MartinHafer "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" is one of the best movies made during the war years. While the typical war film made during WWII avoided realism in favor of jingoism and propaganda, this one excels because it tried to get the facts right and plays almost like a documentary merged with a typical Hollywood drama. When you read about the efforts that MGM went to make the film, you realize it was a real labor of love and the movie holds up remarkably well today. This film is about the famous Doolittle Raid on Japan which occurred in 1942. While the actual physical impact of the bombing raid was not especially great, it was a bit public relations victory-- bolstering American morale and reducing the Japanese sense of invulnerability which had been prevalent. The movie begins shortly before the men were recruited for the raid and follows them through training, the actual raid and the fate of a bomber crew. Incidentally, all the planes were lost in the raid...it was intended as a one-way mission.What makes the film strong is not just the emphasis on realism but the acting and direction. Van Johnson was sort of an 'everyman' for the audience to love and root for...and MGM did a great job ladling on the sentimentality but not laying it on too thick. Having supporting actors like Spencer Tracy, Robert Walker and Robert Mitchum sure didn't hurt, either! All in all, a great film and an excellent tribute to these crazy but very brave men who did what their country asked. As for the best scene in the movie, it's a little one with no dialog...as you see a Chinese woman crying silently as some of the injured Americans are being taken to safety. Stunning.By the way, an excellent but over-the-top film about crew captured by the Japanese following the Doolittle Raid is also portrayed in Twentieth Century Fox's "The Purple Heart". It's an excellent film but occasionally lapses into propaganda mode a few times too often to be taken as seriously as "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo".

AaronCapenBanner Mervyn Leroy directed this true story set in WWII about the plan by Lt. Col. James Doolittle(played by Spencer Tracy) to launch 16 fully-loaded B-25s from an aircraft carrier into the heart of Japan, for a "hedge hopping" mission which will see a low-level bombing sweep, in order to take the Pacific war to them for a change, and also as a morale booster for an American public sick of defeats. The mission is told from the perspective of pilot Ted Lawson(played by Van Johnson) who misses his wife(played by Phyllis Thaxter) but must undertake this vital mission, even as he is shot down over China, and must make a perilous trek to safety. Long but engrossing film with good script and acting, and a detailed account of this important part of WWII history.

verna-a I was somewhat disappointed with this film and can only give it a charitable 5. Maybe patriotism is adding a rosy glow for other reviewers? The story is a good one and tension does build effectively towards the launch of the mission. Is the plane going to start? Is the takeoff going to be successful? After that, the actual raid is somewhat bland and lacking in tension, and the aftermath of injury and rescue is just corny and unconvincing. It was no doubt made on a limited budget, and it shows just about everywhere. Van Johnson carries the film, such as it is, with his boyish charm, hard to fault. Spencer Tracy acts with power and charisma, only wish we saw more of him. Robert Walker is effective in his part, and something of the emerging screen personality of Robert Mitchum comes through in his part. Otherwise, I found the script shallow and the acting painful. Phyllis Thaxter is unrelentingly saccharine in her part. The other actors seem under-rehearsed, or under-directed. They deliver their lines with verve but seem to just want to get them out and get off. There is rarely any impression that they are listening to other characters and considering their replies. The whole cast is two-dimensional and this really prevents the viewer engaging with them to any extent. It's an adventure story, sure, but it would be good if you felt more empathy for their personalities and concern for their survival! No doubt it fitted the bill at the time, but its value for present-day viewers is limited.

MHeying777-1 I was born in July, 1945, and viewed the film in 2009 as research for my memoir about growing up in a Texas orphanage. I was searching for clues about my mother's life, the era into which I was born. She would likely have viewed the film. I was struck by a line spoken by Ted's young wife Ellen and repeated in his mind at key emotional moments of the film.Ellen says (in effect), "This baby is what tells me you will come back to me." In the mind of an insecure young woman in a rocky marriage (as my mother was), the powerfully delivered message seemed to say: get pregnant to keep your man. It didn't work out that way. Right after my father left for duty in Germany, she divorced him. I was eight months old.I read the book when I was ten and enjoyed it immensely. I liked how the film portrayed wartime American culture, though I'm sure it was idealized for the propaganda effect.The buffoonery about singing "The Eyes of Texas" was painful because the abuse at the Texas orphanage was horrific.It's ironic that I live in Alameda, where the Hornet is a tourist attraction as a museum.