Dive Bomber (Warner Bros.) (1941)

THE PLAYERS Pee ee = ERROL FLYNN SOB eo. nee FRED MACMURRAY UANCOeeS ec ia Ralph Bellamy Bo ee a Alexis Smith PPPAYONS 5. oisc ec... Pe ee Robert Armstrong Tine @iiiiitente ae. ace ee Regis Toomey sbtlerydamess. 2 ............ Allen Jenkins Jotth: Thomas Anthony... casi onc... Craig Stevens Chubby. = ee ee eee Herbert Anderson Senior Surgeon at San Diego o.oo... eccccecccececeseseees Moroni Olsen a Dennie Moore Ne ae Louis Jean Heydt Corps Man ........... Seema, oo... Cliff Nazarro PRODUCTION STAFF Directed by MICHAEL CURTIZ Screen Play by Frank Wead and Robert Buckner; From a Story by Frank Wead; Directors of Photography, Bert Glennon, A.S.C., and Winton C. Hoch, A.S.C.; Technicolor Color Director, Natalie Kalmus; Chief Pilot for Warner Bros., Paul Mantz; Aerial Photography by Elmer Dyer, A.S.C., and Charles Marshall, A.S.C.; Art Director, Robert Haas; Sound by Francis J. Scheid; Film Editor, George Amy; Dialogue Director, Hugh MacMullan; Medical Technical Advisor, J. R. Poppen, Commander, (MC) U.S.N.; Special Effects by Byron Haskin, A.S.C. and Rex Wimpy, A.S.C.; Aeronautical Technical Advisor, $. H. Warner, Commander, U.S.N.; Makeup Artist, Perc Westmore; Orchestral Arrangements by Hugo Friedhofer; Musical Director, Leo F. Forbstein; Title Dive Bomber"’ by Lieut. R. A. Winston, U. S. Navy; Music by Max Steiner. This Picture Produced under the Auspices of the Motion Picture Committee, Cooperating for National Defense. THE STORY (Not for Publication) There is instinctive antagonism between Joe Blake (Fred MacMurray) and Dr. Douglas Lee (Errol Flynn) when they meet at the Honolulu naval air base hospital. Lee has just operated unsuccessfully on Joe's flight comrade, badly mutilated after a plane crash. The occasion, however, results in Doug's determination to be a flight surgeon, one of the advanced specialists doing research work on a cure for the dread “pilot black-out,"’ result of too high altitude and the “dives required of the dive bomber. Asking for this new assignment, Doug leaves Honolulu and his playgirl friend Linda (Alexis Smith) and reports at San Diego. Joe has also been transferred there as a flight instructor. Their enmity continues until another incident—the death of one of Joe's friends who flies against the advice of Doug who has found him a victim of chronic fatigue. Joe then begins to realize the importance of the work that Doug and Dr. Rogers (Ralph Bellamy) are doing, and agrees to cooperate. Linda "follows the fleet" to San Diego and the two vie for her favors, but in friendly fashion. Together Joe and Doug perfect a pressure oxygen suit, which they hope will prevent the high altitude sickness. On the day it is to be tested, Doug examines Joe, finds that he has reached the chronic fatigue point and cannot be permitted to fly. Defiantly, Joe dons the pressure suit, takes off in a dive bomber before he can be stopped. While he is up his oxygen supply is frozen in the lines. Before he blacks out, he jots down a final note to Doug for correction of their design. The next day the Naval Air force pays tribute to the man who, by his death, has made flying just a bit safer for other fighting pilots. Still DB 134; Mat 203—30c FRED MACMURRAY and ERROL FLYNN head the cast of Warner Bros.' spectacular new air drama "Dive Bomber," filmed in Technicolor. The picture will have its first local showing on Friday at the Strand Theatre. ‘Dive Bomber’ Pioneers New Screen Story Field Errol Flynn and Fred MacMurray Star In Technicolor Film Coming to Strand Timely as tomorrow is “Dive Bomber” the new picture which the Strand Theatre will show starting Friday. The big Technicolor special tells the story of the Navy’s unsung heroes who fly more for science than for glory and who made possible the development of divebombing. “Dive Bomber,” not only pioneers a brand new (to the screen) story field, it sets precedent in a lot of other ways. Fred MacMurray, borrowed from Paramount, is co-starred with Warners’ own Errol Flynn, and billing is an even-Stephen matter. MacMurray is the one who does the flying, dies the hero’s death. Flynn is a medico, working with “Dr.”’ Ralph Bellamy to solve the mysteries of what happens to men in the stratosphere; black out, high altitude sickness, aeroembolism, night blindness, etc., etc. He plays the role straight, on the serious side. One of the biggest scenes in the picture goes to Louis Jean Heydt, an able actor, well established, but a stranger to most audiences until they see him and then say “Oh yes, I remember that fellow in...” MacMurray, killed off late in the story, naturally doesn’t get the girl, played by exotic-looking newcomer Alexis Smith. Neither does Flynn. In fact she doesn’t “get”? anybody in the picture. She’s a divorcee, out for a good time with almost any man in a navy uniform. And in the picture all the men are too busy with naval aviation matters to give her more than a quick kiss and a pleasant brush off. “Dive Bomber” has another definite bid as the picture unique. Being filmed, as it was with complete navy cooperation and under strictest navy scrutiny to make certain that every single thing was right, it has had six high-ranking technical directors, three of them commanders, one a captain (Captain George D. Murray of the aircraft carrier Enterprise), and two flight lieutenants. Because the navy gave full cooperation, millions upon millions of public dollars worth of planes, ground equipment, building facilities and landing fields, not to mention the U.S.S. Enterprise itself, were turned over to director Michael Curtiz, “shot” by the color cameras for the action-packed film. ‘Dive Bomber’ Filmed At U. S. Naval Air Base Errol Flynn and Fred MacMurray head a company of 150 film makers who went to the naval air base, San Diego, to film Warner Bros.’ U.S. Navy air thriller “Dive Bomber.” The film had full government approval, and shows advanced naval attack and defense tactics which, it is said, will do more than any other feature ever filmed to acquaint the public with the superb power and organization of this branch of the government service. “Dive Bomber” was _ filmed in technicolor. Commander J. R. Poppen and Commander Seth Warner were assigned by the naval aeronautics bureau _ in Washington to work with Warner Bros. director Michael Curtiz on technical details in connection with the project. U. S. Navy Strength Shown in New Film Fifty million dollars worth of fighting airplanes make up the background for a single motion picture scene—one bright shot for Errol Flynn’s new starring picture “Dive Bomber,” made by Warner Bros. at the U. S. Naval air base, San Diego. Most of the planes were the huge PBY5 Consolidated bombers. Others were interceptors, torpedo bombers, dive bombers, . and plane carrier craft with folding wings. The planes were not in the scene because director Michael Curtiz had asked for them. It just happened that that many craft were at the base at that particular time, result—a_perfect and exciting shot to thrill you on the screen. “Dive Bomber’ was filmed in technicolor.