Warbird Information Exchange

Thanks for the details. I was going by the director's voice over on the DVD who says it was the last known active straight deck carrier. The magical illusion of the film made me believe what he said.

It's good to know it's still in existence. I have marvelled at the wonderful 1944 coloured documentary film 'The Fighting Lady' filmed aboard that carrier.

_________________
The Wings Over New Zealand Forum http://rnzaf.proboards.com

The Wings Over New Zealand Show http://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZ_Show.html

Wings Over Cambridge http://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz

Fantastic movie that I don't see could be duplicated just yet,( such as the pearl harbor garbage movie.) Using real planes with amazing explosions does it for me. That and actually telling the details of the event instead of a love story makes this a fav. of mine

_________________
" I am a nobody in aviation, but somebody to my family."

when you look at the movie credits & you see the name jerry fogel, that is my brother inlaw's 1st cousin!! he played the captain of the uss nevada in the movie!!

_________________
tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

The B-17 pilot looks exactly like Dean Martin!!! but isn't I'm told.

I loved the pre-dawn take-off sequence, great shots of the Kates with
the blue exhaust flames!!

By the way, all the histories of the 31 Japanese aircraft conversions have
been documented except for one - that is N18102 or "AI-245" as painted
for the film, this one is a mystery, not even the FAA can locate files on
this aircraft even though theres a photos of it.

_________________
Simon D. Beck
http://www.uswarplanes.net
Author
The Aircraft-Spotter's Film & Television Companion (2016)
Fairchild C-82 Packet: The Military and Civil History (2017)

Fantastic carrier and aviation sequences. This is my favorite war movie. Five stars.

Actually, Jerry Fogel played Lt. Cdr. William Outerbridge, the captain of the USS Ward.
Jerry was better known for playing Jerry Buell on the sitcom The Mothers-In-Law (and in the second episode of that show, Carl Reindel played a golf starter - he went on to play Lt. Kenneth Taylor in TTT).

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

One of the best of all time! Just watched it the other night, it was on t.v.
This was back when movies were enjoyable and worth watching!

_________________
A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
Warbird salvage/recovery
One day I'll get that P-40!

In the 1960's, there were five efforts by the film industry to tell an epic story with dozens of A list actors, this is one of them. One way in which this film is superior to The Longest Day is the decision to use sold charactor actors like E.G. Marshall. Charactor actors become the charactor nstead of John Wayne being John Wayne as:(fill in the blank). Like The Longest Day, both sides of the story was told, the Japanese side in Japanese. The legendary Japanese director Kurosara was originally enlisted to tell the Japanese side, but when he fell way behind schedule and went way over budget, he was replaced. One way this movie stands as an epic was the building of massive sets to depict battleships and aircraft carriers. It's hard to fault this movie, except on very minor points, whichare nit picking, which I won't do. All told, a solid effort on the part of the film industry. Five stars out of five.