Dive Bomber *** (1941, Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Alexis Smith, Regis Toomey, Robert Armstrong, Craig Stevens, Allen Jenkins) – Movie Review 4749

Director Michael Curtiz’s 1941 aviation film Dive Bomber stars Errol Flynn, who cuts a dash as Lieutenant Doug Lee, a military surgeon who concentrates on aviation medicine after a pilot he is operating on dies. Lee teams with a ranking navy flyer to develop a high-altitude suit to protect pilots from blacking out when they go into a steep dive.

The film is a soapy, ramshackle flag-waving war movie, with lively love interest from Alexis Smith as Linda Fisher and lots of lovely planes filmed in Technicolor by Oscar-nominated Bert Glennon and Winton C Hoch compensating for the sometimes feeble plotting and weak dialogue in the screenplay by Frank ‘Spig’ Wead and Robert Buckner, based on Wead’s story.

Fred MacMurray (as the squadron commander Joe Blake), Smith and Ralph Bellamy (as the flight surgeon Lance Rogers) provide Flynn with the solid back-up he needs, and director Curtiz brings bounce and style to the direction.

Warner Bros’ producers Hal B Wallis and Robert Lord employ production designer Robert M Haas to ensure that it is a well-mounted production, with a sprightly score by Max Steiner.

Also in the cast are Regis Toomey, Robert Armstrong, Craig Stevens, Allen Jenkins, Herbert Anderson, Moroni Olsen, Dennie Moore, Louis Jean Heydt, Cliff Nazarro, Ann Doran, Charles Drake, Tom Dugan, William Forrest, John Gallaudet, Alan Hale Jr, Creighton Hale, Russell Hicks, William Hopper, George Meeker, William Phillips, Addison Richards, Dick Wessel, Gig Young and Alix Talton.

The US Navy Department displayed the new Douglas dive bomber in main American cities and set up recruiting booths at cinemas showing the film. ‘This picture was produced under the auspices of the motion picture committee, co-operating for national defense.’ The Naval Intelligence Bureau had approval of all stills and publicity.

Allegedly, Flynn tried to enlist in every branch of the armed services but was rejected as unfit for service on health grounds (heart condition, tuberculosis, malaria, back problem). It has been claimed that Flynn was a German agent while in San Diego and Hawaii during the shooting of this film, and that his Pearl Harbor pictures were passed to Fascist agents. The movie was released in August 1941 four months before the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

Leningrad engineer Yevgeny Chertovsky designed the first full pressure suit in 1931 in Russia.  However, there were no effective fully mobile pressure suits produced in World War Two.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4749

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