"Dive Bomber" is one of my favorites. Director Michael Curtiz had never directed an aviation film, but instinctively knew that when people went to see an aviation film, they wanted to see aircraft in the air. And he made sure they did. Better yet, the Navy provided the aircraft, so the usual budget constraints didn't apply. Seventy-plus years later, the Technicolor flying scenes are still among the all-time greatest.
The story line about two men who can't stand each other at the start, but who grow to become friends, is a bit hackneyed. But the problems of aviation medicine are portrayed accurately. Blackout and altitude sickness were real problems. And both the belt and the pressure suit were real solutions, although of course neither were invented by Errol Flynn. (I'm sure some of you are absolutely CRUSHED to learn that.
) Some have said the pressure suit looks fake, but it's a fairly accurate copy of Wiley Post's suit. The problems with pressurized cabins were still a challenge in 1941.
I agree that Max Steiner's score is great, and adds quite a bit to the film. As others have said, bits and pieces of the score made their way into other films. The "crash music" at the beginning of the film was re-used in "Captains of the Clouds," and possibly others.
But I can only give the film four out of five stars. The problems: An ongoing "comic relief" shtick involving a corpsman, his ex-wife, and a double-talking friend. Few things are worse than comic relief that isn't funny. This one is so bad it's unwatchable. I fast-forward through those scenes every time.
As great as the flying scenes are, the producers decided to use a fake buzzing sound for the engines rather than the real thing. (The same buzzing can be heard in "Flying Tigers." First time a radial and an inline sounded exactly alike.)
And as I mentioned elsewhere, the Ryan S-T that is supposed to be a Britain-bound Lend-Lease fighter has to be among the most absurd aircraft stand-ins in cinema history.
Those flaws aside, "Dive Bomber" still stands as one of the best.