Air Force (film)
| Air Force | |
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Theatrical release title lobby card
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| Directed by | Howard Hawks |
| Produced by |
Hal B. Wallis Jack L. Warner (executive producer) |
| Written by | Dudley Nichols |
| Starring |
John Garfield John Ridgely Gig Young Arthur Kennedy Harry Carey |
| Music by | Leo F. Forbstein |
| Cinematography |
James Wong Howe Elmer Dyer Charles A. Marshall |
| Edited by | George Amy |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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124 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3,000,000 (1942) |
| Box office | $2.7 million (US rentals) |
Air Force is a 1943 American black-and-white World War II aviation film from Warner Bros., produced by Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner, directed by Howard Hawks, that stars John Garfield, John Ridgely, Gig Young, Arthur Kennedy, and Harry Carey. Made in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack, it was one of the first of the patriotic films of the war, often characterized as a propaganda film.
The story revolves around an actual incident that occurred on December 7, 1941. An aircrew is ferrying an unarmed Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber named the Mary-Ann across the Pacific to the United States Army Air Corps base at Hickam Field when they fly right into the middle of the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor and the beginning of America's direct involvement in World War II. An uncredited William Faulkner wrote the emotional deathbed scene for Ridgely, who played the pilot of the Mary-Ann.
On December 6, 1941, at Hamilton Field, near San Francisco, a United States Army Air Corps B-17D bomber named the Mary-Ann and its crew are being readied for a flight across the Pacific.
Master Sergeant Robbie White (Harry Carey), the Mary-Ann's crew chief, is a long-time veteran in the Army Air Corps, whose son, Danny White is a West Point graduate, an officer, and a pilot. The navigator, Lt. Monk Hauser Jr. (Charles Drake), is the son of a World War I hero of the Lafayette Escadrille. The pilot is Michael Aloysius "Irish" Quincannon Sr. (John Ridgely), the co-pilot is Bill Williams (Gig Young) and the bombardier, Tom McMartin (Arthur Kennedy). Sergeant Joe Winocki (John Garfield) is a disgruntled gunner who, as an aviation cadet in 1938, washed out of flight school after he was involved in a mid-air collision in which another cadet was killed. Quincannon was the flight instructor who requested that the board of inquiry dismiss Winocki. The navigator and bombardier also washed out of pilot training.
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