Winged Victory

I had a personal interest in this movie. When I was 17 and just out of high school I got a job at 20th Century Fox as a member of the Laborers and Hod Carriers Union. At the end of my first day (sweeping the deck of an aircraft carrier) I was told to bring a suitcase the next morning with enough clothes etc. for one or two weeks. When I arrived the next morning a bus was waiting and about 20 of us headed south toward San Diego. Just short of there we stopped at an army base called either Camp Callan or Camp Hahn. Once we were bunked in we went north a few miles into Camp Pendleton, the big Marine base. There, on the beach, we started building what was supposed to be a Japanese Pacific island base. It took us about a week or ten days to complete the installation, which included a water tank, gun entrenchments, sand-bagged trenches and living quarters. All this was at very high pay, sometimes 'golden time', which was triple our regular hourly wage. Our food was also first rate = prime rib at lunch, etc. - which was amazing because it was wartime and very hard to get good meat at home.

Once the job was finished I waited eagerly for the movie to come out, which was about eight or ten months later. Then I waited eagerly through two hours of the movie before my handiwork finally came on screen. Then it was no more than three or four minutes (maybe less) of the movie's heroes dive bombing the base and blowing it to smithereens. A bit disappointing, but still fun.

In spite of the disappointment I enjoyed the movie and have not seen it since. I learned later that this movie was underwritten by the government and Fox was paid on a cost plus basis, which maybe accounts for our extravagant pay and lifestyle down there. Bob Weverka

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.

This movie has always been a favorite of mine since first seeing it as a 12 year old kid in 1962 when it was shown on a Los Angeles television station's "late show". The characters are very engaging from the start of the picture, and it is too bad that the movie has never been released for video tape, nor is it ever shown on television (apparently due to a prohibition by the Estate of Moss Hart, the playwright/producer/director who wrote the story and first presented it on the New York stage during WWII -- the reason for denying its showing is hard to fathom more than 50 years after it was made). I did not see the movie again for over 30 years, when someone who had actually been a major cast member of the movie was able to get me a "bootlegged" copy on VHS (poor video quality, but good audio). My memory of it was correct: it was still an engaging and fascinating movie to watch. An amazing aspect of this film is just how many of its stars, just starting out in their careers at the time 1944), went on to became either major motion picture stars or at least well-known and fully-employed actors (e.g. Judy Holliday, Edmond O'Brien, Jeanne Crain, Barry Nelson, Don Taylor, Karl Malden, Peter Lind Hayes, George "Superman") Reeves, Red Buttons, Lee J. Cobb, Kevin McCarthy, and Gary Merrill). The scenes with the B-24 Liberators are terrific, especially the close-up shots where the details of the giant (for those times) 4-engine bomber (then 18,000+ manufactured, now nearly extinct) can be seen. Good insight into the different levels of training that a pilot-cadet went through on his way to being assigned to a bomber crew (of course, VERY gender-biased as was the trend of the day: only the MEN became pilots, the women just supported them in their roles -- hardly acceptable in today's world). I hope someday it will be released onto video for a new generation to enjoy.

I was 17 when this movie came out and in my senior year of high school.. Several of my friends enlisted in various services and I knew I was to be drafted when I became 18.. This movie made me make up my mind to enlist in the Army Air Corps..The movie was very accuate showing all the testing that we had to go through inorder to get into the Cadet program, but by the time I finished my "boot" camp and was about to get assigned, the war in Europe was about over and air-men were no longer needed.. I did serve as an aerial gunner/ flight radio operator so I did get some flying in before I was discharged.. Anyway I'm still trying to get a copy of that movie and I've also tried to contact 20th Century

"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.