Marquee pull of John Wayne and Robert Ryan in the action market has been teamed with a story of Marine fighter pilots.

This is arguably Ray's least distinguished film, a relatively conventional, anonymous WWII drama made for RKO mogul Howard Hughes.

It is a conventional war film by Nicholas Ray, technically competent in some Technicolor aerial sequences, but whose narrative is somewhat mediocre with the duel between John Wayne and Robert Ryan. [Full review in Spanish]

Director Nicholas Ray stamped his indelible style on many a movie (In a Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar, Rebel Without a Cause, etc.), but this ain't one of them.