Winged Victory (1944) follows the training and deployment of a group of friends who’ve joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, and shows some perspectives we might not usually see in a war film of this period, at least not a film that was meant for the general public. We mark Veterans Day yesterday with a roster of actor vets in this movie.
Most of the actors in the cast were actually active-duty
members of the Army, and were listed in the credits along with their rank. The story centers on five men embarking on
Army Air Corps training in hopes of becoming pilots. They are played by Sgt. Mark Daniels, Sgt.
Edmond O’Brien, Private Lon McCallister, Corporal Don Taylor, and Corporal
Barry Nelson.
Also appearing in minor roles are Corporal Lee J. Cobb, Corporal Red Buttons, Sgt. George Reeves, and Corporal Gary Merrill. You may also catch Corporal Karl Malden and Corporal Whit Bissell in the ranks, and others whom we may assume might have been part of the Army’s First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU). We discussed this unit in this previous post. Most of the cast were reportedly in the stage play before being brought to Hollywood for the film.
The musical score was done by Sgt. David Rose. Neither George Cuckor, the director, nor the
writer Moss Hart were soldiers, but their empathy and understanding of the
experiences of raw recruits is in evidence.
Jeanne Crain appears, in her fourth movie, as the young wife of Barry Nelson; Jo-Carroll Dennison plays the wife of Mark Daniels; and Judy Holliday, also in her fourth movie, as the wife of Edmond O’Brien.
The story begins with three chums from the same Midwestern town: Mark Daniels, Lon McCallister, and Don Taylor, eagerly awaiting word from the Army Air Corps on their acceptance.
Mark Daniels’ wife and mother are supportive, and his wife wants to follow him to training in Texas. He would prefer she remain in Ohio, telling her what a hardship it would be, but she insists that they make all the time left to them count. “I want that year.”
Daniels is a bank teller. Don Taylor is the son of an immigrant barber, and we get a brief backdrop of an ideal small town as they carry the flow of their conversations while walking through town on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Lon McCallister is sweet on Jane Ball, whom he marries
before they leave for training, and she, too, will follow him to aviation
school like Jo-Carroll Dennison.
The boys are jubilant when they get their letters, and we
see them forming awkward lines in camp, shuffling in their civilian clothes
before the sarcastic and amused stares of the uniformed recruits who have
preceded them by weeks or months and are now, themselves, old hands.
We catch a bit of chauvinism when a unit of WACs marches by and the men ogle them, singing to the tune of “Mademoiselle from Armentieres,” the made-up lyrics “The girl on the right is quite all right, her uniform’s a little tight.” Considering there was a concerted effort to recruit women into the WACS, the WAVES, the WAFS, the Marines, the SPARS, this display seems as unwise as it is disrespectful. However, for many men, the frat boy attitude was an attitude of the era. We like to think our society is superior these days; too bad that in some circles it’s not.
Once the fellows get in, they get their physicals, eye
tests, and the barber’s son is a bit disconcerted when, despite his request to
the contrary, he gets sheared with a military buzz cut.
Along with songs to ogle WACS, these men seem to burst into
song on any occasion, not just for marching cadence.
They have written tests as well, and they are being
evaluated for their appropriate job according to their abilities. They all want to be pilots, but that is not
practical or realistic. Many will “wash
out” and become bombardiers, or navigators if they have special aptitude for
this; or they will be relegated to roles as enlisted men on crews, if they are
not sent home.
The three chums now are joined by two more: Barry Nelson and
Edmond O’Brien. O’Brien is a jovial
palooka from Brooklyn, married to Judy Holliday in a non-comic role, and they
have a three-year-old son.
The five continue their training inside pressure tanks, physical training and calisthenics, more tests for dexterity, decision-making under pressure, reflexes and coordination, with directions constantly barked at them to see who gets nervous or even cracks.
This scenario is quite a departure from inspirational films
of the era that served to glamorize or romanticize the fighting forces,
particularly when it came to pilots. One
can imagine that some of the young men sitting in the movie theater were having
second thoughts about aspirations to be pilots.
Don Taylor is absurdly cheerful, like a bouncy jester, who
says he loves the tests. Edmond O’Brien
is just a simple Joe, like Fred Flintstone in fatigues; we doubt he will fare
well. Lon McCallister is frankly nervous,
afraid of washing out.
Finally, they are assembled before a board of officers (who
chat before the meeting and show us that they have trouble, too. They wish they could be in combat, and one
sympathizes with the men to whom he is about to give bad news, because his own
son “washed out.”)
Four of our five fellows are chosen to become pilots, even
Edmond O’Brien. Optimistic and
self-confident Don Taylor, incongruously, has washed out and is assigned to
become a turret gunner.
Families are allowed to visit after this big hurdle, and Lon McCallister’s young bride wants to tell him the happy news that she is pregnant, but she holds back, not wanting him to worry.
The four remaining amigos now learn to fly. Gary Merrill, who plays an officer, gives the
bad news – a plane has crashed in a local field on night training. The men anxiously watch the runway to see the
remaining fellows land. They watch the straggler planes coming down from the
darkness, trying to see whose plane is missing.
One by one, the small training planes land, and we see who climbs out of
the cockpit and walks toward the floodlights.
Red Buttons is one, and finally the last plane arrives. The friends realize that the missing man is Lon McCallister.
Gary Merrill takes Mark Daniels aside to give him the news, offers him a cigarette, and Mark looks like he’s about to be sick.
“Your best friend, wasn’t it?” Merrill asks.
He allows Mark Daniels to go and tell Lon’s wife, even
drives him in a jeep himself. When she
opens the bungalow door, there is a close-up on Jane Ball, but the camera cuts
away, so we never hear the words Daniels chooses to tell the poor young woman
that her husband has died in training before she could even tell him he was
going to be a father.
The movie, to its credit, does not draw out the pathos nor
romanticize a fallen young man. Just as
in real life, time moves on, and we cut to a party with dancing in a local
hotel where the men meet their wives or dates on the evening before they graduate. They are forcing themselves to celebrate,
though they are mourning Lon and getting a little drunk. Not for the first time in this movie, they
sing “The Whiffenpoof Song.” They drink
a toast to Lon McCallister.
On graduation day, they are assembled on the enormous parade
ground and receive their wings. They
are officers and gentlemen. Edmond
O’Brien’s wife and little boy come, and he is very happy.
A cut to the Golden Gate Bridge, and we are now across the
country at the embarkation point, where they will be assigned their planes and
crews for the big hop. Mark Daniels and
Edmond O’Brien are pilot and co-pilot of a plane, and Don Daylor is assigned as
an enlisted man on their crew. They name
their plane “Winged Victory.” It is a
Liberator bomber, and she is their baby.
They have one last night in town, and their women, who have
followed them to California, know this is their last night with the men, even
though they don’t talk about it.
A poignant scene is when the guys discuss their lives after
the war, as if they now realize that being pilots is not the boyish dream they
had but rather a grim job they must muscle through for the next who knows how
many years before they get to go home again.
Edmond O’Brien says he will appreciate all the little things, like
putting his son to bed. If he wants a
bedtime story, “I’ll tell him five.” It
is more of a wistful wish than a definite plan when he remarks, “When I get
back from this war, I’m going to make a big thing out of it.”
We cut to the South Pacific island where they mark Christmas
with letters and packages from home, and a camp show where Red Buttons and
others parody the Andrews Sisters.
Edmond O’Brien is delighted with a new photo of his little boy. One man sings “Silent Night” in a baritone
voice, and then an air raid siren breaks the peace. They scramble to their battle stations.
Fighter planes take off, so does our Winged Victory.
Cut to much later, when the plane is expected, overdue, for
a landing, and finally arrives, shot up, with an injured man on board. It is a rough landing, and Don Taylor is the
wounded man, his head bandaged. Lee J.
Cobb is the doctor in the field hospital.
Waiting for the verdict on Taylor, Mark Daniels reads a
letter from his wife, telling him she has given birth to a son. It is a mixed moment of fear and joy. “I don’t want to die. I want to see my kid.”
After they get the news that Don Taylor will live and keep
his vision, Daniels sits down for a few moments before their next mission to
write a letter to his baby son. We don’t
know the words he’s chosen, but he remarks to O’Brien, “The world will be better
for our kids, Irv, huh?” Edmond O’Brien
concurs, “At least we’re trying, Al, we’re trying like nobody ever tried
before.”
It is, finally, an inspirational end, and it is true. Nobody ever tried harder and with so much at
stake in the fighting of that war to save humanity.
The story reminds me a little of a book for boys written in this period called Barry Blake of the Flying Fortress by Gaylord DuBois (1899-1993), published as part of the “Fighters for Freedom Series,” by the Whitman Publishing Company, 1943. It is one of the many middle-grade and young adult novels I researched for my book Children’s Wartime Adventure Novels – The Silent Generation’s Vicarious Experience of World War II.
Barry enters the Army Air Corps right out of high school,
and the book follows his progression from the first days of basic training in
San Antonio, Texas, at Randolph Field.
After rigorous training, he flies with his crew across the globe,
finally to Australia and the Pacific Theater where he will endure many
harrowing missions. Eventually, his
captain being severely wounded, Barry will be promoted to command of a Flying
Fortress, learning that mature good judgment and self-discipline are more
important in battle and in life than bravado.
Learning these lessons, he takes command of a Flying Fortress
at 19 years old.
They surely tried like nobody ever tried before.
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Hollywood Fights Fascism is a collection of posts from this blog that showcase a braver era in Hollywood, when fascism was called out for what it was. eBook and print from Amazon;
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. and Movies in Our Time - Hollywood Mirrors and Mimics the Twentieth Century and Hollywood Fights Fascism and Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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From Cherry Ames, to Meet the Malones, from Dave Dawson to Kitty Carter - Canteen Girl, the Silent Generation spent their childhood immersed in geopolitical events through the prism of their middle grade and young adult books. From the home front to the battlefield, these books are a window on their world, and influenced their hard-working, conformity-loving generation.
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