The Fighting Lady

Loved it! Forget the fact that this is a documentary - it is very interesting from beginning to end. Lots of color gun camera film throughout and shipboard crash landings. Very well done chronicle of a carrier and its mission in the Pacific during WWII.

Here's the Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Feature of 1944, about the U. S. S. Yorktown, its crew, and its involvement in a running battle around Guam. Or, as Robert Taylor calls it in the narration, "a two-week turkey shoot." I wonder what Boyer called it in his French-language narration.

It's one of four Oscar wins for co-director William Wyler. Also credited as a director is Edward Steichen, one of two people born in Luxembourg I can name. He was mostly a photographer, in charge of that department at Conde Nast in the early 1930s, and at the Museum of Modern Art from 1947 through 1962. During the World Wars, he was in charge of aerial photography for the A. E. F. And the Navy. Robert Fritch may be credited with the editing, but surely it's Steichen who made the choice of shots, and left it to Wyler to figure out the rest of it. The movie includes some amazing battle shots, including the aerial fights through yellow skies, the ones of crew members trying to relax between battles, and the ones of wrecked planes landing on the Yorktown. Amazing work.

i saw this film as a child during world war 2 and it has stuck in my mind all these years. i remember the brilliant color and the aerial photography. i grew up in a texas town that had an army basic training post and the theater that day contained many, many basic trainees from camp wolters who cheered and clapped at the pro-american action. i can't believe this film isn't shown on the history channel and i further can't believe it isn't available to the american public.

First saw this when I was 9 years old. All I remember is the color film in the gun cameras and all the action. Sad to see that the movie isn't even listed in most data bases (thanks IMDb)!

Does anyone know how to locate a copy of this film?

The Fighting Lady is an American made `docudrama' typical of much Hollywood's war years production. It is narrated by Hollywood star Robert Taylor who had enlisted in the US Navy during WWII. There is no central character, rather it is primarily the story of life aboard a typical American aircraft carrier during the middle war years in the pacific. It includes some spectacular color gun camera footage of strafing and bombing missions at the battles of Marcus, Truk, and Kwajalern and the Marians. It acknowledges US losses, but does not tell of their extent: our carrier aircraft losses at Truk, for example, were particularly severe. The movie seems to be preparing the US public for a possibly long and costly conclusion to the pacific war. It describes the campaign necessary to conclude the pacific war in some detail. It is a campaign that thankfully was cut short. It should be seen as essentially a propaganda film, and is worthwhile viewing especially from that perspective.