William Holden was the biggest male star in Hollywood in the mid fifties after a string of hit movies (Stalag 17, Bridges at Toko Ri, Country Girl, Sabrina, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Picnic). At the time many of Tinseltown's big names were setting up their own production companies (Bogart's Santana, Wayne's Batjaq, Kirk Douglas' Bryna); Holden also set up his own. "Toward the Unknown" was Toluca Productions only film and if you sit through it you'll know why.
Turgid dialogue mouthed by miscast actors all seemingly off form. Holden plays a burned out ex POW Korean vet who belongs to the please yourself section of the Air Force so turns up unannounced at top secret Edwards Air Force base looking for a ride. Nobody asks to see his orders, just like real life.
Base Commander is Lloyd Nolan, an actor who may be alright as a country lawyer, but not cutting it as a crack test pilot. Nolan turns Holden down as a test pilot as he thinks he will be unreliable, in spite of employing a histrionic recovering alcoholic played by an over acting Murray Hamilton as his top jock. He also employs a lunatic aide who seems to have wandered in from a different movie. Complicating things is Holden's old flame and current beau of Nolan played by Virginia Leith with all the charisma and acting talent of Barbie's ugly sister. Holden shouldn't worry about not getting the hot ships as Nolan seems to do all the flying himself.
There's lots of irrelevant stock footage of nearly everything in the Air Force inventory and it's amazing that the Air Force and Manufacturers cooperated in the making of the movie as nearly every flight seems to end in a crash Even the aircraft are miscast as we are asked to believe that a failed early fifties light bomber (the Martin XB-51) is a hot new fighter. Unfortunately, it's wings are skinned in wet bedsheets but nobody will believe Holden when he tells them. James Garner makes his movie debut as an ill fated pilot but spends most of the time looking bemused as if wondering if the movies are the right way for a grown man to earn a living. This tripe was written by ex pilot Beirne Lay Jr. who had written the much better "Strategic Air Command" the year before. Respected director Mervyn Le Roy seems to have phoned his work in while Holden spends the movie looking as though he wished he was somewhere else.
Turgid dialogue mouthed by miscast actors all seemingly off form. Holden plays a burned out ex POW Korean vet who belongs to the please yourself section of the Air Force so turns up unannounced at top secret Edwards Air Force base looking for a ride. Nobody asks to see his orders, just like real life.
Base Commander is Lloyd Nolan, an actor who may be alright as a country lawyer, but not cutting it as a crack test pilot. Nolan turns Holden down as a test pilot as he thinks he will be unreliable, in spite of employing a histrionic recovering alcoholic played by an over acting Murray Hamilton as his top jock. He also employs a lunatic aide who seems to have wandered in from a different movie. Complicating things is Holden's old flame and current beau of Nolan played by Virginia Leith with all the charisma and acting talent of Barbie's ugly sister. Holden shouldn't worry about not getting the hot ships as Nolan seems to do all the flying himself.
There's lots of irrelevant stock footage of nearly everything in the Air Force inventory and it's amazing that the Air Force and Manufacturers cooperated in the making of the movie as nearly every flight seems to end in a crash Even the aircraft are miscast as we are asked to believe that a failed early fifties light bomber (the Martin XB-51) is a hot new fighter. Unfortunately, it's wings are skinned in wet bedsheets but nobody will believe Holden when he tells them. James Garner makes his movie debut as an ill fated pilot but spends most of the time looking bemused as if wondering if the movies are the right way for a grown man to earn a living. This tripe was written by ex pilot Beirne Lay Jr. who had written the much better "Strategic Air Command" the year before. Respected director Mervyn Le Roy seems to have phoned his work in while Holden spends the movie looking as though he wished he was somewhere else.