Guy Named Joe

There are some unusual aspects to the plot. Tracy is assigned to assist Van Johnson during training, but Johnson isn't the sort of guy Tracy would normally hang out with or even like. For example, we're told he's rich and just inherited 4 million dollars. When Johnson gets sent to New Guinea to fly in the south Pacific, he meets Irene Dunne, Tracy's former love, and Johnson starts putting moves on her, another reason for Tracy to dislike his assigned pilot.

But Johnson turns out to be a better guy for Irene than Tracy was, and Tracy even seems to sense or realize that, and at the end of the film, he finally lets her go.

There are some nicely done battle scenes in the movie, and the one where Dunne takes up the P38 and successfully completes a solo suicide mission Van Johnson was sent to do is notable in that this was a long time before women's lib. Dunne shows that she can fly as well as any man, and along with the scene where Tracy goes down taking out the German aircraft carrier (which the Germans never had), is one of the two most climactic battle scenes in the movie. Dunne shows she can be as good as any man, but still feminine, a role contemporary feminists don't seem to approve of.

All in all a decent movie with some interesting aspects to the characters and plot. Big Steve says go see it (or in this case, buy it) and don't Bogart the popcorn.

Its Van Johnson who makes her want to live again, and in the best scene of the movie, she realizes he ain't gonna make it when he's assigned a suicide attack mission in his P-38. What's amazing is this in the 1940s, but Irene Dunne jumps into his P-38 and flies the mission INCLUDING dropping bombs and firing machine guns at the enemy. Its startling to see and you don't see any feminists rushing to praise this picture. Its because she's a professional, a sexy woman AND a warrior, not a bitter man-hater. Like I suspect many from "America's greatest generation" she knew the enemy had to be defeated or else tyranny would rule the earth and instead of complaining pitched in and helped. Her goal was to help not be a female version of a male "Top Gun" egotist. Ahhh, that we had more women like her today!