| Air Force | |
|---|---|
1943 Movie Poster |
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| Directed by | Howard Hawks |
| Produced by | Hal B. Wallis Jack Warner (executive producer) |
| Written by | Dudley Nichols |
| Starring | John Garfield John Ridgely Gig Young Harry Carey |
| Music by | Leo F. Forbstein |
| Cinematography | James Wong Howe |
| Editing by | George Amy |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | February 3, 1943 |
| Running time | 124 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3,000,000 (1942)[1] |
Air Force is a 1943 war film directed by Howard Hawks. It starred John Garfield, John Ridgely, Harry Carey, and Gig Young as crew members on a B-17 Flying Fortress named the Mary-Ann. An uncredited William Faulkner wrote the emotional deathbed scene for John Ridgely, the pilot of the bomber. Made in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack, it was one of the first of the patriotic films of World War II, often characterized as a propaganda film.
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[N 1] December 6, 1941, with the United States still at peace, the Mary-Ann, a B-17D bomber and its crew, fly with the rest of their unarmed squadron from Hamilton Field, near San Francisco, to Hickam Field at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. The crew includes a disaffected gunner, Sergeant Winocki (John Garfield), who washed out of flight school at Randolph Field, Texas in 1938 as an aviation cadet after a mid-air collision in which pilot, Flying Cadet Driscoll was killed. Quincannon was the Flight Instructor who requested the board dismiss Winocki. Later, in the Philippines, Major Mallory recalls training Quincannon at Kelly Field, Texas. The navigator and bombadier also washed out of pilot training.
Master Sergeant Robbie White (Harry Carey), the Mary-Ann's crew chief is a long-time veteran in the Army Air Corps, whose son is an officer and pilot. [N 2] Navigator, Lt. Monk Hauser, Jr. (Charles Drake) is the son of famed World War I aviation hero of the Lafayette Escadrille, (Captain) General Monk Hauser, Sr. The pilot, Michael Aloysius "Irish" Quincannon, Sr. (John Ridgely) and co-pilot Bill Williams (Gig Young) complete the crew.
Before the bombers depart Hamilton Field, Quincannon's wife arrives to give him a "good luck" gift, a toy pilot from their infant son, Michael Aloysius Quincannon, Jr. Young Private Chester asks Captain Quincannon to meet his worried mother and tell her it is a standard flight to Hawaii. The Mary-Ann arrives right at the beginning of the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. [N 3] The crew listens to President Franklin D. Roosevelt give his war declaration to Congress. In the aftermath, the beleaguered crew is taxed to the limit, as they are sent on to first Wake Island, then Clark Field in the Philippines with little rest. They take along fighter pilot Lt. Thomas "Tex" Rader (James Brown) and small dog from the Marines on Wake named Tripoli who barks when asked about Mr. Moto.
When they arrive in the Philippines, M/Sgt. "Robbie" White receives the news from Quincannon who was told by the base commander, that his son was killed on the first day trying to lead his squadron into the air. Quincannon gives Robbie his son's effects. [N 4] Soon after, Quincannon volunteers for a solo mission against a Japanese invasion fleet, but the Mary-Ann is attacked by enemy fighters and forced to abort. After the wounded Quincannon orders his men to bail out of the stricken bomber, he blacks out. Winocki checks up on him and manages to guide the bomber in for a belly landing. Having told the dying Quincannon that the Mary-Ann is ready to fly, the crew work feverishly through the night repairing her, as the Japanese close in. They manage to take off just before the airfield is overrun. Private Chester volunteers to fly as a gunner in a two-seat fighter aircraft. When the pilot is killed, Chester bails out of the fighter and is killed in his parachute by a Japanese fighter pilot. Winocki and White in the Mary Ann, shoot down the Japanese aircraft. After the Japanese pilot emerges from his burning aircraft, an angry Winocki kills the pilot for murdering the defenseless Chester.
As the Mary-Ann heads for the safety of Australia, with Tex as a reluctant bomber pilot and a wounded Williams as co-pilot, they spot a powerful Japanese fleet below. The crew radios the information to all nearby airbases and aircraft carriers, then lead the attack when reinforcements arrive. [N 5] As the B-17 lands in Australia, President Franklin Roosevelt is heard giving a patriotic speech. [N 6]
As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):[2]
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| John Ridgely | Captain Michael Aloysius "Irish" Quincannon, Sr., Pilot |
| Gig Young | Lt. William Williams, Co-Pilot |
| Arthur Kennedy | Lt. Thomas C. McMartin, Bombardier |
| Charles Drake | Lt. Monk Hauser, Jr., Navigator |
| Harry Carey | Master Sergeant Robert "Robbie" White, Crew Chief |
| George Tobias | Corporal Weinberg, Assistant Crew Chief |
| Ward Wood | Corporal "Minnesota" Peterson, Radio Operator |
| Ray Montgomery | Private Chester, Assistant Radio Operator |
| John Garfield | Sergeant Joe Winocki, Aerial Gunner |
| James Brown | Lt. Thomas "Tex" Rader, Pursuit Pilot - (Passenger) |
| Stanley Ridges | Major Mallory - Clark Field |
| Willard Robertson | Colonel at Hickam Field |
| Moroni Olsen | Colonel Blake - Commanding Officer at Manila |
| Edward Brophy (as Edward S. Brody) | Sergeant J.J. Callahan, USMC |
| Richard Lane | Major W.G. Roberts |
| Bill Crago | Pilot P.T. Moran at Manila |
| Faye Emerson | Susan McMartin - Tommy's Sister |
| Addison Richards | Major Daniels |
| James Flavin | Major A.M. Bagley |
Director Howard Hawks credited the concept of the film to Lt. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Commanding General of the Army Air Forces, based on the experiences of a flight of B-17s that left Hamilton Field, California, on the night of December 6, 1941, and literally flew into the war the next morning at Pearl Harbor. Executive producer Jack Warner was adamant that the film be ready for release by December 7, 1942, the first anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. To that end, miniatures for battle sequences were filmed in May and June 1942, before completion of the script and storyline.[1]
Although pre-production work had already taken place, the official start of the production on May 18, 1942 was tied to the War Department approving the script.[1] Development of the film was concurrent with script-writing by Dudley Nichols, with some characters based on Air Corps personnel Hawks met while traveling to Washington, D.C. to confer with Arnold and the War Department Motion Picture Board of Review.[1] Nichols's script, submitted June 15, was 207 pages in length (twice that of the normal feature-length film), had its initial 55 pages devoted to "character development," and was not finished.[3]
Principal photography consisting of aerial shots and exteriors took place at Drew Army Air Field, Florida, MacDill Field, Florida; Randolph Field, Texas; and Santa Monica Bay, California, the latter for water scenes and miniatures.[4] Shooting began June 18, 1942, using a rented mock-up of a B-17 interior, in which the 10 principal characters performed for a month. The company then moved by train to Drew Army Air Field, Florida, at the end of July, to spend the next month shooting aerial sequences coordinated by Paul Mantz, chief pilot and aerial technical coordinator [N 7] for the production.[5] Drew was selected because of fears that use of aircraft marked as Japanese might cause panic on the West Coast.[6]
At the end of August, Hawks returned to Hollywood and engaged William Faulkner to rewrite two scenes, including the death of the Mary-Ann's pilot. By then, the film, scheduled to be completed by September 17, was three weeks behind schedule and only half completed. Production featured a celebrated clash between producer Hall Wallis and Hawks over the latter's constant changing of dialogue as scenes were shot. Hawks was briefly replaced on October 4 by Vincent Sherman, but returned from "illness" on October 10 to take back primary direction. Sherman remained as second unit director to assist with completion of the picture, which wrapped on October 26, 1942, failing to shoot 43 pages of script and 33 days over schedule, too late to meet its December 7 release date.[1][7]
Wallis wrote that AAF Captains Sam P. Triffy and Hewett T. Wheless were technical advisors to the film, and that Triffy in particular made significant contributions to storyline, dialogue and sets.[8] "Shorty" Wheless had previously been a B-17 aircraft commander in the Philippines with the 19th Bomb Group and had been one of the survivors evacuated to Australia in December 1941. He was at Randolph Field, Texas, in the process of appearing as himself in the Academy Award-winning short film Beyond the Line of Duty when he assisted on Air Force.[N 8]
The US Army Air Forces provided the aircraft that appear in the film:
The actual Mary-Ann was reported "lost in the Pacific" shortly after the production wrapped, according to information attributed to the production's technical advisor, but in actuality none of the early model Fortresses served in combat with the AAF. Another claim, attributed to a newspaper article, was that "the real Mary Ann" went on tour to promote the film, then was assigned first to Hobbs Army Air Field, New Mexico, then to Amarillo Army Air Field, where it was assigned to a ground school. Two B-17B aircraft most likely to have played the part of Mary Ann, army serial numbers 38-584 and 39-10, were reclassified as instructional airframes in late 1943, and scrapped in January 1946. [N 9][10]
The basic premise of the film, that a flight of B-17s flying to reinforce the defense of the Philippines flies into the attack on Pearl Harbor, reflects actual events. From that point on, however, all of the incidents are fictitious. No B-17 reinforcements reached the Philippines, the survivors of those already based there retreated to Australia less than two weeks after the war began, and the major mission depicted at the film's climax most closely resembles the Battle of the Coral Sea five months later. Miniature shooting for its battle scenes was filmed in May and June 1942, concurrent but probably coincidental with Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway.
Anti-Japanese propaganda in the film included scenes in which the crew is forced to land on Maui Island and is shot at by "local Japanese," and the assertion by the Hickam Field commander that vegetable trucks knocked off the tails of parked Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters as the attack began. As detailed in Walter Lord's book, Day of Infamy, later investigations proved no Japanese-American was involved in any sabotage during the Pearl Harbor attack.
Critical acclaim followed the film's premiere as it echoed some of the emotional issues that underlied the American public psyche at the time including fears of Japanese Americans. Reviewers commented that this was a prime example of Howard Hawk's abilities; "Air Force is a model of fresh, energetic, studio-era filmmaking."[11] In naming it one of the "Ten Best Films of 1943," Bosley Crowther of the The New York Times characterized the film as "...continuously fascinating, frequently thrilling and occasionally exalting..."[12] When seen in a modern perspective, the emotional aspects of the film seem out-of-proportion and although it has been wrongly dismissed as a piece of wartime propaganda, it still represents a classic war film that can be considered a historical document.[13]
The film placed third (behind The Ox-Bow Incident and Watch on the Rhine) as the best film of 1943 by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.
When initially released, Air Force was one of the top three films in commercial revenue in 1943.
Air Force editor George Amy won an Oscar in the 1944 Academy Awards in the category of Best Film Editing, defeating Casablanca, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Five Graves to Cairo, and The Song of Bernadette. The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White and Best Effects, Special Effects and Best Writing, Original Screenplay. Elmer Dyer, James Wong Howe and Charles Marshall were nominated for an Academy Award in the Cinematography - Black and White division.
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