Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Honors:
To an audience ever ready for a moral boost comes this
feature about their boys successfully struggling valiantly overseas. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo recounts the
dramatization of real events with magnificent special effects and a suspenseful story, all while being in
its own right a propaganda picture for the war effort. During the heart of
World War II this MGM feature knocks the ball out of the park with this glamorized cinematic telling of the United States’ first retaliation on Japan
after Pearl Harbor and is considered one of the finest cinematic achievements
in the genre of war and aviation features.
Thirty Seconds Over
Tokyo is war drama of the United States first strike on Tokyo told through
the eyes of a US bomber captain. Lt. Col. Doolittle (Spencer Tracy) assembles a
fleet of Army Air Force volunteers to carry out the secret mission that although
the audience by way of the title is aware, the main characters of the feature
do not know is the US’s first attack on Tokyo. Among the volunteers is the crew
of the B-25 “Ruptured Duck,” captained by Lt. Ted Lawson (Van Johnson). Upon
volunteering Lawson is required to leave behind his expectant newlywed wife
Ellen (Phyllis Thaxter), and it is the thought of returning to her and their baby
that is only thing that gets him through the horrors of war. We follow Lawson
and crew through the secret experimental training and the dangerous mission
itself. The hurried, but successful bombing mission takes a turn as the Ruptured
Duck crashes lands before reaching its base in China, and the crew with the
help of some local villagers strive to endure great injury and return home. Physically
and emotionally scarred by his experiences, an uncertain Lawson reunites with
his wife Ellen, pushing away the psychologically uncertainties his minds
presents him, presenting an emotionally heavy moment of release for Lawson.
Despite the film being a propaganda sugar-coated version of
the truth, this motion picture is a fabulous wartime feature with superb
special effects, gripping suspense, and stirring emotions. As with many war
films from its era, this picture draws up a happy representation of what serving
in the armed forces was like, in this specific case the Army Air Corp.
The officers, especially Doolittle portrayed by Spencer
Tracy, are made to appear to have greatly empathetically centered hearts for
the crewmen, and the crew themselves appear ever happy and willing to do
anything despite the dangers. In retrospect audience can see through it
cinematic façade, removing the rose-colored glasses the armed forces wanted the
greater public to think of their leadership. Even when the air crews are aboard
the carriers the Army and Navy members all have deep respect and admiration for
each other. In the real world many may know that there was, is and always will
be somewhat a heated rivalry between all branches of armed forces, despite
fighting for the same cause. However, all in all, we push this aside to simply
let the suspension of disbelief allow up to be taken on this journey.
Looking through all these polished pieces of propaganda we are
presented the heart of the story, the dramatization of the “Doolittle Raid.”
Director Mervyn LeRoy and crew do an exceptional job at depicting and pacing
the story penned by gifted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, one of the handful of
Hollywood screenwriters whose patriotism would famously be questioned after the
end of the war. Everything from framing, editing, timing, action, and even lack
of action, add a perfect pitch to the telling of this dramatic story.
Americans then would have little in the terms of
understanding of air warfare and this picture brings the audience into the
cramped quarters of the bomber to, in the most cleaned up Hollywood way,
present a more accurate sense of what it was like. Utilizing real bombers, both
outside and in, as well as actual wartime footage, LeRoy assembles a picture
that takes you to the center of the action. In some cases this feature presents
for the first time minor versions of real issues these men had to face
physically and emotionally, complete with crewmen suffering from motion
sickness, the worry of even the slightest hiccup with the planes, and the
feeling of helplessness in a bomber with little more than a thin, delicate
metal shell to protect them.
Looking back on the feature from a contemporary point of
view, perhaps the most dramatic moments of the feature are the moments
following the crash, when the crew is in a foreign land, unable to speak the
language, and do not know who to trust. Remember, the world was a much more
separated culturally speaking at that time, and the hatred for the Japanese as
enemies, would have Americans bred to be racist to all Far East nationalities,
including Chinese, Koreans, and the like.
This film with a supporting cast full of Chinese-American
actors portraying Chinese villagers is a brave movement in production. To see
the American characters responses to first seeing the Chinese in the film
manifest how ignorant Americans were at the time in a refreshingly honest,
although still sugar-coated, manner. Typically in years prior Hollywood studios
would have white men dressed up and in make-up to portray such nationalities,
but to see men who surely would be looked down on in a predominately white
Hollywood manifests at least a little change in the right direction socially,
is only for the slightest bit.
In the end the Chinese villagers and American airmen become
allies, even as close as brothers, sending a message that men beyond the US
boarders can and are just as human as the rest. However there remains great
room for improvement in the American social conscious as seen in this feature. The
movie still has the Chinese characters appear a bit on the primitive side, with
American missionaries needed to help lead the effort. In the gripping scene
where Lawson loses his leg and must have it amputated, it would have to be a
white American doctor that must perform the operation and the Chenese are said
to not have the medicine and perhaps the not even the knowledge to do so.
Hollywood and America was growing; slowly, but still growing.
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| the crew in front of the insignia for the "Ruptured Duack" |
Van Johnson provides the All-American pluck and vigor in his
performance as Lawson. In almost an innocent, Mickey Rooney-like way, Johnson is
the every-man of the picture; an MGM ideal version of an American male. Spencer
Tracy provides the star power in the feature, someone to shine on the marque of
the 1944 movie theaters, even though his time on screen was very limited as
high ranking officer Doolittle. His stern front was perfect in the cleaned up
Hollywood-zed version of the actual man that concocted the mission, but any MGM
actor could have filled the role to be honest. Tracy, in my opinion, is here
purely for his name to attract 1940s audiences.
The picture marks the screen debt of Phyllis Thaxter, who
portrays Lawson’s young wife Ellen. Ellen’s character fulfills the MGM ideal
American female, who is young, slim, beautiful, ever ready to help serve her trusting
husband. Her role for that time was to be a symbol of unconditional love and
beauty for a generation coming up through this war, an ideal that was being
injected in the minds of an America while being distracted by the tragedies overseas.
Curiously sharing a rather high starring credit is Robert
Walker, a 26 year-old actor who is featured in the role of Corporal Thatcher,
the “Ruptured Duck’s” young engineer. In a rather small supporting role, Walker
portrays an innocently young crewmember, whose demeanor and dreams of returning
home to Montana seems questionable as a one of the headlining “stars” of the
feature. It appears MGM had their eye on Walker’s boyish charm to perhaps breed
him into their line of stars. His innocence and youthful voice made him a mirror
image for many young men joining the armed forces at that time. However
Walker’s road in Hollywood would be troubled and end prematurely.
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| A photo from production of the Oscar winning special effects |
Cinematically Thirty
Seconds Over Tokyo would be remembered for its Academy Award winning
special effects with its near seamless use of models, pyrotechnics, and other
camera trickery to aid in the realism of air warfare. Even in an age of post-computer
graphics filmmaking, this motion picture still stands up very well with special
effects that feel as real as it gets. With these special effects and the
wonderful acting to go with it, the film is remembered as one the best aviation
films of its day and perhaps all time.
Thirty Seconds Over
Tokyo remains a strong motion picture. Despite its dressed up look at
America and the military, it remains a fine production that can be picked up by
any modern film lover and enjoyed to its fullest.
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