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. |
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.
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