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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Great Film overall

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Franchot Tone, Van Johnson, and Gene Kelly star in WW II flick about an American unit, stuck with a dutch commander. This was 1943, so we had already been in the war for a couple years. Down to one plane, they must take it out and do whatever damage they can. Lots of flashbacks, as we hear everyone's story, and how they got to be here. That takes up most of the film. VERY typical WW II film. Everyone doing their part. Some fun supporting roles -- Eddie Acuff, Monte Blue, Peter Lawford. Names that would turn into bigger names a few years later. Story by David Hertz. Directed by George Sidney, who co-founded Hanna Barbera. Also directed Kiss me Kate, Bye Bye Birdie, Three Musketeers, Pal Joey, Annie get your Gun,and SO MANY other biggies. I'm surprised that Sidney never won an Oscar.. probably should have gotten a lifetime achievement award or something. This one is okay. Chugs right along, Kind of two different plots though... there's the WW II story, and the "rich versus the poor" story-line within the flashbacks. Not bad. MGM/Loews. Shows now and then on TCM.

This has to be the single most articulate WWII propaganda movie in existence making the point that the Fascists were not just in Europe and Japan but everywhere the profit motive and the reign of fear were trumping democracy in the good old USA. This message still resonates today.This is a rare American film that actually denounces corrupt and anti-democratic greed-is-good practises and equates them with fascism. It mustn't have gone down smoothly in Republican circles where fighting for lower taxes for the rich was a more important priority than actually fighting the war. To make the movie even more remarkable, the level of violence exerted against the poor exploited Italian farmers in the film is actually on a par with the violence of war and the atrocities of other future American films noirs.There is absolutely no other film like it and it's a wonder that its script-writer and director were not suspected of Communist affiliations after the war. The only reason they escaped scrutiny was that the writer died ealy in mysterious circumstances and the director only dabbled in light musicals and romantic comedies before and after.The kamikaze ending ("Poppa's little bomb rack isn't working") must also have been a shocker to many.Highly recommended to anyone who doesn't think Hollywood ever showed any balls.

While some aspects of this film seem a tad hokey, overall it's a very good and enjoyable film and I am sure it did a lot to shore up support at home for the war effort.As the film begins, there's a rag-tag group of American, British and Dutch soldiers fighting off the Japanese attack in the Pacific. The new leader of this group asks for a pilot to volunteer for what probably is a suicide mission--there is only one flyable plane left and he's to use it against a major Japanese attack. All the American pilots quickly volunteer but the Captain (Franchot Tone) is chosen because of his bravery and because he has a crazy idea he can rig up a bomb to his Seversky P-35 fighter and attack the nearby Japanese aircraft carrier. Considering that by the time this film was made the P-35 was an obsolete plane, it was indeed a fools errand.After Tone leaves, the five five remaining officers talk about what sort of man Tone was and what may have led to his volunteering for such a mission. So Tone's unusual story is told through a series of rather interesting flashbacks.In the end, Tone attacks the carrier and fights off Japanese planes that in midair mysteriously turn into British Spitfires (due to a poor use of stock footage--a common problem in films of this era). And considering that it's a wartime propaganda film, it's almost a foregone conclusion what happens next--though it is still a very tense and exciting portion of the film.Overall, this is a better than average war film with decent enough action, but more importantly a good story to support it.

I was a little surprised to see Gene Kelly in this WWII drama. The film is one long flashback. It's not bad, but nothing out of the ordinary. If you like WWII propaganda films, this is decent. The story is about a lawyer with some personal problems and how he ends up in the services as a pilot. It's more drama than war film. The plot is a bit sappy at times and just generic, war hero stuff, but if that's your cup of tea, you'll like it just fine. The flashback portions remind me a bit of the Mel Gibson/Sissy Spacek film "The River."Gene Kelly only has a supporting role and no, this is not a musical. The performances are generally quite good all around.