Good concept, poorly executed.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

A Douglas Sirk soap opera based on the William Faulkner novel Pylon (George Zuckerman wrote the screenplay) that's overrated by Leonard Maltin, among others.Robert Stack plays a former World War I flying ace who only finds work now in air shows, flying around pylons racing with other pilots like NASCAR drivers do around racetracks. Dorothy Malone plays his too attractive for "his" own good wife, especially with Rock Hudson around. Jack Carson plays Stack's socially dim-witted, too old to still be attractive, longtime friend and mechanic. The three (four with Stack's and Malone's 10 year old son) barely get by financially as they travel the country, with Stack's stunts providing their only means.Hudson plays a reporter in the town they're currently in who finds a "how the mighty have fallen" story in the tension these three adults exude. Robert Middleton plays Stack's former boss, now competitor, and soon to be partner through circumstances he can't avoid.Interesting, but average. None of the character's are particularly credible, and none of the acting performances are memorable either (though Malone is beautiful, even in black-and-white), save for Carson's Jiggs, if you can believe it.

Within this movie, we see 50s film making, showing it has little concept of time and era. This is Universal International (at the time, big in television) trying to cash in on the popularity of its earlier hit 'Written on the Wind'. Same stars, same Director, same screen writer, same heavy handedness. The use of the wide CinemaScope screen makes this unconvincing soap opera look even emptier. Film makers needed more than wide screens to get people away from their 50s TVs ~ they needed quality screen writers, with believable stories to tell, not just shows that left you wondering why you took the trouble of going out. With so many movies made using stretched material like this during the 50s and on...it was little wonder theaters were closing in big numbers.The shades of morality are admirable, but even the stars tend to look uncomfortable with their unlikable and unconvincing characters. The end monologue needed a performer of deeper conviction than Hudson. Soap specialist Director Douglas Sirk, had a leaden, turgid script to work with, and fails to inject any pace into the overall slow structure. At least with 'Angels' he's free of the influences of 'Mr Gloss'... producer Ross Hunter, known for his glittery but superficial, chick flicks. Composer Frank Skiner tries hard with his score but he too seems uninspired by the situations (at least Universal gave him a credit on this film, for dozens of earlier works he was un-credited). This film also gives capable Director of Photography Irving Glassberg a chance to get away from talking mules and cowboys ~ here, he turns in some fine flying scenes, but even they fail to lift this one off the ground. This is a pity, because within a year he would be dead at only 54.Viewers who grew up with this style of film --or on 50s and 60s TV-- won't expect much more, and will probably be content with this interpretation of Willam Falkner's novel. Those looking for more, beware. The DVD release is however good quality, with a fine B/W transfer.

Though exchanging his usual glossy urban surroundings for a rough open-air environment – dealing as it does with vagrant members of an air show/race (which is perhaps why it was shot in black-and-white) – this typical Sirk effort is particularly redolent of his Teutonic background: powerful (indeed often histrionic), moodily-lit and with performances to match (allowing Rock Hudson one of his finest dramatic showcases, most effective towards the end when he gives his newspaper editor boss a piece of his mind). Incidentally, its three stars – Hudson, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone – had just come off the same director's WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1956); Malone is the woman admired by virtually the entire male cast including her egocentric spouse (ace flyer Stack), his long-suffering mechanic (Jack Carson), hated entrepreneur (Robert Middleton) and, the latest recruit, honest (read alcoholic) reporter Hudson. Also on hand is a young boy, picked on over his doubtful parentage, whom Hudson befriends and offers hospitality to his whole family (eventually tagging along himself after being fired from his job). Malone opens her heart to him one night and he decides to help when Stack has no qualms about his wife ingratiating herself with Middleton for his sake over the acquisition of a new plane (Stack's original vehicle had been destroyed in a crash which also killed Middleton's protégé, Troy Donahue!). After Stack himself perishes in another race and a gloomy luncheon is thrown in his honor, Hudson arranges for Malone and her son to start a new life elsewhere.

Enjoyed this great cast of veteran actors and a very good story about a burned out war pilot, played by Robert Stack, who winds up in a carnival featuring planes flying in races. Stack's sidekick and mechanic is Jack Carson, (Jiggs),"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof",'58, who does everything that Stack desires. Dorothy Malone, is Stacks wife who sort of sky dives in a long white dress and gives all the boys a thrill of their lives in 1958. Rock Hudson,(Burke Devlin),"Darling Lili",'70 is a newspaper reporter who is a drunk and is trying to get a story about this former ace pilot. There is a point in the story which turns me off, it is when Robert Stack needs a new plane and offers his wife to spend the night with Robert Middleton,(Matt Ord),(a real slim ball)"Cattle King",'63 in order to obtain this plane, a so called sexual trade so to speak. Yet he claims he loves her very much. If you like to look back in the past, and like these actors, this is definitely the film to view.