Thunder Birds: Soldiers of the Air

"Thunder Birds" is an innocuous movie of war propaganda, made by W.A. Wellmann, a first- rate director, with his usual professionalism. The locations are beautiful, the Technicolor is outstanding, and the flying scenes are accurately shot. The story is standard, a nice blend of adventure-action and comedy, with some good emotional scenes in the part placed in England, dominated by Dame May Witty.

What makes "Thunder Birds" special, and its message stronger, is the use of Gene Tierney as a symbol. Yes, she is called to represent exactly "what we fight for". We (the young men from America, Great Britain, China) fight for that dream of a girl, for her smile, for the hot dogs we devour with her, for her nylon stockings, for our freedom and prosperity that she embodies. And she doesn't leave us alone, like a damned arrogant European princess. She helps and supports us, with a merry smile and without any conceit. Here, among us, there's no room for the gruesome death-rhetoric of the barbarian killers we fight.

To be honest, I admit that anyone out of the mass of splendid American actresses of the 1940s could play the role of Gene Tierney in "Thunder Birds", with excellent results. But only with the Goddess of Beauty, shining on the screen, all the parameters go to infinity.

Though little remembered today and garnering only the briefest of mentions in Gene Tierney's own "Self-Portrait" autobiography, 1942's "Thunder Birds," the actress' ninth film, is assuredly deserving of a greater renown. In this one, Gene plays Kay Saunders, the granddaughter of an Arizona ranch owner whose property is adjacent to the U.S. Army flying school known as Thunderbird Field (at which the picture was partially filmed). Kay's life itself is thrown up in the air when her old flame, flying ace Steve Britt (played with an appealing mix of heart and toughness by Preston Foster), decides to become a civilian instructor at the school. It is made even more problematic when she falls in love with Peter Stackhouse (hunky John Sutton, who had been featured in Gene's second film, "Hudson's Bay"), a British doctor with a fear of heights who is determined to become a pilot under Britt's instruction. Thus, the "eternal triangle" is formed again, while Stackhouse learns that it might be easier to master his Stearman PT-17 biwing than his own physical and emotional responses....

Very much a product of its time and surely a live-action poster ad for our brave young men who would one day win WW2 for the Allies (although, back in 1942, that outcome, it must be remembered, was far from certain), "Thunder Birds" yet offers some very real pleasures for the audience of today. Shot in supersaturated Technicolor, the film looks marvelous, and features some truly eye-popping aerial cinematography. William A. Wellman, a veteran of WW1's Lafayette Escadrille who would go on to become a stunt pilot before embarking on a filmmaking career, was of course the perfect director to bring this film in for a safe landing. He had previously worked on such high-flying adventures as 1927's "Wings" (the first Oscar winner for Best Picture) and the almost-impossible-to-see "Central Airport," and would go on to direct the John Wayne pictures "Island in the Sky" and "The High and the Mighty," as well as his final film, 1958's "Lafayette Escadrille" (AND, parenthetically, the 1948 Tierney vehicle "The Iron Curtain"). Besides the eye-popping nature of the aerial cinematography, "Thunder Birds" features still another eye-popping aspect, and that is Gene Tierney herself, who has rarely looked more beautiful on screen. Gene made 20 films in the 1940s, and of those 20, only five were in color: "The Return of Frank James" (her first), "Belle Starr," "Thunder Birds," "Heaven Can Wait" and "Leave Her to Heaven," and other than "Leave Her to Heaven" (in which, gorgeous as she is, she is yet eclipsed, IMHO, by the vision that is Jeanne Crain), I have never seen her look more ravishing than here. Just look at her bathing in an outdoor water tank, her mouth still painted with bright-red lipstick; simply stunning! And Wellman, wisely, gives the 22-year-old Tierney any number of luminous close-ups; absolute heaven for all fans of the beloved actress. Throw in a compact story line (the whole film runs only 78 minutes) and fine supporting work from such wonderful character actors as Dame May Witty, Jack Holt, Richard Haydn and Reginald Denny and you've got yourself quite an entertaining package indeed; surely more than just some rah-rah wartime propaganda! This is a highly entertaining, time-capsule tribute to some very brave young men as well as to the beauty and talent of one very special actress: Miss Gene Tierney.

Aside from Gene Tierney (who gets top billing), this film has no big-name stars. Preston Foster plays a nice guy who is an instructor at a military flight school in the Southwest. He's a great pilot and in love with Tierney. One of his students, John Sutton, is an odd case. He is in flight school even though he easily becomes air sick AND he's already a doctor. In real life, I strongly doubt that the military would have trained any doctor to be a pilot--as the really needed doctors and it would have been a shame to waste that training. However, this is a Hollywood film, so you'll need to suspend your sense of disbelief. As for Sutton's motivation, his father was a great WWI pilot who was friends with Foster and Sutton's brother (also a pilot) was just killed. So, to fulfill his family legacy he enters training school. Along the way, Sutton also falls for comely Tierney and this brings problems--Sutton adores Foster and doesn't want to hurt him--but Tierney is a hot tamale and has fallen for Sutton as well.

The main theme, aside from the romance with Tierney, is Sutton's fitness to be a pilot. Despite the family history, he somehow is NOT at home in the air and is a great risk to be washed out of the school. It's only with the help of Foster that he has any chance at all to make it.

This Technicolor film is highly reminiscent of a group of films about pilots in school during the war. Believe it or not, there were quite a few films like this, such as CAPTAINS OF THE AIR and I WANTED WINGS and all are grand entertainment due to excellent flying sequences and good acting. Despite Sutton and Foster no longer being household names, they also did a nice job in the film. While I really enjoyed the movie, I also realize that not everyone loves airplane films like I do. So, while I might like the films enough to give them an 8 or 9, I realize that for the average person out there, the films aren't quite as compelling. Still, it's a solid WWII propaganda film--an excellent movie to bolster the war effort and entertain at the same time. The only problems with the film, and they are minor, are that the plot is a tad formulaic and in a few scenes the plane did some turns and acrobatics no real plane at the time could have done. As I said, minor problems in an otherwise good film.

By the way, for some semi-insane dating advice listen to the guy playing Tierney's Uncle. The scene where he was giving advice to Foster made me smile.

Also by the way, while I said that Foster was mostly forgotten today, he and the Commander (Jack Holt) were pretty big stars back in the silent days. It's interesting here seeing them in roles suited to them in middle age, as they continued acting well past their days as top-billed stars.

The man who directed this film about aerial training, William "Wild Bill" Wellman, was a daring pilot himself, and was not only responsible for Wings, the first Oscar winning feature, but also helmed The Ox Bow Incident, Public Enemy and 1937's A Star Is Born, and compared to those classics, this is rather weak tea, rescued by Technicolor, a 22 year old Gene Tierney, and its historical value as a WWII flag-waver. Studio director Daryl Zanuck wanted to give Gene Tierney, his doll-like starlet, plenty of exposure; here she was just a few years away from her indelible performances in Laura and Leave Her To Heaven; Tierney is paired with old reliable Preston Foster in a tale set in the Arizona desert, where the brilliantly colored blue and yellow prop planes dazzle the eye, set against desert sands and clear blue sky; the story is essentially older man vs. younger flier (sometimes leading man John Sutton) who vie for the heart of the fair maid, but the side benefits of the film outweigh the tired plot elements: how often do we see young Chinese and British airmen in Arizona being trained by Americans? How things change!

This isn't a review but this is the only website I know of that even remotely deals with subtle nuances one might have seen in a little known movie that features the lovely Gene Tierney in one of her first big films. This little gem directed by the great William Wellman has a scene in it where Gene steps out of the shower with ringlets in her hair that were captured by the Technicolor light in such a way as to take my breath away and have never forgotten it. Her hair was usually shown dry and perfectly coiffed and this is the only movie of hers I know where those fantastic ringlets were shown.

Thank you, IMDb for letting this love-sick Gene Tierney fan express his admiration for an actress from Hollywood's Golden Age.