After the devastation of Pearl Harbor, America is looking to strike at the heart of Japan. Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle (Spencer Tracy) plans a daring bombing attack launched from aircraft carriers. Bob Gray (Robert Mitchum) is among the many volunteer flyboys gathered to secretly train for the dangerous mission.
This is a classic patriotic war drama based on the real legendary Doolittle raid. Tracy and Mitchum have minor roles. I don't recognize the rest of the cast. The first third deals with the training. The best is the short take-off training. It's the most fun but it's missing a scene where somebody guesses correctly the actual operation. The personal drama and the various flyboys don't really interest me much. In the middle third, the bombing run is compelling from the aircraft carrier all the way to the crash landing. There is good miniature work combined with real footage. The last third has the men escaping from the Japanese in China. Once they get to the hospital, the tension fades away. Still, there are a couple of good emotional melodrama like the old Chinese man giving presents of shoes to the men. Ted Lawson and his wife is supposed to be the emotional climax but the wife especially overplays the heart strings. It's a movie of its time and this is very much a patriotic war effort.
This is a classic patriotic war drama based on the real legendary Doolittle raid. Tracy and Mitchum have minor roles. I don't recognize the rest of the cast. The first third deals with the training. The best is the short take-off training. It's the most fun but it's missing a scene where somebody guesses correctly the actual operation. The personal drama and the various flyboys don't really interest me much. In the middle third, the bombing run is compelling from the aircraft carrier all the way to the crash landing. There is good miniature work combined with real footage. The last third has the men escaping from the Japanese in China. Once they get to the hospital, the tension fades away. Still, there are a couple of good emotional melodrama like the old Chinese man giving presents of shoes to the men. Ted Lawson and his wife is supposed to be the emotional climax but the wife especially overplays the heart strings. It's a movie of its time and this is very much a patriotic war effort.