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• Randolph Scott!

  • JD
  • 6/5/11

  This underrated war movie stars Pat O'Brien and Randolph Scott as pilots and instructors at a school for training bombardiers. Both O'Brien and Scott have differing opinions as to how this training should be done, but in the end O'Brien and his ideas win out. O'Brien plays the calm, collected pilot who believes that the bombardier should be trained to run the aircraft while Randolph Scott plays the outgoing and aggressive pilot that thinks that only the pilot should have a say in what happens. The first part of the movie takes place at a pre-war training facility, where soldiers are taught in both a classroom and in flight environment the skills needed for being a top level bombardier. The latter part of the movie takes place immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, as the Japanese went into action against the United States while the students were in training. As these soldiers are now placed into actual combat, they must use their new skills to properly hit their targets. This film really features the great Randolph Scott, before he became a big star of westerns, and it's one of his better roles at this point in his career. Scott had been around for a while, and had done many films with parts both large and small, but had yet to really find his place in movie history as the big western star he would later become. Pat O'Brien, as always, is also very good although by this time his career was starting to decline from previous heights. The training school scenes in this film are very realistic, interesting, and educational and the action towards the end of the movie is very well done. This movie has a very good supporting cast, including future television star Eddie Albert in a fairly large and important role, as well as a young Robert Ryan. Barton MacLane is here also, as is the attractive Anne Shirley. A very good, and very underrated movie that's well worth watching.

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