For his first film as producer, William Holden wisely took a back seat to the planes being tested at Edwards Air Force Base, including the Martin XB-51, the TF-86 and the Bell X-2 rocket research airplane. The spectacular footage, some from actual test flights, almost upstages the story about a Korean War veteran (Holden) who cracked in a POW camp and now has to fight for the chance to join the flight-testing program. Holden actually trained to fly experimental planes at Edwards, the film's principal location. And his restrained performance, under Mervyn LeRoy's direction, marks one of the screen's first sympathetic treatments of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder years before the condition had even been named. Authenticity was a major issue on this film, which used X-2 pilots Capt. Ivan "Kinch" Kincheloe and Capt. Milburn "Mel" Apt as technical advisors. It even took its title from the motto of the Flight Test Center at Edwards. Holden also surrounds himself with a strong cast, including Lloyd Nolan and Murray Hamilton as those opposed to his flying, Charles McGraw as one of his few allies and James Garner, filming the first feature in which he received billing (his second film, the same year's The Girl He Left Behind was actually released a week earlier).

By Frank Miller