A Yank in the R.A.F.

Tyrone Power is so charismatic in this film that the rest of it hardly matters. His astonishing good looks and easy charm really make this film. But there is also good direction, a witty script, great Oscar-winning special effects and fine cinematography.

Betty Grable has never done much for me, but she's pleasant enough in this. But the aerial work, done mostly with models, is exceptionally strong particularly in a spectacular and believable recreation of the evacuation at Dunkirk. This is a war propaganda film, designed to encourage the USA to join the war in Europe - but it is not cloyingly over patriotic. And there are some very original moments - look at the scene where Power wakes up and doesn't know where he is. The camera stays in extreme close-up on his face for a long time, so we don't know where he is either. We see him go through fear and bewilderment as we hear strange sounds. Finally his face relaxes and the camera pulls back to reveal...well I don't want to spoil it for you, but this is a very strong directorial decision. Henry King is to be praised.

You'll enjoy this film.

In the only time that Darryl F. Zanuck teamed his two leading adult stars in the forties, Tyrone Power and Betty Grable co-star in A Yank in the RAF. I think the title explains all in terms of the location.

Power plays one of his patented hero/heel types, a lot like Dion O'Leary in In Old Chicago. If you'll remember Alice Faye was being courted by the two O'Leary brothers, sober and industrious Don Ameche and devil may care Tyrone Power.

Now it's Betty as an entertainer over in the United Kingdom to entertain and otherwise help out in the war effort. She meets Ty who is also over there as an American volunteer in the RAF. Ty's someone who really isn't that crazy about military and other kinds of discipline, but he's one charming rogue and Betty can't get her fill of him.

Taking the Ameche part is very British and very stiff upper lip John Sutton. He's totally flipping out over Grable and who could blame him. Still it's Tyrone who powers the Grable engine.

John Sutton would co-star again with Ty Power after World War II in a vastly different part in Captain from Castile. He plays the cowardly and malevolent Diego DeSylva and that particular part from him might have been his career role. In my book it's one of the most evil villains the screen has ever had.

Reginald Gardiner and a whole flock of other British actors from Hollywood's British colony lend support. The RAF flying sequences were shot over in the war theater and were nominated for Best Special Effects.

Betty sings some forgettable tunes as an entertainer by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger. But heard throughout the film is the standard These Foolish Things. That song, as popular in Great Britain where it originated as in the United States, is one of the best ballads ever written. Why Zanuck didn't have Betty sing it is a mystery.

It's by no means clear who Betty winds up with in the end. I could make a case for either Power or Sutton. You'll have to see the film and make your own mind up. One thing for sure is that Ty is far from reforming. You'll have to see the film to see what I'm talking about there.

A Yank in the R.A.F. (1941)

This is pretty thin going stuff, and yet it's fun and warm-hearted and tinged with the drama of the times.

Context is everything here. 1941. The war is raging in Europe and Britain is being bombed by the Germans and they are trying to build up their forces to resist what seems to be an unstoppable foe. The U.S. is not yet in the war (that would happen in six months, but the movie makers couldn't know that for sure). All the U.S. is doing is supplying their future allies, Canada and Great Britain.

But in the air here at home (I write this from New York) was a sense of inevitability--we would eventually be drawn in to fight. This movie is part of the gearing up for that fact.

The lead is an American paradigm, Tyrone Power playing a cocky, charming, good-natured, and well-meaning young man who happens to be a pilot. What happens to him is what was happening to the country as a whole. And it boils down to this: he starts with innocence and selfishness and gets involved in stages, helping sell planes, helping fly planes, then actually doing battle runs over enemy territory.

That gives nothing away--it's the title of the movie.

What pulls him along? First just making some money. But then he meets an old flame played by Betty Grable (the number one pin-up girl for U.S. soldiers once they get involved) and Grable represents the U.S., too, because she's already in Britain helping the cause. Love ensues, but the problem is a handsome British soldier who begins to steal Grable's heart. A love triangle.

And because this is practically al propaganda film (not officially of course) you know that it will leave the audience (us) with the proper message of about doing the right thing and supporting the cause against the Nazi regime. There is even the shocking if not surprising current event built into the movie of the Germans vowing not to invade certain lowland countries and then, of course, invading them anyway.

Is this a great movie? Not by any means. But it's very well paced and the characters are warm and well-drawn, at least for such a "tale" as this. I wouldn't watch it a second time, but I'm glad I did this first one. And if you are the least bit interested in how Hollywood primed America for the war this slight film (along with "Casablanca" and many other movies) is a must-see.

And for those who care, the airplane scenes were done with the really R.A.F. (and a different film crew than the rest of it). The director (except for those scenes) is Henry King, who got his pilot's license in 1918, and who lived so long that in his last years he was the oldest active pilot in the U.S. I'm sure he gave some authenticity to the film at least in spirit.

while admittedly far from the best Hollywood effort of the period, it is interesting to note that "A Yank in the RAF" was produced and released well before the U.S. entered World War II. Although legally neutral, there was little doubt in which direction Hollywood's sympathy lay at that time, as well as that of the majority of the American people. President Franklin Roosevelt was doing all he legally could to enable supplies to reach Britain and France. Nevertheless, there did exist a highly vocal and politically influential movement to keep the nation out of the war, for whom the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh served conspicuously as spokesman. Those "Isolationists" were impelled not so much by a desire to preserve peace as they were by a desire to prevent the U.S. from aiding the European democracies against Nazi aggression, and they denounced films such as "A Yank in the RAF" as provocative propaganda.

While most of the film is Hollywood fiction there are a few things in it that actually did occur. An example is the episode at the beginning of the movie about landing American-built planes on the US side of the Canadian border and then towing them across the border on their wheels. Absurd as that may seem it actually did happen, the screen writers did not make that up! In addition, while most of the movie was produced on the Hollywood sound stages it does include some footage filmed early in 1941 on RAF air bases in Britain, using real RAF aircraft and personnel.

A typical Hollywood touch of the period is the depiction of RAF Lockheed Hudson bombers. In fact large numbers of Hudsons really were exported to Britain at that time, although the RAF actually employed them as maritime reconnaissance aircraft, not for bombing missions. However, since the planes were manufactured at the Lockheed plant located near Hollywood, Hudsons were readily available for use as movie props, so they frequently appeared in Hollywood movies to depict RAF bombers.

This watchable flagwaver (made prior to the Pearl Harbor attacks) – actually the first of seven films I'll be watching to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Tyrone Power's death – has a cocky American mail flyer itching for action and joining the R.A.F. in England; though his first mission consists in merely spreading anti-Nazi leaflets across Berlin skies, he then hits upon the idea of throwing out the packages outright in order to smash the German searchlights underneath!

While stationed in London, he conveniently runs into dancer-cum-nurse Betty Grable (amusingly drawing her attention by affecting a Cockney accent – conveniently filmed from behind, so that the actor could be dubbed! – soon after his arrival) and, despite the girl's 'reluctance', rekindles their affair from back home. Of course, during the course of the film, she also contrives to perform a couple of brief musical numbers and show off her famous legs a lot. Equally predictable, though, is the romantic complication wherein Power's British superior (John Sutton) also falls for the heroine, going so far as to propose to her – while amiably pompous/cynical sidekick Reginald Gardiner provides the comedy relief (just as obligatory in films of this era).

Even if the film is nowadays rightly criticized for the unrealistic depiction of war-torn England, the film succeeds well enough at what it set out to do – entertain (via action, drama and laughs), but also instill in home-grown audiences a sense of duty for the war effort in Europe. During aerial sequences, shots of the actors in the studio are skillfully blended via special effects with stock footage of actual battles; still, having Power bloodily shot down at Dunkirk and then making a mockery of his so-called war wounds simply to dupe Grable into submission is a bit much! Director King helmed several of the best vehicles tailored for Fox's reigning male star of the era but, being essentially lightweight, this isn't one of them – if still emerging to be "not essential but very enjoyable" (to quote a line spoken by John Sutton in the film in respect to his invitation to walk Grable home) and that's mainly due to the undeniable Power-Grable chemistry displayed via their comic/romantic banter throughout the film.