In this unconvincing combination of domestic melodrama and high-flying flag-waving, James Stewart plays a baseball player-turned-bomber pilot, with June Allyson as his wife. Paramount's biggest money-spinner of 1955, the film is most effective during the thrilling aerial sequences, which were skilfully shot by cinematographers William Daniels and Tom Tutwiler - although the crash-landing on Greenland is also impressively staged. Director Anthony Mann seems more at home with the male-bonding between Stewart and his fellow trainee pilots, but Allyson still makes an impact in a role less saccharin than usual.

Air Force reservist Lt. Col. Robert "Dutch" Holland is recalled into active duty at the peak of his professional baseball career.