Dive Bomber

While Dive Bomber has some formulaic elements, it is a glorious technicolor view of US naval aviation just before the US entered World War II. The air sequences include shots of aircraft (Vindicators, Devastators, Curtiss Hawks, etc.) that soon became obsolete and that I have never seen in any other technicolor film. The carrier scenes are set on the USS Enterprise the year before this ship fought in the Midway and Guadalcanal battles. The film is shot on location in San Diego, and I noticed landmarks like the Hotel Del Coronado and the Cabrillo lighthouse in the background. Thanks to Turner Classic Movies for playing this.

Other posters have discussed the supposed 'spy' story behind this film: That Errol Flynn attempted to get it made in Pensacola rather than San Diego because the Nazis wanted to see the layout at Pensacola. They've pointed out that in the studio days, an actor, even one with Flynn's stature, could hardly have dictated such a thing. Also the buildings shown appear to be in San Diego. Finally, the airplanes used in the film were already obsolete in 1941. The Pentagon would hardly have allowed anything the Nazis and Japanese didn't already know about to be presented in the film, (and we probably didn't have any such thing at that point anyway).

And that last point intrigues me. This film allegedly presents the cutting edge of aeronautical medicine. Yet, if that's the case, the Pentagon would surely not have allowed Hollywood to present that, either. If the film had been made after the war, it would be more believable that this represented in some way the efforts of the heroic doctors and flyers to conquer black-out and high altitude sickness. But in 1941, the only thing that could have been presented was old science, speculation or Hollywood hokum, which this is surely a mixture of. That makes the film, which is certainly entertaining, rather meaningless as a semi-documentary on the subject.

On the subject of Hollywood's obsession with comic relief, this is something that mars old movies to modern eyes. I'm sure there are things in our films today that will someday be considered an embarrassment but these moronic 'sidekicks' are about as funny these days as a minstral show. In this film, the constant return to Allen Jenkins and his problems with his wife are a maddening intrusion into the drama of the film. Particularly inexcusable is the interruption of the scene where Regis Toomey is about to be told that he can no longer fly and we seque to Jenkins again, then go back and pick up Toomey's story. Did 'Spig' Wead really write Jenkins' part into the script? I doubt it. (See my review of 'Hell Below' for another example of this type of cinematic butchery.)

Taken by itself, DIVE BOMBER is a routine tale of the efforts of Navy doctors to find solutions to major issues facing aviators (countering the effect of G-force on pilots, and functioning in a high altitude environment), written by Naval aviator Frank ('Spig') Wead (who would, himself, be the subject of a later film, John Ford's THE WINGS OF EAGLES), photographed in glorious Technicolor, and teaming top WB 'draw' Errol Flynn with two legendary actors, Fred MacMurray and Ralph Bellamy. Filmed at the eve of the war, the film was one of many military-themed pictures Hollywood's studios were producing, to generate public acceptance of an inevitable U.S. involvement.

While the movie was successful when released, the passage of time has dated it, and the issues addressed; as a result, DIVE BOMBER has not retained the luster of Flynn's swashbucklers. But in the seventies, the film took on a new significance, as allegations were made that Flynn had committed treason, working for the Nazis at the time of the shooting.

According to 'secret' documents that an author said were made available to him, Flynn aided two known Nazi agents, helping them perform espionage by demanding DIVE BOMBER be shot 'on location' at Pensacola Naval Air Station. While the spies were arrested and deported, Flynn went unpunished, and his participation 'covered up', for morale reasons. The revelations were published in a Flynn biography, and the actor's already tarnished reputation became the butt of a new round of derision (a thinly-veiled version of Flynn served as the Nazi villain of the 1991 film, THE ROCKETEER).

Many of Flynn's surviving co-stars, and his official biographer, Tony Thomas, came to the long-dead actor's defense, and research into the extensive, now declassified file the FBI kept on the rowdy actor (files were kept on virtually everyone of importance in the entertainment industry) reveal no more than a social involvement with the agents (the pair socialized with many 'movers' in the film industry, and Flynn was a major 'party animal' in the forties). The idea that the actor could have 'demanded' and gotten a location to be used would have been unlikely (the studio carefully budgeted each film, and actors were only rarely involved in the production end). Had the charges been true, no studio would have ever hired Flynn, again (this was a very patriotic period), and Jack Warner would have PAID, if necessary, for Flynn's one-way ticket to Germany!

Despite the lack of any real evidence, there are still people who cling to the belief that Errol Flynn was guilty (he was far from the noble cavalier that many of his early films portrayed him as, and his critics would love to add treason to his long list of sins). DIVE BOMBER has become the cornerstone of one of Hollywood's great mysteries...

Legendary Michael Curtiz directs this exciting, well paced aviation drama about two naval officers(Errol Flynn and Fred MacMurray)who put aside their personal differences to work together conducting experiments to understand and prevent pilots from suffering altitude blackouts. Visually exciting pre war flick filmed at Pensacola that in turn led to accusations that in real life Flynn aided Nazi agents.

MacMurray and Flynn have very different acting styles, but work well together...of course Flynn seems to always be the focus. Alexis Smith is the rose among the thorns so-to-speak. The cast also features: veteran actor Ralph Bellamy and Regis Toomey, Robert Armstrong and Craig Stevens. After all these years DIVE BOMBER can still hold your attention.

Fred MacMurray is a Navy flight instructor. Errol Flynn is a Navy doctor who signs up for flight doctor training. Ralph Bellamy is Flynn's gruff superior. These personalities clash but eventually earn each other's respect and join forces. Their big problem: How to prevent blackouts and high altitude sickness in fighter plane pilots.

Outstanding photography and stirring music back up the excellent star performances in this high class Warner Bros. production. The opening sequence contains amazing footage of the fleet in Hawaiian territory (less than a year before Pearl Harbor); the skies are filled with impressive planes and maneuvers throughout the picture, right through to a beautiful closing shot.

Flynn is totally charismatic in a role that's less flamboyant than his usual swashbuckler but no less heroic. Bellamy's lead doctor approaches his job with gravity and complete dedication. MacMurray is brash, demanding, loyal to both his work and his men.

The solid supporting cast includes Regis Toomey in a good role as MacMurray's pilot buddy. Not essential to the plot but adding pizzazz are Alexis Smith as a sort of off-and-on love interest and Allen Jenkins as a corpsman who spends the picture hiding from his wife. Cliff Nazarro also contributes comic relief with his double-talk bit.

Plot and dialog are solid...but this picture's main appeal is that everything in it just looks so good.