I should probably mention The Hunters

I see that for those of us with FXM, they're running The Hunters tomorrow morning (Sept. 26) at 9:45 AM and then again on Thursday at 7:50 AM. The movie doesn't seem to be on DVD, but for those of you who can do streaming, Amazon has it.

Robert Mitchum plays Maj. Saville, a fighter pilot who has been recalled to active duty during the Korean War. On his way to Korea through Tokyo, he meets Lt. Abbott (Lee Phillips), who is going to be serving under him in Korea. He also meets Mrs. Abbott (May Britt), and finds that their relationship is a bit strained because of his mousy personality. As you can probably guess, Maj. Saville and Mrs. Abbott start to develop feelings for each other which is going to cause a strain on the major's professional relationship with his subordinate.

When they get to Korea, they're going to find the third member of their squadron, hot-shot pilot Lt. Pell (Robert Wagner). All of the American pilots are worried about one particular pilot, a Chinese guy nicknamed Casey Jones (remember, Communist China took part in the Korean war on the North Koreans' side). This particular pilot is such an ace that the Americans all want o be the guy to take him down, but of course being a fighter pilot is risky business.

Sure enough, Lt. Abbott eventually gets shot down. And then Maj. Saville decides he's going to ditch his plane to rescue Abbott. Pell offers cover for the two to keep the Communists from strafing them to death, but Pell too gets shot down. The three men have to make a difficult overland journey south back to safety.

The Hunters is entertaining enough, although it's a fairly standard plot, and the trek back to safety really requires you to suspend disbelief. May Britt was just the latest in a long line of glamorous European actreesses brought over to Hollywood to try to be the next big thing. Britt didn't have a particularly noteworthy career, but she wasn't as bad as somelone like Bella Darvi. Airplane buffs will probably also enjoy The Hunters for the aerial footage, although once the planes get shot down there won't be as much to enjoy.

Fox, I think, would do well to put out a low-priced box set of either Mitchum at Fox movies, or Robert Wagner (since he did a lot more) and include this one. It's not going to be remembered as an all-time great, but it doesn't deserve to be forgotten, either.