Bombers B-52, starring Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (1957)

Poster for Bombers B-52. The poster says it's Natalie Wood's, "most exciting role!" It's lying.

Natalie Wood and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. make a cute couple in Bombers B-52, even if he is twice her age.

Natalie Wood and Karl Malden as father and daughter in Bombers B-52, 1957.

Natalie Wood’s only movie release of 1957 was Bombers B-52, a movie in which she received top billing, but played a supporting role to the Air Force’s latest long-range bomber. Wood stars along with the always excellent Karl Malden as her father, an Air Force engineer, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., as a flashy pilot. It takes a while for Bombers B-52 to figure out exactly what kind of movie it’s going to be. At first it seems like an elongated sitcom episode, as the plot involves Malden’s character going on a television quiz show and winning $4,000 by answering questions about baseball. (He buys his daughter a beautiful yellow Ford convertible with the winnings.) There’s conflict between Wood and Malden, as she tries to convince him to take a job in the private sector. Then Zimbalist shows up and gets put in charge of the base where Malden works. Malden is not happy about this. Malden and Zimbalist encountered each other in Korea, and Malden thinks Zimbalist is just a glory-seeking hot shot. But Zimbalist keeps Malden from resigning by showing him the new B-52 Stratofortress planes that the base will get. That’s enough to keep Malden happy. But he’s less happy once Zimbalist starts dating Wood. There’s some drama about test flights of the B-52, but it all ends well. Unfortunately, Bombers B-52 just isn’t a very exciting movie, although it does feature some great aerial photography of the B-52. The unintentional comedic highlights of the film are the mid-air refueling scenes, which just made me think of the opening credits for Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, in which the sexual symbolism is played up as a B-52 is refueled to the romantic strains of “Try a Little Tenderness.” The most unintentionally funny line of dialogue in the movie is at the end of the refueling scene, when someone says, “Tanker to receiver-you’ve got it all.” Wink wink, nudge nudge. 

I would guess that Bombers B-52 was not a fun movie for Natalie Wood to make, as her character really doesn’t have much to do. Wood was trying to become a serious actress, and Bombers B-52 did not put any strain on her acting talents. It must have been a letdown for her after making great dramas like Rebel Without a Cause and The Searchers. Wood certainly looks beautiful in Bombers B-52, but she’s just window dressing.

We don’t see enough of the romance between Wood and Zimbalist to really care about it, or be invested in their relationship. And while Efrem Zimbalist certainly looks more than capable of piloting a B-52, he’s a little old to be romancing an 18 or 19 year old Natalie Wood. Zimbalist was 19 years older than Wood! A more age appropriate love interest would have been Tab Hunter, who had already made two movies with Wood, but Hunter turned the role down. 

Zimbalist does a fine job in one of his early movie roles. Zimbalist is most well-known for his television work in the 1950’s, 1960’s, and 1970’s, on the long running series 77 Sunset Strip and The FBI. He was a handsome man, with good hair, a strong jaw, and an air of authority. You’d trust him to pilot a B-52. Zimbalist’s father, Efrem Zimbalist Sr., was a classical violinist, and his mother, Alma Gluck, was a soprano who made several popular records in the 1910’s. Both Efrem Zimbalist Sr. and Jr. lived to be 95 years old. Karl Malden made it to 97 years old, which means that Bombers B-52 starred two of the longest-lived leading actors ever. 

Karl Malden was one of the great film actors, as even in a potboiler like this, he gives every line his complete dedication as an actor. Malden’s rather ordinary looks, and his formidable talent, allowed him the versatility of moving between leading roles and character roles. Malden later starred with Wood in two more movies, 1962’s Gypsy and the 1979 disaster flick Meteor. Malden got along well with Natalie Wood, and Wood biographer Suzanne Finstad writes about an interesting anecdote during the filming of Bombers B-52: “Malden glimpsed the loneliness underneath Natalie’s surface gaiety when he discovered she had never been on a family picnic, and arranged to take her on one. She told him, afterward, that it was one of the happiest days of her life, which Malden found desperately sad.” (Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood, by Suzanne Finstad, p.237) Like many child stars, Natalie really didn’t have much of a childhood, and thus she missed out on a lot of life experiences. 

The screenplay for Bombers B-52 was written by Irving Wallace, who wrote many popular novels, and was also one of the editors for The Book of Lists, which makes him a hero in my eyes, since that was my favorite book when I was 13 years old. Yay for books of random trivia!

Bombers B-52 was directed by Gordon Douglas, who has a lot of “second movies in a series” among his credits. He did 1967’s In Like Flint, the second Flint spy movie with James Coburn, and the second movie in which Sidney Poitier played detective Virgil Tibbs, 1970’s They Call Me Mister Tibbs! He also directed Frank Sinatra in five movies. 

Perhaps the best summation of Bombers B-52 was written at the time it was released in November, 1957, when Time magazine called it a “$1,400,000 want ad for Air Force technicians.” It’s no surprise when at the end of the movie there’s a credit expressing the filmmaker’s thanks towards the Air Force. Without the cooperation of the Air Force, there wouldn’t have been a movie. 

This Property is Condemned, starring Natalie Wood and Robert Redford, directed by Sydney Pollack (1966)

Robert Redford and Natalie Wood make a gorgeous couple in This Property is Condemned, 1966.

Director Sydney Pollack talks things over with stars Robert Redford and Natalie Wood, while Charles Bronson relaxes in the background.

The stunningly beautiful Natalie Wood in This Property is Condemned, 1966.

A Southern accent lets you get away with a lot. If you’re a movie character from the South, you can be as weird and eccentric as you want, and people will just write it off. If you acted the same way, but were from the North, people would instantly think you’re crazy. That thought came to me as I was watching This Property is Condemned, starring Natalie Wood and Robert Redford. It’s based on a one-act play by Tennessee Williams, who virtually trademarked Southern eccentrics. Early on in the movie, Redford’s character has a short speech where he says, “Do you know there was a cat once who fell asleep in the sun and dreamt that he was a man who fell asleep and dreamt he was a cat. When he woke up, he didn’t know if he was a man or a cat.” What the hell does that mean? Because that speech is delivered in Redford’s Southern accent, it sounds vaguely poetic, as though there’s a deeper hidden meaning in that story. Had that same speech been delivered in a Northern accent, I would have quickly come to the conclusion that Redford’s character was a deranged serial killer, and I would have been shouting at the TV, telling Natalie Wood’s character to get out of his room.

This Property is Condemned plows the same fields as much of Williams’ other work, and it’s not one of his major works. As Gore Vidal wrote of Williams in his excellent 1976 essay, “Some Memories of the Glorious Bird and an Earlier Self,” “Tennessee is the sort of writer who does not develop; he simply continues. By the time he was an adolescent he had his themes. Constantly he plays and replays the same small but brilliant set of cards.” (United States: Essays 1952-1992, p.1146) This Property is Condemned is set in a small town in Mississippi during the Great Depression, and it focuses on Alva Starr, (the luscious Natalie Wood) her domineering mother Hazel (Kate Reid) and Alva’s younger sister Willie (Mary Badham). Hazel runs a boarding house, and she’s basically pimping out the beautiful Alva for dates with men in order to make some extra money. Ironically, Kate Reid was only 7 years older than Natalie Wood, which shows the difference between being a leading lady and a character actress. Things get shaken up when handsome stranger Owen Legate (the super handsome Robert Redford) takes a room at the boardinghouse. Legate is in town to hand out pink slips to some of the railroad men, who all seem to also live at the boardinghouse. (Look for the always creepy Robert Blake in a small part as Sidney.) Legate is at first dismissive of the flirtatious Alva, but he eventually realizes his attraction to her. 

Owen and Alva spend a passionate night together after he’s beaten up by some of the angry railroad workers he laid off. (Being a super handsome guy like Robert Redford means that you get the shit kicked out of you a lot on screen. See also: Tom Cruise.) Alva wants to leave her annoying mother and move to a big city, so Owen buys her a train ticket to New Orleans, where he lives. But then he overhears Hazel telling someone about their plans to move to Memphis with a rich older gentleman and angrily confronts Alva and leaves town in a huff. Knowing she’s lost Owen, a drunken Alva confronts her mother, her mother’s sleazy boyfriend J.J. (Charles Bronson) and Mr. Johnson, (John Harding) the rich older gentleman who wants the Starrs to move to Memphis. It’s one of the best scenes in the movie, and Wood delivers an exquisite performance as she demolishes their hypocrisy. Unfortunately, Alva drunkenly demands that J.J. should marry her that night if he really loves her. Her behavior doesn’t really make much sense, as it’s been clear throughout the movie that she despises J.J.’s attempts to flirt with her. Anyway, they get married, spend the night together, and the next morning Alva steals his money and takes a train to New Orleans. Fortunately, she finds Owen again, and it looks like things will end happily for them. The movie seems to go through a tonal shift once we get to New Orleans. It suddenly feels like the 1960’s rather than the 1930’s, as Alva moves into Owen’s apartment and happily waits for him to come home from work. But then Mother shows up and ruins everything. She tells Owen of Alva’s marriage to J.J., Alva runs out into the rain, catches a cold, and dies. 

The acting in This Property is Condemned is superb, as Wood delivers an amazing performance. I suspect that she probably identified with Alva’s situation, as Wood’s real-life mother was basically the stage mother from hell, and closely controlled Wood’s life as a child actress. Wood was enthusiastic about playing the role of Alva, saying it was “probably the closest I’ll ever get to playing Blanche DuBois.” (Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood, by Suzanne Finstad, p.304) Wood is beautiful, sexy, and touching as the hopelessly romantic Alva. Wood’s wardrobe is amazing, and the dresses that Edith Head created for her show off her beauty very well. Wood and Redford make a stunningly attractive screen couple, and their chemistry is obvious. Although the film was not a hit when it was released in August, 1966, Wood was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama, but she lost to Anouk Aimee, who won for her role in A Man and a Woman. 

Wood had previously starred with Robert Redford in 1965’s Inside Daisy Clover, and during the shooting of that film she approached him about pairing with her again in This Property is Condemned. At that point in his career, Redford had done a lot of TV work, but he wasn’t yet a big movie star, as his breakthrough roles came in 1967’s Barefoot in the Park and 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Redford said yes to Wood, and he pushed for his friend Sydney Pollack as director, even though Pollack had only directed one movie. This Property is Condemned was the first movie directed by Pollack that Redford starred in, and they would go on to make seven movies together. I always like Robert Redford’s confidence on screen. Of course, I’d be confident too if I looked like Robert Redford. Redford seems to have that confidence in every role he plays, and it works especially well for Owen’s character. If someone else were playing Owen, he might seem like a real jerk. 

The supporting cast is excellent as well, particularly Mary Badham as Willie. Badham is best known for playing Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird and This Property is Condemned is one of her only other acting roles. Pollack’s direction is very good, and he’s helped out by the legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe, who gets to do several of his trademark long tracking shots from helicopters. Perhaps the most impressive tracking shot is the one as Alva is riding the train to New Orleans. The camera starts outside the train, focusing on Natalie Wood’s face, and then pulling back to reveal the entire train as it crosses a bridge. It’s a beautiful shot.

If you’re a fan of the beautiful and talented Natalie Wood or the handsome and talented Robert Redford, or you just need a Tennessee Williams fix, check out This Property is Condemned.