A Yank in the R.A.F. (1941)

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

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.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

This is surprisingly good for being such a flimsy entertainment - to start with. Betty Grable sings two songs at a nightclub, and in the video available to me those two performances were muted - those songs can't have been much to listen to anyway, since all that counts when she is on stage is her legs. That's the first thing you see of her in the film, and whenever you see her again all you want to see is her legs. Tyrone Power is equally dandy, a roguish playboy getting off to Canada when he is supposed to land in New Jersey, wandering in which direction England lies...But this happy-go-lucky business gradually gets serious, as the war starts and stranded pilots suddenly find themselves surrounded by Germans in Holland - the air fights are the real treat of the film, and there are even some casualties. The change from show business to realism is what makes the film worth seeing, and although both Tyrone Power and Betty Grable are at their best, the English actors are just as good. It's both a great entertainment, an interesting war film from the beginning of the war, actually introducing it to an American audience, and with a proper finale in the guns and smokes and fires at Dunkirk. Tyrone Power even gets properly bandaged in the end.

Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck. Copyright 3 October 1941 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 26 September 1941. U.S. release: 9 September 1941. Australian release: 19 March 1942. Sydney opening at the Regent. 8,943 feet. 99 minutes.COMMENT: A witty and amusing script, surprisingly convincing acting and a couple of songs from Miss Grable, fine photography and some spectacular bits of action (including the evacuation of Dunkirk); - it all adds up to excellent entertainment.OTHER VIEWS: A Yank in the R.A.F. does not hold up so well on a second viewing, despite Shamroy's groovy photography and Reg Gardiner's delightfully impertinent performance. The dated war-time propaganda also does not help. Sersen gets a solo frame credit for his special effects, though they are not all convincing. Still, the script, despite its familiarity in plot, presents some believable characterizations which were daringly realistic, even unsympathetic, convincingly played by Power and Grable. Neame, Whitehead and Kanturek (and Herbert Mason) also get a single frame credit, though there is not terribly much aerial footage. All the elaborate scenes were recreated in the studio or in the Lockhead Factory grounds. JHR writing as George Addison.

A love triangle develops between womanizing American volunteer for the RAF Tim Baker(Tyrone Power), his bomber squadron leader, British aristocrat John Morley(John Sutton), and American nightclub entertainer Carol Brown(Betty Grable). Each of the two suitors have their pluses and minuses, as afar as Carol is concerned. Tim is footloose and impossibly handsome, meaning he has no problem attracting all the women he wants. Carol is his female counterpart in this respect, but acts more restrained when it comes to admitting new men into her life(unexpected for a nightclub entertainer). Morely is a classic gentlemanly British aristocrat, seemingly a tad dull on the surface, with a huge ancient mansion just waiting to be occupied by the right girl. Realistically, a show girl, however beautiful and sexy, would be an unlikely choice for a wife for a man in his position. She would much more likely be his mistress. Given the short mean life expectancy of RAF pilots then(Baker's plane was shot down twice within a short time), unless they quit the service at the end of the film, there was a high probability that neither Baker nor Morley would be alive for very long, especially since the 'Battle of Britain' would soon begin, with high casualty rates for pilots on both sides. Against expected plot formula, originally, the ending had Baker die a hero in the historic Dunkirk evacuation. However, a test screening elicited a strong negative reaction in the audience. Also, since Fox chief Zanuck hoped this film would promote popular sentiment toward a formal entry of the US into the war, it was feared that Baker's death might prove a war morale damper, rather than booster.The Lockheed-built Hudson light bomber is portrayed as the RAF bomber of the times. Superficially, with its dual tail fins, it looks rather like the then current RAF 2-engine Hampden bomber, as well as the later, much improved, 4- engine Lancaster bomber. However, it was used by the RAF primarily for training, submarine and coastal patrol and reconnaissance. It wouldn't be making bombing raids over Germany, as depicted(Where were the expected German defense fighters?). Also, it wouldn't be flying across the Atlantic, as depicted. Rather, when they reached the Canadian border, they were dissembled(believe it or not), and packed in crates, to be loaded on a ship and reassembled in the UK. Brash former mail pilot Baker decided to ignore this neutrality rule and flew his Hudson across Lake Ontario to Trenton. As some others have noted, the often clearly faked aerial maneuvers and battles make the film look cheesy.. Fortunately, some shots supplied by the RAF of real British warplanes and battles lend some credibility to the limited aerial segments.Although clearly very popular with film audiences of the time, I seldom find the characters played by Tyrone Power appealing or especially interesting. In the film, clearly, he had an advantage in his persistent pursuit of the resisting Carol, in past experiences of having her breakdown her defenses periodically. Clearly, she was going to have to accept the fact that Baker wasn't a 'one woman' man, if she was going to accept him back into her life...In contrast, I found Carol(Betty) very appealing, as obviously did many men in those times. Betty did a great acting job and the camera close-ups of her head were great. Also, she was the leader of a couple of brief song and dance performances at the nightclub the fliers frequented. Marriage between the two, as suggested in the final scene? It wouldn't have lasted a month, even if Tim was still alive. If you think Baker's treatment of Carol was chauvinistic, wait until you see his treatment, as a pirate, of Maureen O'Hara's character, in the following year's "The Black Swan"!Britisher John Sutton plays Power's chief rival for capturing Carol's heart, apparently ending as runner up: a fate he graciously accepts, knowing that he would be fighting an uphill battle all the way, considering that Baker and Carol had a long history of romantic involvement. For some reason, Fox generally chose to cast the gentlemanly, athletic, rather good looking Sutton as 'the other man', often comparatively stuffy. For example, he suffered a similar fate in competition with Victor Mature over Rita Hayworth, the following year, in "My Gal Sal". However, earlier in '41, he was the romantic lead to Gene Tierney, in "Hudson's Bay": my favorite of his roles that I've seen.

Maybe this was a great flick. I didn't think so but I must have missed something because I didn't care about any of it. And yet others score it higher than my generous and benevolent 5/10. At first I cared; would Betty gain her senses and go with the suave Brit? Would she spy the other suave Brit who loved her from afar? No, she keeps running back to the jerk. And Power was a very annoying jerk. And it just keeps going on and on. Maybe I'm just jealous. I could never treat a woman like that and have her crawling back over and over.......Anyway, this movie could have had the chaps doing anything and it wouldn't have mattered. It had nothing to do with the war. It was a love triangle flick, with not enough action to keep the men in the audience interested. The lead lads could have been trucking dynamite over the Rockie Mountains, building a skyscraper in NYC or bagging groceries at the local Piggly Wiggly. It wouldn't have mattered. It was about the love triangle and that just does nothing for me, especially in a 'war movie'. There wasn't even a cliché chance for one of the competitors to save the other one and get killed in the process. No, in the end they traipse off as a threesome. Nothing is resolved and the jerk is still hitting on every woman he sees, nobody wins. I find it annoying.5/10 ...nope make that 4/10. What a waste of time.