wes-connors "They were the terror of the sky, a small daring band of American mercenaries who soared into battle against the Japanese in defense of China's freedom. They were aces, adventurers and heroes, America's hottest fighter pilots - 'The Flying Tigers'! Possessing unmatched skill and bravery, Jim Gordon (John Wayne), the Tigers' commander, is the top gun of China's skies. But he faces a battle on the ground when his good friend Woody Jason is suspected of recklessly causing the death of a fellow pilot and is accused of stealing Jim's fiancée. Jim's fight to retain his respect for Woody while maintaining the solidarity of his pilots is an explosive battle of courage and heroism that lights up the sky with action!" according to the DVD sleeve description.This looks like it was rushed together from other war stories featuring brave flight commanders and his heroic crews, with all the familiar theatrics - the exception that Captain Wayne (as "Pappy" Gordon) doesn't ease his pain with alcohol can be explained as the film's release during wartime necessitated a pro-war slant. Director David Miller and Republic Pictures owe their greatest debt to Howard Hawks, which can be evidenced by viewing "The Dawn Patrol" (1930) and "Only Angels Have Wings" (1939). "Flying Tigers" is usually claimed to be Wayne's first war picture, though he'd been fighting mightily in previous films. Herein, Mr. Wayne is a steadfast but easy to pushover leader, hotshot John Carroll (as "Woody" Jason) gets most of the script action, cute nurse Anna Lee (as Brooke Elliott) cleans up quickly in the bath, and Paul Kelly (as "Hap" Davis) supports the team well. Mouseketeers will recognize a young Jimmie Dodd.The picture should have been titled "Flying Sharks", to match the painted airplanes. It starts with a quote from "Generalissimo" Chang Kai-Shek, who praises United States forces for their glorious support of his invincible Chinese people. So sad, the Chinese are unable to conjure up a plate of roast beef for Captain Wayne. No matter. The first big story stumble occurs when Wayne advises Mae Clarke (as Verna) to have her husband report for duty in the morning without revealing that the two had spoken; hopefully, Ms. Clarke was able to figure something out. The film is so programmed and artificial, it's difficult to recommend - but, many in the cast are enjoyable, and they've included some good, action-packed aerial footage.***** Flying Tigers (10/8/42) David Miller ~ John Wayne, John Carroll, Anna Lee, Paul Kelly

thinker1691 Here is a movie straight out of the annals of World War Two. The Japanese Empire was sweeping through Asia and destroying large parts of mainland China. Few of their adversaries were able to stop them, but one unit made history, by encountering them over the skies of China. In 1940-41 General Claire Chennault formed a mercenary group of American Flighter pilots to combat the invading Japanese. The movie based on their exploits is called " Flying Tigers " and star's John Wayne as Capt. Jim Gordon. Although an America propaganda film, it was designed to stimulate America's involvement in the war. Later, it came to symbolize America's contribution to the multi-national effort to fight the Japanese. The movie is in Black and White, crude, coarse and blatantly patriotic. Still it gave a boost to morale at a time when things were not going well for the U.S. or China. As a result with the additional cast of John Carroll, Paul Kelly, Gordon Jones and Edmund MacDonald as 'Blackie Bales' the movie succeeds in creating a rousing yarn of heroic young men and the niche they created over the Asian skies. ****

bkoganbing The Flying Tigers and God Is My Co-Pilot are the two films out of World War II which are dedicated to the American volunteers who flew for the nascent Chinese Air Force both before and after America officially got into World War II. Though this film is based on fictional people it holds up a lot better than God Is My Co-Pilot because it avoids the racial stereotyping of the Japanese. The Japanese are seen, but only in aerial combat shots with no dialog. And it's true they did have a nasty habit of machine gunning fliers while they were parachuting down, no avoiding that.The main plot of the film is John Wayne as the disciplined leader of this particular squadron of Flying Tigers based somewhere in western China and an old and rather undisciplined friend John Carroll in a rivalry over nurse Anna Lee. Carroll's irresponsibility causes the death of one man and maybe another.Still he's not a bad sort, just an overgrown kid. Carroll actually has the best moment in the film consoling Mae Clarke the widow of one of the Flying Tigers.Some nice aerial combat shots are in this film and it really should be seen today to explain some of the Chinese attitudes towards the Japanese today. We got into World War II on December 7, 1941 which in fact the men in Wayne's squadron hear about in the film. The Chinese were essentially at war with Japan starting in 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. It was a longer struggle for them than for any other country.Other performances of note are Paul Kelly as Wayne's second in command and Gordon Jones are Carroll's sidekick. Check it out if it is shone on TCM.

Bill Slocum John Wayne's first war film was one of his best, a solid actioner with Wayne giving great presence as the leader of a fighter squadron doing battle against the Japanese invader over the skies of China in the dark days before the U.S. entry into World War II.Wayne plays Jim "Pappy" Gordon, a variation on the many flinty-commander-with-heart-of-gold characters he would play in films to follow like "Sands Of Iwo Jima" and "Fighting Seabees." Gordon is less flinty than most of them, maybe because his men are volunteers or maybe because his girlfriend Brooke (Anna Lee) is stationed on the same airbase. While the Japanese take their toll on his men, Gordon's toughest job may be keeping peace in his squadron when smug gloryhog Woody Jason (John Carroll) arrives.When I first saw "Flying Tigers" as a boy, the on-screen gore made the strongest impression. In those days, before pay television, it was something to see a Japanese pilot grab his face, blood oozing through his fingers. Times have changed, of course, but one is still impressed by the well-rendered dogfight sequences, for which Ted Lydecker was nominated for an Oscar. Though it's troubling to be entertained by what amounts to real images of people getting killed, director David Miller manages to incorporate actual combat footage very well into battle sequences that alternate with Lydecker miniature work and shots of actors in their cockpits, better than the more acclaimed director Nicholas Ray later did in another Wayne air war film, "Flying Leathernecks.""Flying Tigers" contains one key historical inaccuracy: While assembled in the months before Pearl Harbor, the Tigers didn't see action until December 20, 1941. This is an important caveat, but the inaccuracy allows for one of the very first and best examples of that classic movie cliché, where a dramatic scene ends with a glimpse of a desk calendar showing the date "Dec. 7." The scene that follows is one of those Wayne moments that resonated especially in theaters in 1942 and still packs a punch now: Pappy alone by a radio, standing expressionless while a cigarette smolders in his fingers, listening to President Roosevelt declare war.Neither Wayne's iconographic stature or final victory against the Japanese were sure things when "Flying Tigers" came out in 1942; we tend to take more for granted and give films like this less credit. Wayne was 35 and not a real soldier, yet he came to define the war effort for many. Judging from the way some comments here attack him as a straw dog for present U.S. war policy in Iraq, Wayne's potency as a symbol remains undimmed.Climbing off his P-40 after an early mission, Wayne is shown a row of bullet holes on his fuselage. "Termites," he says laconically, before striding away.I give a lot of credit here to Miller, who knew what he had in Wayne before anyone else did, and uses the actor's terse authority to great effect. Miller was making propaganda, yes, but effectively and sensitively: We see Chinese children victimized by war, including one shot of a wounded child crying after a bombing clearly modeled on a famous war photo of the period. Unlike other wartime films which went heavy on ethnic stereotyping, the Japanese are seen as skilled, ruthless adversaries who require resolve to face down.The film does lose altitude at the end, when Wayne goes off on a hare-brained bombing mission and Carroll has a "why-we-fight" epiphany that rings rather hollow. Maybe it's because he's playing a heel, but I find Carroll hard to take, with his Clark Gable mannerisms and the way he seems to always play to the camera rather than the other actors. There's also a little too much melodrama between Wayne and Lee that feels out of place in a war film.But "Flying Tigers" has weathered the years better than most films of its kind, and is a historic landmark both for its effective action scenes and its pioneering use of Wayne as cultural touchstone. More than 60 years later, it still packs a punch.