Customer Reviews

Dive Bomber

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Warner Bros. Pictures presents "DIVE BOMBER" (1941) (132 min/Color) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- Starring Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Alexis Smith, Regis Toomey & Robert Armstrong

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake (Fred MacMurray), Lt. Tim Griffin (Regis Toomey), and Lt. Swede Larson (Louis Jean Heydt) are longtime US Navy flying buddies, about to be transferred to different posts when Larson suffers a blackout during high-altitude maneuvers and cracks up. Navy doctor Douglas Lee (Errol Flynn) insists on trying to save him with an immediate operation, and the mortally injured pilot dies on the table. This sets the stage for a long, lingering, and bitter hatred between Blake and Lee - which is only exacerbated when Lee chooses to become a flight surgeon so he can help to find a solution to the problem of high altitude blackout. Lee is assigned to medical research with Lt. Cdr. Lance Rogers (Ralph Bellamy), a flight surgeon whose dedication to high-altitude research has left him unfit for further flying. Their work proceeds through small triumphs and terrible tragedy, and Lee and Blake keep crossing paths, unwillingly - they not only don't like each other personally, but end up competing for the attentions of the same woman (Alexis Smith) at one point. But they're forced to work together for the good of the service, even after Lee grounds Tim Griffin as medically unfit to keep flying. A fresh tragedy shows Blake that Lee has always been looking out for the best interests of the pilots, and they begin working together in earnest, at last.

If you want to see the kind of planes the Navy was flying in the late 30's, though, there is no better film. Look for the Consolidated Coronado 4-engine flying boat in one scene- a flying dinosaur!

BIOS:
1. Michael Curtiz [aka: Manó Kertész Kaminer] [Director]
Date of Birth: 24 December 1886 - Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary)
Date of Death: 10 April 1962 - Hollywood, California

2. Errol Flynn [aka: Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn]
Date of Birth: 20 June 1909, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Date of Death: 14 October 1959, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

3. Fred MacMurray
Date of Birth: 30 August 1908 - Kankakee, Illinois
Date of Death: 5 November 1991 - Santa Monica, California

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 5 Stars
Performance: 4 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 4 Stars
Overall: 5 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 132 min on DVD ~ Warner Bros. Pictures ~ (03/27/2007)

Title is a bit misleading as this is not an action movie, nor is is about dive bombers in particular. However, unlike too many of the almost unbelievable pre-WWII U.S.Navy movies with their silly plots and inappropriate characters, this movie is relatively good and is definitely more information driven --- though a bit low tech by today's expectations. Gives an interesting, though Hollywood-esque, picture of the kinds of problems that military aviation medicine had to address during that time period. Abolutely great shots of some vintage naval aircraft and the aerial photography is good. My only major complaint is the way the main enlisted characters are portrayed as clownish idiots, but that's nothing new for a Hollywood movie that coincentrates on officers. Those dim-witted Pharmacist Mates (now = Hospital Corpsman) could not have been anywhere true to life considering their petty offier status and and their actual real life responsibilities. This is especially true considering the marvelous record of courage and skill that Navy corpsman achieved with the Navy and Marine Corps just a few years later during WWII. It seems like Spig Wead's sailors frequently come off as less polished than they probably really were. Perhaps it's because he was an officer and never a lot spent real time with them --- despite, as a former pilot, his day to day, life and death, dependence on their mechanical and troubleshooting skills. Overall, a pretty good movie which over the years will allow future gernerations to get a glimse of one aspect of pre-WWII era naval aviation.

The story is typical pre second World War let's show off the Navy. The greatness is in the photogrophy. If you want to see what San Diego and Naval Air Station North Island looked like prior to the war, this is your picture.The aerial photography is beautiful, especially a shot of the Hotel Del Coronado circa 1940. When I see this film my thoughts seem to dweal on the Navy people who appear as extras in this film. How many went on to serve and give up their lives in the coming years? We where flying biplanes and Japan and Germany were flying ME 109's and Zero's.
Errol Flynn looks young, fit, and very much the Naval Officer. The script was written by Frank Wead (Wead's life was the subject of John Ford's Wings of Eagles)and depicts a very macho image of Naval Aviators. These were the Top Guns before there were Top Guns. So see the film for a great looking Flynn, the pre-War Navy at it's best and a slice of a California and America in a much more simple time. The war was right around the corner and The United States would never be the same.