Today We Live

The producers saved a lot of money on the action scenes. Most of the RAF combat footage was borrowed from Howard Hughes' epic, "Hell's Angels." The bomber that Gary Cooper and Roscoe Karns fly is a replica used with rear projection. The real one, a Sikorsky S-29, belonged to Roscoe Turner and was used as a stand-in for a German "Gotha" bomber in "...Angels." It was destroyed during a scene in which the aircraft was spun from 7,500 ft. by Hollywood pilot Al Wilson, while mechanic Phil Jones worked the smoke pots in the rear of the cabin. Wilson was unable to recover from the spin and, after shouting to Jones to bail out, left the aircraft. Jones apparently didn't hear the warning and rode the plane to his death in an orange grove in Pacoima, near present-day Whiteman Air Park. The camera crew was not prepared to catch the crash, so a JN-4 ("Jenny") was rigged with dummy wing-mounted engines and pushed over a Santa Paul bluff to recreate the Sikorsky's unplanned crash for the cameras.

The German fighters that Robert Young shoots down in "...We Live" were from the climactic air battle in "...Angels" and were flown by such legendary stunt pilots as Frank Clarke, Frank Tomick and Leo Nomis.

"...We Live" wasn't the only film to use "...Angels" aerial sequences. Others included "Cock of the Air" ('32), "Sky Devils" ('32), "The White Sister" ('33), "Crimson Romance" ('34), "Hell in the Heavens" ('34), "Suzy" ('36), "Ace Drummond" ('36), "Stunt Pilot" ('39) and "Army Surgeon" ('42).