Aviation Flicks on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) 7/24/2007

[ToughOmbre]

If you got nothing to do today and you get TCM, there are some great movies to watch.

6:30am Bombardier (1943)
8:30am Devil Dogs Of The Air (1935)
10:00am Fighter Squadron 1948
12:00pm Dive Bomber (1941)
2:15pm Dawn Patrol, The (1938
4:00pm Command Decision 1948
6:00pm Flying Leathernecks (1951)
8:00pm Strategic Air Command (1955)
10:00pm Flying Tigers (1942)
12:00am Air Force (1943)
2:30am Captains Of The Clouds (1942)
4:30am Wings Of The Navy (1939)

[Wildcat]

Some great movies there!

[renrich]

Interesting you would post that as I just turned on TCM and "Flying Leathernecks" is on. I understand that Robert Ryan and John Wayne detested one another. Ryan was a flaming lib and of course Wayne was a right winger. I never liked Ryan even before I read about his politics. He always seemed slimy to me.

[ToughOmbre]

Originally Posted by renrich

Interesting you would post that as I just turned on TCM and "Flying Leathernecks" is on. I understand that Robert Ryan and John Wayne detested one another. Ryan was a flaming lib and of course Wayne was a right winger. I never liked Ryan even before I read about his politics. He always seemed slimy to me.

And his character in "The Dirty Dozen" made me dislike him even more.

[renrich]

I did not like him in "The Wild Bunch" either or "Bad Day At Black Rock" Another word I would use to describe him is whiny.

[davparlr]

I just made the last three. The last one Wings of the Navy really struck home, being based in my hometown of Pensacola. Some of things that struck me most was the time period, circa 1939. My parents had been married only a few years then. In the distance, you could make out the lighthouse where my mother's family often picniced, and my father was in construction and worked on the seaplane ramps shown in the movie. We lived about three miles from the lighthouse.

I loved seeing the old planes and trying to identify 1) what kind of aircraft they were, and 2) what kind of aircraft they were pretending to be. In Captains Of The Clouds, I got a big kick out of seeing a Hurricane painted as a Bf-109. Later films usually had P-51 playing Bf-109s. Also, the Bf-109 intercepted the bombers West of England. Some feat! Air Force was a good wartime flick that had little to do with reality although the aircraft portrayed was an actual aircraft. The helter skelter of the ground fighting I thought was pretty good with a lot of chaos going on. Unlike the movie, airborne success against the Japanese navy was well past the immediate surrender of the Philippines, but it was meant to help morale. The media now works to defeat our effort. What a terrible change.

I would like to have the whole collection.

[ToughOmbre]

Loved "Air Force". But the most unusual scene for me was when the "Mary Ann" landed in Hawaii and the crew was fired on by what they described as snipers. My guess was that back in 1942 the movie makers were making a point about Japanese sabatours that supposedly were on the island. Still a great wartime movie with rare footage of the "Shark Tail" B-17s.

[pbfoot]

Originally Posted by davparlr

I just made the last three. The last one Wings of the Navy really struck home, being based in my hometown of Pensacola. Some of things that struck me most was the time period, circa 1939. My parents had been married only a few years then. In the distance, you could make out the lighthouse where my mother's family often picniced, and my father was in construction and worked on the seaplane ramps shown in the movie. We lived about three miles from the lighthouse.

I loved seeing the old planes and trying to identify 1) what kind of aircraft they were, and 2) what kind of aircraft they were pretending to be. In Captains Of The Clouds, I got a big kick out of seeing a Hurricane painted as a Bf-109. Later films usually had P-51 playing Bf-109s. Also, the Bf-109 intercepted the bombers West of England. Some feat! Air Force was a good wartime flick that had little to do with reality although the aircraft portrayed was an actual aircraft. The helter skelter of the ground fighting I thought was pretty good with a lot of chaos going on. Unlike the movie, airborne success against the Japanese navy was well past the immediate surrender of the Philippines, but it was meant to help morale. The media now works to defeat our effort. What a terrible change.

I would like to have the whole collection.

I met one of the guys that flew in Captains of the Clouds. In one part they do a fly past of all the training types over top the camera position , the Fleet Finch didn't make the flypast as they came in to low intentionally and the camera guys all ducked so they were not captured on film

[davparlr]

Originally Posted by pbfoot

I met one of the guys that flew in Captains of the Clouds. In one part they do a fly past of all the training types over top the camera position , the Fleet Finch didn't make the flypast as they came in to low intentionally and the camera guys all ducked so they were not captured on film

Quite often you see some really good flying in these old flicks, fewer rules, I guess. Thanks for the interesting info.

[renrich]

There were some excellent shots of Corsairs in "Flying Leathernecks" and one piece of combat film showed a Corsair diving with dive brakes extended(main gear)