Josef von Sternberg and Technicolor should have been a formidable combination. But the true auteur behind this jaw-dropping folly was infamous back-seat driver Howard Hughes (who continued tinkering with the film long after Sternberg had left the production). Hence the combination of smirking titillation and breathtaking aerial photography with which he had already overwhelmed audiences twenty years earlier in 'Hell's Angels'.
The youthful Janet Leigh (who disliked Sternberg but later grudgingly acknowledged that he was a better director than she cared to admit at the time) would later reveal her considerable talents as an actress for directors like Welles and Hitchcock. Those weren't exactly the talents that Hughes was interested in revealing; but casting her as a Russian aviator shows a certain enterprise.
The youthful Janet Leigh (who disliked Sternberg but later grudgingly acknowledged that he was a better director than she cared to admit at the time) would later reveal her considerable talents as an actress for directors like Welles and Hitchcock. Those weren't exactly the talents that Hughes was interested in revealing; but casting her as a Russian aviator shows a certain enterprise.
