FLYING FORTRESS (1942)

Weak propaganda film with a cliched storyline: rich playboy wrecks people's lives but redeems himself by becoming a war hero. Like other films of its era which were shot before the U.S. officially entered the war, the hero has to get into the fighting through a back door, in this case, via the Royal Canadian Air Force. The playboy, Richard Greene, is an plane enthusiast, and the film begins with a drunken Greene, flying a small plane with his hired pilot in the back seat, causing an accident which kills a passenger. The pilot, who has the clever nickname "Sky" (Donald Stewart), is legally considered at fault since the flight was his responsibility, and he loses his license. His reporter sister, Carla Lehmann, decides to get the goods on Greene and begins dating him under false pretenses, then actually falls in love with him, but is rejected when Greene learns her real identity. Next, in a rather unmotivated move, Greene joins up to ferry American B-17's (the Fortresses of the title) over to England for the war effort. Stewart happens to be his boss and when they wind up overseas, who should they run into but Lehmann, who is still in love with Greene. After experiencing an air raid and feeling helpless, the two men join the RCAF and the film climaxes with a bombing raid over Berlin in which Greene rather improbably saves the day by climbing out on the wing of the plane to extinguish a fire.

Actually, the film had potential, but editing has made hash out of the plotline and characters; Halliwell lists the film with a running time of 108 minutes in Great Britain, but here it was trimmed to 68 (to serve as a second feature, no doubt) so important plot details and character motivations have vanished. Greene, most famous as the TV Robin Hood of the late 50's, is handsome and does the B-movie hero thing fairly well; the other supporting players are just adequate, including Betty Stockfeld as a titled "Lady" slumming amongst the hoi polloi to do her thing for the war and providing some romance for sidekick Stewart. Basil Radford, a delightful supporting actor in films like THE LADY VANISHES and NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH, has little to do in a small role but still manages to outshine everyone else. The flag-waving finale, with the words of Churchill intoned over newsreel footage, ignores the outcomes of the characters. There is some impressive footage of bombing raids, but it's mixed with some truly wretched special effects. The British cut of this film might be worth seeing, but the current print is of interest only for die-hard buffs of the era. [TCM]