Winged Victory

"Winged Victory" is a most unusual film. Although it was made by Twentieth Century-Fox and was directed by George Cukor, the film stars all sorts of contract actors who had been drafted or volunteered for the war effort. These men and women were mostly all unknowns back in 1944 but many went on to big careers, such as Judy Holiday, Jeanne Crain, Edmund O'Brien, Lee J. Cobb, Red Buttons, Barry Nelson, George Reeves, Karl Malden, Gary Merrill and quite a few others.

The story begins back at home as various men received word that they were accepted into the Air Corps' program. But instead of being sent to various schools (such as pilot training or gunnery), the men are given exhaustive and nerve-wracking tests to determine the best fit for their abilities. Following this, they are assigned to various programs or washed out if seen as unfit. Then, you see them going through training program and finally they are sent into action. Along the way, you see a few vignettes, such as men with their girlfriends and one man in pilot training who was killed...and the reaction of his pregnant wife. I am actually surprised that the movie showed this latter story, as I expected it all to be very upbeat and rah-rah for us...which, fortunately, wasn't always the case. Because of that, it felt more real and interesting to watch. Overall, a very interesting film that seemed more like a hybrid between a drama and a documentary...well made and well worth seeing....as well as an important historical piece.

I saw this film as a 10 year old in Wash. D.C. during the war. I was very impressed with it to the point that I wanted to go and sign up for the Army Air Corps right then. I have yet to see it since. The film was a stepping stone for some future Hollywood stars such as Lee. J. Cobb, Red Buttons, Don Taylor, Jeanne Crain & Edmond O'Brien. I hope whatever legal hassle is holding up the release of the video will be settled before I die. This is a great film for today's youth especially in this present time of war.

I have fond memories of helping to 'make' Winged Victory. As an aviation cadet stationed at Santa Ana, several bus-loads of us were taken to Camp Pendleton to the campsite someone else mentioned above. We were seated around, watching a Christmas show produced by the soldiers stationed on the 'island'. Three performers with mop wigs did a lip-sync imitation of the Andrews Sisters. I think mail call was then going on when the sirens started. Everyone was instructed to 'scatter' and just get out of sight. Some went up the beach out of sight for a swim. I was in a group that crawled into a dummy tent (no tent flap) and we had a long session of poker. The film producers had quite a time trying to round up enough soldiers to do a re-take of the scene. Of course planes were dubbed in later to bomb the camp. They also did a PT session at the SAAC base with hundreds doing exercises and Lon and a taller actor participating. I joined in helping to push one of them up and down when retakes of chinning themselves became overwhelming. I never did see the movie but heard once that that scene was not used. There was a report that a preview used it, and that one of our hands was showing on the cropped scene (we were holding their legs to assist in the exercise). Thanks for the reminiscing. I would love to see it.

William Wyler was to have directed this adaptation of Moss Hart's hit Broadway play with music/ recruiting poster-vivant, but his own military commitments intervened and it went to a most unlikely helmsman: George Cukor. The "women's director" has a sure touch on the many documentary-like sequences of Air Corps training, and he invests it with more unhackneyed humanity than the genre generally allowed, particularly in wartime. Sure, the gee-whiz (and entirely white, save for one unbilled Chinese-American recruit) bunch of newbies are nicer and more wholesome than in real life, and the speechifying about home and Mom and the wife and kid gets pretty thick, but it's efficient propaganda and undeniably stirring. Notable, too, for the all-military male cast, several of whom didn't reemerge for years: Lon McAllister, Edmond O'Brien, Martin Ritt, Red Buttons (in drag, as an Andrews Sister), Peter Lind Hayes, Karl Malden, Kevin McCarthy, Gary Merrill, Lee J. Cobb, and Don Taylor. Also for a very early glimpse of Judy Holliday, who doesn't show up till an hour and a half into the picture but has some good little sequences as O'Brien's worried-sick Brooklyn spouse. Too bad its rights are in a tangle and the only print anyone knows of is 16mm; evidently, after Twentieth Century Fox released it (to considerable success), the rights reverted to the Army, and if there's a good 35mm print out there, it probably lies somewhere in the bowels of the Pentagon. It's disingenuous and corny in spots, but it also captures the rigors of military training and the terrors of war vividly, and it deserves to be more widely seen.

As has been noted, this is one wartime film that got it right. Apart from the accurate depiction of army flight training, WV probably remains the only movie featuring the Consolidated B-24. A flight instructor who helped with the film reports that most of the cast got along well with the supporting officers and men, the exception being Edmund O'Brien. While filming an engine-start sequence he noted the usual "fire guard" with the extinguisher and became exceedingly nervous. Finally he "abandoned ship" and refused to proceed with the shot. Considering that his performance was witnessed by genuine airmen, let alone some combat veterans, EO's stock plummeted on base.