Winged Victory (1944)

Touches You

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Copyright 20 December 1944 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 20 December 1944. U.S. release: December 1944. U.K. release: 26 February 1945. Australian release: 28 June 1945. 15 reels. 130 minutes. Cut to 100 minutes in Australia.NOTES: Opening on Broadway at the 44th Street Theatre (sic) on 20 November 1943 and running a sold-out 212 performances, Moss Hart's Air Corps recruiting venture traced the exploits of a group of typical young Americans from induction to graduation, and thence to combat duty in the Pacific. Brilliantly staged by its author, with an enormous cast of uniformed men and civilian colleagues, Winged Victory was one of the major theatrical events of the wartime years. Space permits only a partial cast listing. Prominent in the company were: Edmond O'Brien, Don Taylor, Mark Daniels, Barry Nelson, Lee J. Cobb, Peter Lind Hayes, Alan Baxter, Philip Bourneuf, Dick Hogan, Rune Hultman, Red Buttons, Kevin McCarthy, Karl Malden, Danny Scholl, George Reeves, Ray Middleton, John Tyers, Whit Bissell, Ed McMahon, Gary Merrill, Anthony Ross, Martin Ritt, Don Beddoe, Michael Duane, Don Hanmer, Ray McDonald, Victor Young, Zeke Manners, Alfred Ryder, Phyllis Avery, Elisabeth Fraser, Olive Deering. Allergic to airplanes, Moss Hart nevertheless flew thousands of miles in Air Force bombers gathering material for his play. In addition, he insisted on waiving all royalties. During its S.R.O. six-month Broadway run, Winged Victory grossed more than one million dollars for the Army Emergency Relief fund. The play was produced by the U.S. Army Air Forces. Harry Horner designed the sets, David Rose wrote the music. COMMENT: Director George Cukor here proves that he does indeed have "the big feel" of a broad dramatic canvas. It was a mistake to fire him from Gone With The Wind. In fact, Cukor's skilled, polished direction and his spectacular handling of the action locations, are as major an asset to this tribute to the Army Air Force as is Moss Hart's restrained, naturalistic script, or Glen MacWilliams' admirably crisp photography. Cukor elicits uniformly excellent performances from his AAF cast. No expense has been spared, and production values are outstanding, with Barbara McLean's skilled film editing a treasure in itself.

Unless you have a personal connection to this movie, you will probably just consider it a good movie. In my case, my grandfather was involved in its production so I rated it higher. My grandfather was too old and had too many kids to serve during WWII so instead, he moved the family as needed to do his part. For most of the war, he was the final inspector for the bombers at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona. Some of the scenes with the bombers were filmed nearby. He received a certificate of thanks for his participation but it has been lost over the years. It meant a lot to my Dad and his siblings to be able to see this movie again.

I was 17 when this movie came out and in my senior year of high school.. Several of my friends enlisted in various services and I knew I was to be drafted when I became 18.. This movie made me make up my mind to enlist in the Army Air Corps..The movie was very accuate showing all the testing that we had to go through inorder to get into the Cadet program, but by the time I finished my "boot" camp and was about to get assigned, the war in Europe was about over and air-men were no longer needed.. I did serve as an aerial gunner/ flight radio operator so I did get some flying in before I was discharged.. Anyway I'm still trying to get a copy of that movie and I've also tried to contact 20th Century

This movie gets it right. As a former USAF Aviation Cadet, I can tell you this movie has it all. The tedium of the application process. The waiting for word. The joy of acceptance. The worry about making it through the course. The sorrow of watching one's buddies (perhaps the best of them) wash out. The anguish of paying the ultimate price - the death of fellow student airmen. The glory of graduation. Always the flying, the flying, the flying. Many are called but few are chosen. We did for pay what we would have eagerly paid to do. Later, a lifetime of flying fighters and close air support aircraft. Living through combat in Viet Nam but always with the foundation gained in the Aviation Cadet Corps.