. (Guess who wins her heart?) Virginia Leith is an attractive enough woman and in real life, I imagine, a paragon of probity. The problem is that she can't act. She has the same problem with her voice that Sean Young had. There's nothing much they can do about it but neither has ever uttered a believable line. There's a scene between Leith and Holden, about half-way through, when she chides him for giving up on himself. They snap at each other and she runs away in tears. It's like watching a deliberate display of professional talent infused with boredom on Holden's part and an inability to act at all on Leith's, who leaves her dignity in a crumpled heap on the floor.The director is Mervyn LeRoy, who had been around for a long time. He tries to inject into some of the flight sequences the thrill of being aloft and having shed the surly bonds of earth but somehow it doesn't work, so what we see is a wide-eyed Holden in a big helmet intercut with aerial shots of the Mojave desert, accompanied by music designed to signal awe. LeRoy is sometimes careless too. The frightened Lieutenant, Jones, who tries to do everything by the book to please his general, accompanies Nolan to a departing airplane by more or less strolling after him instead of walking in step, per protocol.In a way, Lloyd Nolan as the general has the most appealing role. It's not nearly as dramatic as Holden's, yet Nolan does at least as good a job, and the character is more human. We can only imagine what Holden went through as a tortured prisoner of war. But we can all more easily identify with Nolan -- a man who is growing older, no longer fit for the rigors of test flying, never been married, in love with a younger woman who is attracted to a younger, more handsome man. A case study in declining potency. He has nothing to look forward to but his allegiance to the Air Force and a dull desk job in Baltimore. Now that's a real tragedy.

I admit I am somewhat biased by the subject matter, as I am very intrigued by the 1950's era of rapid aviation development and flight testing.It seemed we were willing to try anything if it would give us a hand-up on the Russians, similar to the effort of the German war technology in WW2 to stave off the Allied advance. At any rate, the movie is an enjoyable time capsule of 1950's test aircraft and prototypes, especially a rare view of the Martin XB-51 (Gilbert XF-120 in the movie)of which none of the two built survive as they were destroyed in real-life crashes.The story-line is of course clichéd and predictable, though loosely based on actual test pilot Pete Everest. Stars William Holden, with a supporting role by James Garner who makes his motion picture debut. By the way, the movie is not available in the mass market, but I paid $45.00 for an excellent (legal) DVD copy off an internet company from Hollywood. It was worth it, as I hadn't seen the movie for 40 years. There is a website for this movie (search under "Toward the Unknown")that mentions the DVD company, as the name escapes me.

This film rocks! (if you're a aviation buff and even if you're not) Holden gives one of his best performances, and there are numerous well filmed flight sequences featuring some of America's vintage jet aircraft. Vivian Lieth's acting is somewhat wooden, but her husky voice more than makes up for it.