The Fighting Lady (1944)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

hyped garbage

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

"The Fighting Lady" is a documentary about an Essex class aircraft carrier during its tour in 1943-1944. The film is narrated by Robert Taylor--who was a lieutenant in the Naval Air Corps. Interestingly, there was a French version and it was narrated by Charles Boyer. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary. The ship was apparently the USS Yorktown--but not the original one (it was lost as a result of damage sustained at the Battle of Midway in 1942).As you watch the film, you will no doubt notice that the print is in terrible condition, as the print is a bit blurry and the color is very faded. Perhaps it's made worse because originally it was shot on 16mm film stock.The film is particularly interesting for historians, navy and aircraft buffs and perhaps for folks who lived through the war. Otherwise, I doubt if the average person would enjoy the film very much or rent it or buy it in the first place. It isn't that it's poorly made--it's that it's just very dated and the narration a bit dry. But, if you can look past this, it is a very good film from start to finish.By the way, there were only two films nominated in this category for 1945--this one and "Resisting Enemy Interrogation"! Both are quite interesting and well made--and interesting peeks into the Americans in WWII.

Security being an important wartime measure, this aircraft carrier's name was classified as a result. However, most of the footage, above and below decks, about life aboard a carrier was filmed aboard the newly commissioned ESSEX class carrier, YORKTOWN. She was named and sponsored by Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt January 1943 after the "OLD YORKY" which was lost during the The Battle of MidwayThe Navy Department reported that at least 75 percent of the documentary footage was shot aboard YORKTOWN, with the remaining footage shared between HORNET and TICONDEROGA. And one scene filmed aboard BUNKER HILL.Before shaping a course for Panama and transit through the canal, and while still on her shakedown cruise in the Caribbean Sea Frontier Area, Commander Frank "Spig" Wead, the crippled naval aviator turned screenwriter was instrumental in getting YORKTOWN's captain, J.J. "Jocko" Clark to allow Twentieth Century Fox to film some background shots for the new war movie, "Wing and a Prayer", starring Dana Andrews, Don Ameche, and Charles Bickford.The carrier transits and clears the Panama Canal and shapes a course out into the Pacific. So YORKTOWN along with her ESSEX class sisters would become, before Japan surrendered, the champions of the Pacific naval campaign. They were to carry the ball, the Sunday punch, all the way to Tokyo Bay.Of all the combat photography recorded it was the aerial footage that was impressive for its time. With the strafing and bombing of ground targets on Marcus Island YORKTOWN's aviators receive their baptism of fire. They could now call themselves combat veterans. Then there is the strike against the large Japanese naval anchorage at Truk Lagoon in the Carolines.Appearing on the film with members of his staff is Vice Admiral Marc A. "Pete" Mitscher. Also present with Mitscher but not named was Rear Admiral John S. "Slew" McCain. His grandson being Lt Commander John S. McCain III. The Viet Nam war veteran. Now serving as the Senator for Arizona.There is a fine aerial shot of the carrier task force resting at anchor at Majuro Atoll in the Marshal Islands early in 1944. Three of YORKTOWN's sister ships are present along with the older battle-hardened veteran the venerable ENTERPRISE. Also at anchor the battleships INDIANA, and a NEW Mexico class battleship along with cruisers, destroyers and other support ships. Standing out and conspicuously painted white overall, BOUNTIFUL AH-9, a naval hospital ship.During the assault on the Marianas Islands June 1944 the Japanese Mobile Fleet launched 373 aircraft to attack the U.S. Fleet. The combined squadrons of YORKTOWN and her sister carriers of Vice Admiral Mitscher's Task Force 58 intercepted the attack, with the loss to the enemy of more than 300 aircraft destroyed. So the Battle of the Phillipine Sea was to become just as famously known as, The Great Marianas Turkey shoot.Plaudits then are well deserved for Edward Steichen but certainly no less to Dwight Long and other photographers who presided over the job of shooting thousands of feet of 16mm Kodachrome film stock. The film actor Robert Taylor was the narrator. His voice was crisp and clear and easy recognisable.Twentieth Century Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck was not known to be very interested about releasing the documentary under the Fox logo. That's until he was persuaded to view it. He was impressed by what he saw. The story goes that he suggested giving it the title, "The Fighting Wench"! Who would not have cringed at such a brain dead title as that! An ungracious suggestion. Yorktown was indeed a great lady, as were her other sisters of the Essex class. So, recorded for posterity was a fine 60 minute documentary. The 1944 Oscar it received was well and truly deserved.

i saw this film as a child during world war 2 and it has stuck in my mind all these years. i remember the brilliant color and the aerial photography. i grew up in a texas town that had an army basic training post and the theater that day contained many, many basic trainees from camp wolters who cheered and clapped at the pro-american action. i can't believe this film isn't shown on the history channel and i further can't believe it isn't available to the american public.

The Fighting Lady is an American made `docudrama' typical of much Hollywood's war years production. It is narrated by Hollywood star Robert Taylor who had enlisted in the US Navy during WWII. There is no central character, rather it is primarily the story of life aboard a typical American aircraft carrier during the middle war years in the pacific. It includes some spectacular color gun camera footage of strafing and bombing missions at the battles of Marcus, Truk, and Kwajalern and the Marians. It acknowledges US losses, but does not tell of their extent: our carrier aircraft losses at Truk, for example, were particularly severe. The movie seems to be preparing the US public for a possibly long and costly conclusion to the pacific war. It describes the campaign necessary to conclude the pacific war in some detail. It is a campaign that thankfully was cut short. It should be seen as essentially a propaganda film, and is worthwhile viewing especially from that perspective.