|
|
Post by wmcclain on Feb 24, 2020 13:02:39 GMT
Air Force (1943), directed by Howard Hawks. A squadron of B-17s flying from California to Hawaii arrive in the middle of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Lacking armaments, all they can do is scatter and hide at remote airfields. They are directed onwards, deeper into the War, first with a brief stopover with the doomed Marine garrison on Wake Island, then to the Philippines for desperate fighting and repair work. This would be a good companion to They Were Expendable (1945), set at the same time, also in the Philippines. It is a similar story of frantic scrounging for parts and fighting superior forces during those early months when the US was losing the Pacific war. Howard Hawks and John Ford were alike in some ways and you can see it in their films. Hawks is somewhat constrained by the patriotic needs of the movie, but his storytelling talent always comes through. The realism starts strong in this one, drifting into wartime action entertainment in the second half. It's what audiences wanted: Japanese soldiers mowed down, an improbable number of their fighter planes exploded by bomber machine gunners, and mass carnage on their invasion fleet heading for Australia. It's action packed but not as far out as something like Raoul Walsh's Desperate Journey (1942), also from Warner. Wartime entertainment always has some stock characters: Harry Carey as the old army Crew Chief, John Garfield as the malcontent who gets an attitude adjustment. A cute bit with a dog. Everyone speaks in baseball metaphors. Other familiar faces: Gig Young, Arthur Kennedy, Charles Drake. George Tobias plays the same character as in Hawks' Sergeant York (1941), the proud but friendly New Yorker. John Ridgely is the young squadron captain; I had to look up his name but remember seeing his face during this era, notably as Eddie Mars in The Big Sleep (1946). Quite a lot of model work but also good aviation photography. The wikipedia article has a section on historical accuracy. The film has local Japanese snipers and saboteurs in Hawaii. Nothing like that actually happened. Did the filmmakers know it wasn't true at the time? Maybe not, fog of war and truth being the first casualty, etc. Photographed by James Wong Howe with a Franz Waxman score. Available on DVD. It includes a 20 minute Technicolor short: Women at War (1943) about WAC training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. 
|
|
|
|
Post by wmcclain on Feb 24, 2020 13:02:56 GMT
They Were Expendable (1945), directed by John Ford. A mostly-true account of the battles of US Navy PT Boats against the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in the first part of WW2, made shortly after the actual events. All I know about PT Boats I learned from PT 109 (1963) and McHale's Navy. They were light, made of plywood, fast and maneuverable and carried four torpedos. The film doesn't have the mythical power or emotional depth of Ford's other films, but makes up for it in realism and is also a valuable account of those early days when the US was losing the war. It is a fighting retreat, scrounging for fuel and torpedos, with terrible attrition of men and boats until there is no squadron left. The way the boats roar into battle: they are filmed just like cavalry charges. We have a combination of real locations and rear projection, but the location battles are very impressive action. Robert Montgomery is the squadron commander with John Wayne as second in command. Wayne gets to spend time with nurse Donna Reed. Again it reminded me of the cavalry pictures: how eager the young officers are to have her over for a "formal" dinner, how courteous they are to her. After Ford broke a leg Montgomery directed some scenes. He had been a Lt Commander in the Navy, served in both Europe and the Pacific, and had actually commanded a PT Boat. On Blu-ray from Warner Archive. 
|
|
|
|
Post by mattgarth on Feb 24, 2020 14:18:29 GMT
Thanks for this double dose of two favorites, Wm.
Director Ford took sadistic delight in including the military ranks of cast and crew in the credits -- pointedly letting the wartime audience take note of Duke Wayne's lack of service.
Wayne nearly quit the picture while filming the opening scene, because Ford berated him for not saluting properly, and ordering Montgomery to take him aside and instruct the Duke on the correct procedure.
The best performance in AIR FORCE was by journeyman Warner contract player John Ridgely as the 'Mary-Ann' pilot -- his best work in a long career. His death scene is very moving, and his absence for the remainder of the film is missed.
|
|
|
|
Post by wmcclain on Feb 24, 2020 14:27:00 GMT
^ One of James Arness' first roles was as a hulking brute in Ford's Wagon Master (1950). At the end someone said to him: "Wait, you were at Anzio? You should have told Ford. He would have given you lines just for that!" |
|
|
|
Post by mikef6 on Feb 24, 2020 15:51:53 GMT
A ir Force / Howard Hawks. One of the earliest films from Hollywood to show men in combat in WWII, “Air Force” sets the tone and style and many of the tropes for many a film to come. Hawks was encouraged to make the film by five star general Henry “Hap” Arnold, an aviation pioneer and one of the first military pilots. The biggest “name” in the cast was John Garfield who plays one of the gunners on the bomber. John Ridgely in a good performance plays the pilot. They are joined later by a fighter pilot who needs a lift. He is played by James Brown who boomers will remember as Lt. Rip Masters in the Rin-Tin-Tin TV series (1954-1959). The final huge battle set-piece, based on the Battle of the Coral Sea which turned back a Japanese invasion of Australia, occurs in the movie only days after Pearl Harbor and is pictured as an overwhelming American victory so is mostly fiction and deliberate rousing propaganda. Still, knowing that going in, this is an excellent film. FUN FACT: Howard Hawks ran into author William Faulkner on the Warner lot and talked him into writing Ridgely’s death scene. He wrote a good one, too. Reportedly, with the money Hawks paid him, the southern novelist had indoor plumbing installed at his Mississippi home. They Were Expendable / John Ford. An epic telling of the fall of the Philippines in the first months of WWII and of the proving of the worth of the Patrol Torpedo (PT) Boats, small, light but very swift crafts with a crew of about a half dozen men each. Robert Montgomery stars. John Wayne, oddly, takes second billing at this point in his career – but he gets the romantic subplot and gets to “make love” (in a 1940s meaning) to Donna Reed. Wayne’s “demotion” was likely caused by Ford’s open contempt for Wayne’s non-military involvement during the war (as reported by mattgarth , above). Reportedly, though, it was Ford himself who had encouraged The Duke to do his war support stateside. I’ve not looked deeply into this subject. Anybody out there who has? |
|
|
|
Post by wmcclain on Feb 24, 2020 16:46:41 GMT
By the way: I posted these because I just saw Midway (2019), an old-fashioned war film with dialogue to match. CGI battles and they give some credit to the codebreakers whose work was still classified during earlier treatments. My wife got caught up in the battle scenes which doesn't usually happen.
Anyway, it is a late entry in a little genre: the WW2 picture set between Pearl Harbor and Midway, those months when the US was losing the Pacific war.
Besides the above, there was Wake Island (1942) and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), and I'm sure others I'm not remembering.
|
|
|
|
Post by mattgarth on Feb 24, 2020 18:02:18 GMT
Adding BATAAN (1943) with Robert Taylor to the list of films about the war's desperate early days. Also THE SULLIVANS (1944), about the Iowa family who sacrificed their five Navy sons on the same day in the sea battle off Guadalcanal.
Plus two films about Nurses stranded on Bataan:
CRY HAVOC (Army) and SO PROUDLY WE HAIL (Navy) -- both 1943.
|
|
|
|
Post by bravomailer on Feb 25, 2020 17:42:38 GMT
American Guerrilla in the Philippines might fit the bill, though it was made a bit after the war. Many here have already heard that young Bravo lived around the corner from the PT Boat skipper that They Were Expendable is based on - John Bulkeley. He commanded underwater demolitions at Utah Beach. Interesting thing about So Proudly We Hail: it depicts an American suicide bomber.  |
|
|
|
Post by mattgarth on Feb 25, 2020 17:55:54 GMT
That was the first time I realized that a bra is the perfect hiding place for a hand grenade, Bravo.
|
|
|
|
Post by bravomailer on Feb 25, 2020 18:21:50 GMT
That was the first time I realized that a bra is the perfect hiding place for a hand grenade, Bravo. Same with the Japanese soldiers. One grenade in each cup as I recall.
|
|
|
|
Post by politicidal on Feb 25, 2020 19:21:55 GMT
They Were Expendable was pretty damn good. Hadn't seen Air Force yet.
|
|
|
|
Post by vegalyra on Feb 25, 2020 20:26:26 GMT
The posts here name some of my favorite world war 2 films. Some were made in passing, but Air Force is one of my favorites of all time. I realize most of the films made during the war were for propping up American morale as well as doing an important part in getting eligible men to enlist, but I just love that film. The players are all perfectly cast, John Ridgely being one of my favorites. I wish he had been a bigger star, he was really good. I also liked him in Destination Tokyo, another favorite of mine (of course as Eddie Mars in the Big Sleep he was just positively excellent).
They Were Expendable is a great one as well. I find the period between Pearl Harbor and Midway very interesting, when watching the new Midway (mentioned above) film, I didn't realize we had made some nuisance raids on the Marianas Islands. I had to look that up to make sure it was legit, and I thought I had a pretty good working knowledge of WW2 history. You learn something everyday.
|
|
|
|
Post by mattgarth on Feb 25, 2020 20:40:58 GMT
Ridgely re-united one more time with Garfield (after AIR FORCE and DESTINATION TOKYO) in a smaller role as his factory worker pal and landlord in the true docu-drama PRIDE OF THE MARINES (actress Ann Doran played his spouse in that film as well).
|
|
|
|
Post by vegalyra on Feb 26, 2020 17:21:41 GMT
Ridgely re-united one more time with Garfield (after AIR FORCE and DESTINATION TOKYO) in a smaller role as his factory worker pal and landlord in the true docu-drama PRIDE OF THE MARINES (actress Ann Doran played his spouse in that film as well). I'll need to look that one up, I don't think I've seen it. Thanks!
|
|
|
|
Post by mattgarth on Feb 26, 2020 17:27:07 GMT
Ridgely re-united one more time with Garfield (after AIR FORCE and DESTINATION TOKYO) in a smaller role as his factory worker pal and landlord in the true docu-drama PRIDE OF THE MARINES (actress Ann Doran played his spouse in that film as well). I'll need to look that one up, I don't think I've seen it. Thanks! a big favorite to this ex-Marine, Vega (and one of Garfield's best)
|
|
|
|
Post by wmcclain on Feb 26, 2020 18:40:09 GMT
Pride of the Marines (1945), directed by Delmer Daves. Before the War, John Garfield is a confirmed bachelor. After a rocky blind date beginning, he and Eleanor Parker are just starting to warm to each other when Pearl Harbor intervenes. He has a tough time at Guadalcanal and is blinded. He doesn't handle it well. Will he allow the love of a good woman to save him? This is a dramatized bio-pic of Al Schmid, made immediately after the real events. Garfield did extensive prep work and lived with the Schmid family for a while. The wikipedia article has details. The frame is typical Warner wartime entertainment, where everyone is a cute character and the prospective couple is settled in the end. It gets much heavier in the battle scenes and the fighting is intense and nerve-wracking. The hospital section in the second half has a long period of thick self-pity (Garfield is your man for that) and it becomes a message film for a while. The soldiers are worried that the Depression will return after the war and they'll be living on the street. Some cautions on prejudice against Jews and Mexicans, although nothing for the Japanese yet. Garfield lives the role, and Eleanor Parker is, as always, one of the loveliest and most endearing actresses of that era. Warner Archive DVD, available for rent from ClassicFlix. 
|
|
