Ladies Courageous (1944)

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

As the three previous reviewers have indicated, this is a pretty bad movie. Whether it is true that it was actually made to make the WASPS look bad, as claimed by one of those reviewers, I don't know. But it is certainly true that it makes some of the women pilots look selfish, over-emotional, etc. I don't ever recall once hearing any of the men in the movie comment on how good the women were at their job.It's strange, frankly, that Hollywood would bother to make such a poor movie during the war. I just finished reading *Hollywood Goes to War*, which recounts how the Office of War Information (OWI) worked with the studios to put a positive face on just about every aspect of our involvement in the war - not always successfully, granted. It seems hard to imagine that Universal - which generally made horror flicks and musicals - would intentionally set out to scuttle the WASPs. But then, it also seems strange that Universal managed to get Loretta Young, then a big star, to appear in one of their movies.I suspect there is some untold story here behind all this.Nonetheless, this is a pretty poor movie. Unless you have an interest in seeing World War II aircraft, there's really not much point in watching it.

The title "Ladies Courageous" is obviously inspired by the 1930s MGM film "Captains Courageous". However, instead this is the story of a group of women volunteers who served the armed forced by ferrying airplanes from the States to where ever they were needed--thus freeing up men to do the actual fighting. While the film is SUPPOSED to celebrate these women and SHOULD have been an advancement for the cause of equal rights, in many, many ways it seems to have the covert message "women really AREN'T as qualified as men". Why? Because too often these supposedly professional women act as if their every action is governed by feelings or raging hormones. Now don't get me wrong...I do NOT agree with this at all...but the film seems to constantly reinforce this idea because these supposedly smart women often act awfully dumb...and it's up to their Colonel (Loretta Young) to continually pick up the pieces and try to make the best of the many disasters caused by some of the women--particularly the Colonel's nutty sister. A truly weird film and one that should have inspired....not inspired laughter!

Women entered the work force during WWII. Some did so out of necessity, some did so out of patriotism and the women who were WASPS, women pilots, flew because they loved to fly. They were fiercely patriotic women who dared to dream of flying. I am helping one of these wonderful women prepare stories from this period (she is in her 90's). I am so proud to know her and have a chance to help compile this tiny bit of history. This movie was made and used as a propaganda movie by the "good old boys" as a way to get rid of women pilots. It made them appear like tramps. This is far from the truth. It did, unfortunately, work. The WASPS were deactivated as Congressmen were told to watch the movie, as if it were a documentary on the behavior of the girls. These women braved the unimaginable at this time in our history. They are heroes to every young woman who has a dream. This movie slanders their memory and service. It trivializes their bravery and service. Some of these ladies died. One of the jobs was to serve as a "tow target." That meant they flew with a big bullseye behind the plane so BOYS could get target practice. Too honorable and dedicated to reject such a foolish job, they did it. They were helping! Young girls of today have no comprehension how hard their grandmothers fought to give them the opportunities they have today. Someday, soon, I hope, they will remake an accurate form of this movie -- while some of these treasures are still alive. (Very few WASPS are still alive.) I was incredibly sad to see the summary of this movie, saying how it helped the "war morale." War is hell, but to use a movie as a vehicle to trash this group of brave women makes me sick. Would somebody please re-make this movie? Tell the REAL story of dedication, hard thankless service and sometimes death. My old friend actually started to cry when she told me Hollywood made a movie alleging they were all tramps. It always seems strange to hear an old woman to use those words. Yet, she was once a young woman -- she was one of the first women pilots in the world -- 21 years old with the wind blowing through her hair - literally. This was not done to get a man. They had to be perfect and "the best," because they had to prove themselves. I also could not believe that Congresmen watched this movie as "evidence" of how the women pilots behaved. It could not be farther from the truth. Remake time! Please!

I almost saw this movie at The Library of Congress last week, but...However, I did somehow stumble on this review from Time Magazine from 1944! Since there are no other comments, I thought I would add it here, sort of a public service, or something! My rating may be a bit generous.The New Pictures Monday, Apr. 03, 1944 Four Jills in a Jeep (20th Century-Fox) and Ladies Courageous (Universal) are Hollywood's idea of what women can do for the war and painful examples of what Hollywood, under the pressure of patriotism, can do to women. In the first, Hollywood vigorously shakes its own hand for letting some actresses go to shake a leg on the world battlefronts. In the second, Loretta Young, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Diana Barrymore pilot planes around the U.S. The Jeep bounces Carole Landis, Kay Francis, Martha Raye and Mitzi Mayfair through a catch-as-catch-can cineversion of Miss Landis' book (and Satevepost articles) of the same title, reporting their experiences as USO entertainers. In the book, only Miss Landis got married. In the picture, Martha Raye, the feminists' Joe E. Brown, practically ingests the comic sergeant (Phil Silvers) who chauffeurs their jeep. Mitzi Mayfair snuggles up to a uniformed ex-vaudeville partner (Dick Haymes, who is Fox's threat to Frank Sinatra, and sings like melting vanilla ice cream). Kay Francis plays handles with an English Army doctor who utters the stunning gallantry : "If I'd held this hand ten years ago I might have a full house now." Miss Francis just laughs. In Britain and Africa, the cinemactresses clearly enjoyed themselves, worked hard, and brought some pleasure to places where it was needed. But not much of the reworking of their travelogue is fun to see or hear. Ladies Courageous comes in on a shattered wing and an unanswered prayer, noses over, and spills out a motley set of WAFS (see cut, p. 94) who later become WASPS. This whole covey of highly burnished cinemactresses looks more like Wam-pas cuties than like aeronauts. Judging by their actions, they cannot be trusted to pilot a perambulator, much less a B17. Miss Barrymore philanders with another WAF's husband; his wife remorsefully crashes her plane. Miss Fitzgerald, a neurotic, embarrasses her sister, Director Young, by making a hot landing (for publicity purposes). But she compensates for that by all but killing herself and another WAF in two other planes. Loretta Young comforts her warmly: "You tried!" One wag emerged from the preview with a theme song for the girls: The men will forgive us (The ones that outlive us) No matter how often we fail. Who cares what trees-in The plane falls that she's-in. She's got a sting in her tail.