Bombes sur Hong-Kong

This movie helped the P40 to become my favorite warplane of all time. They used E models for the filming of this movie which would have been correct for mid-1942. The enemy planes incorrectly referred to as Zeroes were actually AT6 Texans which were almost always used in other movies as well. The flying scenes were filmed at Luke Air Force base in Arizona. The Flying Tigers fought against the Japanese Air Force which flew Ki-43 'Oscars'. The Imperial Navy pilots flew the Zero and were not involved in that conflict. The other thing that you see written often about the Flying Tigers is that they were fighting the Japanese "years before" Pearl Harbor. The truth is only Chenault was in China in the '30's helping out. The ground crews, pilots, and planes were not in place until November of 1941. Their first combat mission occurred on December 20, 13 days AFTER Pearl Harbor. Dennis Morgan, Alan Hale, & Richard Loo play their characters very well. Some people today are offended by all of the racial slurs that are uttered. But when this movie was made in 1945, the Japanese were the hated villains. The soldier's dilemma of taking lives as their duty versus what the 10 commandments says is dealt with tastefully in this movie. It's an enjoyable film that represents movies of the 1940's well.

Although "God is My Co-Pilot" was a prestige film from Warner Brothers and did well at the box office, it's really a very slight war film. Much of this is because instead of focusing on the real life of Colonel Robert Lee Scott, it often has cliches, such as the fictional character Tokyo Joe taunting the American pilots with dialog like this: "Ok you yankee doodle dandies....come and get us! ". Additionally, the notion of God in this film is very vague and seems mostly there to remind viewers that God love America and hates Japan. It's a shame, as Scott's life was pretty amazing...but here it's all too simplistic and filled with the usual B-movie jingoism. Now this isn't to say it's a bad film...no...but it was one that really could have been a lot better.

In 1942 China, World War II "Flying Tiger" Dennis Morgan (as Robert Lee "Scotty" Scott) recalls his love for aviation and enlistment in the US military. At age 34, Mr. Morgan fears he may be too old to join the war effort, but this was not unheard of during the Second World War. He leaves a pretty wife to share aviation expertise and eventually pilots dangerous missions against the sneaky, murderous Japanese. Morgan receives support from superior officer Raymond Massey (as Claire Chennault), kindly priest Alan Hale (as "Big Mike" Harrigan) and God. As signaled by the title, the latter becomes overtly active in later scenes. Stranger are how US bombers chat with English-speaking enemies like Richard Loo (as "Tokyo Joe") during battle. Minus the banter between bombers, the exciting air battles are a highlight.

***** God Is My Co-Pilot (3/15/45) Robert Florey ~ Dennis Morgan, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Dane Clark

God is my Co-Pilot is one of the best War Movies ever made. This movie was not available on Video for a while, and it was after fans have been screaming for it to come out on Video that it was finally released. Dennis Morgan plays Col. Robert Lee Scott, an Army Pilot who was looking for combat duty in World War II. He ends up in China with The Flying Tigers and flies with them on numerous missions. Richard Loo as "Tokyo Joe", a big mouth, over confident Japanese Fighter Pilot who communicates with his enemies over the radio and welcomes any chance to clash with Scott. This movie may not be as accurate as the book but it still a great movie with great combat scenes with P-40s and T-6 Texans as Japanese Zeros.

The Flying Tigers roared onto the screen and into the imagination in two fairly good films: The Flying Tigers with John Wayne and God is My Co-Pilot, based upon the real life experiences of Colonel Scott. WWII was nothing like the politically correct war of current vintage. The American people did not love their enemy; they would have used the enemy's sacred writings for wholly sanitary purposes and bragged of the experience. The movie correctly shows this. On the other hand, in the spirit of Greater American Democracy, plenty of Neisi and Chinese actors had jobs as extras smiling at bombs away in the halycon years of the WW II propaganda movie.

The book is still worth reading even today. More than a mere autobiography or piece of US war propaganda, Scott tells of the conflict between Chennault and Stillwell, the destruction of the Flying Tigers, the eclipse of the Chinese Nationalists and the rise of Mao.

The movie has one glaring historical error in the movie: The July 4 1942 raid did not take place. The original AVG refused to fly.