1. Movie was shot on real US Air Force bases and actual base names were used.
2. Only movie about SAC to depict early model B-52B bombers.
3. Karl Malden riding a vintage Vespa.
4. Karl Malden's acting.
5. Natalie Wood's beauty.
re: 1. Castle AFB was a real U.S. Air Force Base in Merced, California. It was a Strategic Air Command base, and a home for B-52s until it's closing in 1995.
re: 2. No idea, maybe so.
re: 3. Malden is riding an industrial style Cushman scooter, not a Vespa. These were once common around large industrial plants, commercial facilities and military bases.
re: 4. Agreed
re: 5. AGREED!
Gus
"It needs more cow-bell"
Glad to see I am not the only one who loves this movie. Regarding #3, Malden is seen on a Cushaman in a few scenes but there is one very short scene in particular where he is on a Vespa. I think it is past the halfway point of the movie and he is returning to base at night. The leg shield says Vespa. I have seen some Cushman built Vespas in the past but this one looks Piaggio built. Great movie! By the way, do you have a wench, I mean wrench.
"Who knows, Mr. Gilbert, what a limit really is." Lincoln Bond, "Toward The Unknown", 1956
It is nice to see B-47's on film as I worked on them while stationed at Lincoln AFB in Nebraska. We were one of the last B-47 bases left before they were all deactivated in 1966.
shareThat's cool. Were you with the 98th BW or the 307th BW? The B-47 scenes in "Bombers B-52" were filmed at March AFB as Castle AFB no longer had B-47's stationed there in 1957. The B-47's in the movie are most likely 22nd BW or 320th BW aircraft. I wish I could have seen one of these beauties fly but I was born after 1966. The B-47 at the Castle Air Museum made the last flight ever of a B-47 in 1986. Thanks for your service to our country.
"Who knows, Mr. Gilbert, what a limit really is." Lincoln Bond, "Toward The Unknown", 1956
Grew up in the 50s and always thought the B-47 was a forgotten plane during the Cold War. Can't remember if it could fly supersonic but it was a fast big bomber and held its own until the BUF came along.
shareActually I like almost all the early Cold War era flicks with planes in them. You get to see C-97s, C-124s, C-119s, C-118s & all the piston engine ones as well as the jets.
sharere: 1. The town outside the gate at Castle AFB is Atwater, Merced is up the road a ways. I was born on the base and lived in Atwater. Dad was a B-52 pilot. It's Merced county so that may be the confusing point.
I grew up in Atwater, as well. My Dad was a B-52 pilot, too. We came in 1952 and left in 1963. I was 6 or 7 when they were filming this movie and I remember all the excitement it created. My Dad piloted one of the B-52s in the movie. I went to Mitchell Elementary for kindergarten and then to St. Anthony's until the 4th grade when I went back to Mitchell until the 7th grade when we were transferred to Loring AFB in Maine. We lived on the corner of 5th and Grove, two blocks away from Mitchell Elementary. My Dad was Norbert "Zim" Zimmer. Perhaps we knew each other?
shareMy dad probably knew your dad. He loaded bombs and worked on the flightline during this movie! They lived in Merced also, I think that was my youngest brother, my olderst was born on March AFB. They are 18 month apart. I was born in '65 dad went to Guam after they came home from Puerto Rico as Vietnam was getting started. If your dad was a pilot in SAC, he probably did some runs from Guam or Thailand or the Philippines in the war.
shareI love the quaintness in that ostensible lead Natalie Wood, is really only a second banana in screen time, to "the 2 men in her life". 🐭
shareTo join join the Air Force ...ended up training on its engines during the Vietnam War....I ended up in Thailand working on the F-4 fighters that escorted them on bombing missions..meanwhile friends were protesting the war back home....I got to see waves of the bombers against the moon heading to Vietnam. ..quite a impressive site to see aircraft in formation of this magnitude...i will never forget it ...it's was years later that I learned that Vietnam had been bombed many times more than all of WW2....I just liked the Aircraft but didn't make the Air Force my career ...but still it was a big event and learning expierance of my life....I met personnel just like the characters in the movie who made it their career.....it was not for me
shareUtapao no doubt. I spent 19 years growing up on SAC bases. Dad was a B-52 pilot. When the draft came knocking in '69 I joined the Navy and ended up as a sonar operator on the P-3 Orion and was deployed to Utapao in '73. Great place.