A Yank in the R.A.F. (1941)

The Age of Commercialism

Brilliant and touching

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck. Copyright 3 October 1941 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 26 September 1941. U.S. release: 9 September 1941. Australian release: 19 March 1942. Sydney opening at the Regent. 8,943 feet. 99 minutes.COMMENT: A witty and amusing script, surprisingly convincing acting and a couple of songs from Miss Grable, fine photography and some spectacular bits of action (including the evacuation of Dunkirk); - it all adds up to excellent entertainment.OTHER VIEWS: A Yank in the R.A.F. does not hold up so well on a second viewing, despite Shamroy's groovy photography and Reg Gardiner's delightfully impertinent performance. The dated war-time propaganda also does not help. Sersen gets a solo frame credit for his special effects, though they are not all convincing. Still, the script, despite its familiarity in plot, presents some believable characterizations which were daringly realistic, even unsympathetic, convincingly played by Power and Grable. Neame, Whitehead and Kanturek (and Herbert Mason) also get a single frame credit, though there is not terribly much aerial footage. All the elaborate scenes were recreated in the studio or in the Lockhead Factory grounds. JHR writing as George Addison.

If this movie concentrated more on the flying scenes it would have been so much better. Given the footage available during the early stage of World War II, and the obvious need for aircraft to defend Britain rather than make movies, they are pretty good. Some of the dogfight footage was done with models in a studio, but done really well. The only problem with it is that flying a multi-engine bomber in combat is quite different from piloting a single engine fighter, and the transition wouldn't have been done as quickly as seemed in the film. My biggest complaint is about the scene in which Tyrone Power literally assaulted Betty Grable trying to get her to marry him. Even if head over heels in love with someone, an assault like that should have been a red flag, and Grable behaved like an abused partner who stays in a marriage. I may be applying 2012 standards to this, but I don't see how it would have been appealing to many in the audience.

Maybe this was a great flick. I didn't think so but I must have missed something because I didn't care about any of it. And yet others score it higher than my generous and benevolent 5/10. At first I cared; would Betty gain her senses and go with the suave Brit? Would she spy the other suave Brit who loved her from afar? No, she keeps running back to the jerk. And Power was a very annoying jerk. And it just keeps going on and on. Maybe I'm just jealous. I could never treat a woman like that and have her crawling back over and over.......Anyway, this movie could have had the chaps doing anything and it wouldn't have mattered. It had nothing to do with the war. It was a love triangle flick, with not enough action to keep the men in the audience interested. The lead lads could have been trucking dynamite over the Rockie Mountains, building a skyscraper in NYC or bagging groceries at the local Piggly Wiggly. It wouldn't have mattered. It was about the love triangle and that just does nothing for me, especially in a 'war movie'. There wasn't even a cliché chance for one of the competitors to save the other one and get killed in the process. No, in the end they traipse off as a threesome. Nothing is resolved and the jerk is still hitting on every woman he sees, nobody wins. I find it annoying.5/10 ...nope make that 4/10. What a waste of time.

TYRONE POWER doesn't play his usual brand of hero, he's an irresponsible self-centered (but charming) heel -- the kind who usually gets the girl. This is a serious war film but it focuses mostly on a light hearted romance between Tyrone Power and Betty Grable. Set in the era just before America entered the war, it was up to the Brits to put a halt on Hitler. Quite a few Americans joined this effort and the story reflects the long challenge ahead -- long before victory.Interesting to see BETTY GRABLE in a 1941 film. She was the #1 pin-up girl of the World War II GI's. She wouldn't have been my choice but she was an inspiration to thousands of my betters; the older guys who fought the war while I was in grade school.Darryl F. Zanuch (producer/writer) and Henry King (director) were a hard pair to beat in terms of excellence. Looking back on 20th Century- Fox in the 1940's, Fox only made two kinds of pictures: pretty darn good and excellent. They set the most consistent high standard in film history and I defy anybody to name a bad movie by Fox in this decade -- or a good one in 2007.These days young people see dreadfully unpatriotic and dishonest films about the war. PEARL HARBOR "justified" the Japanese attack on the USA in the opening minutes --- and this was done for the stated purpose of insuring good box office in Japan. Equally bad in terms of patriotism was SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, wherein linguine-spined Steven Spielberg painted a yellow stripe on the backs of the Normandy Invasion heroes as well as the Sullivans, upon whose true story the film was cribbed. For the real story, look for THE LONGEST DAY and THE SULLIVANS, both on DVD.Seeing A YANK IN THE RAF" reminded me that Hollywood was once a pro-American industry, strongly patriotic, with numerous real war heroes working there and bragging not-at-all about their service to their country.