Dive Bomber (1941) User Reviews (46)

Great scenery, annoying plot

[Jim A · 6/10 · 4 October 2002]

This film is beautifully shot with incredible Technicolor photography of pre-WW 2 Navy aircraft in all their glory. (Note- Navy planes were purposely painted in bright colors to facilitate rescue at sea.)

Unfortunately there are a lot of annoying factors to the plot such as Allen Jenkins' alleged comic relief and some pretty unbelievable dialogue. Errol Flynn and Fred MacMurray spend a lot of time on manly stiff-upper-lip dialogue that is unbelievably stilted. There is a lot of real aviation medicine mixed in with some bogus movie baloney (the pressure suit they come up with is kind of a steal from round-the-world pilot Wiley Post). Navy pilots never used anything like that suit or the pressure belt in that time period. The film was actually shot at NAS North Island on Coronado island with the cooperation of the Navy.

If you want to see the kind of planes the Navy was flying in the late 30's, though, there is no better film. Look for the Consolidated Coronado 4-engine flying boat in one scene- a flying dinosaur!

See the pretty airplanes and brave men!

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 7 February 2008]

Errol Flynn is a Navy doctor who witnesses the death of a flier and completes a program to become a flight surgeon. The regular aviators resent him, especially the squadron commander, Fred MacMurray. But Flynn and his earnest colleague, Ralph Bellamy, solve one problem after another in aviation medicine, climaxing with the successful test of a pressure suit that costs MacMurray his life. The story, interesting as it is, is overwhelmed by the magniloquent visual imagery. All the flight scenes, except for a second or two, were shot in the skies over San Diego, and they are simply gorgeous. They don't necessarily capture the sensation of being air born, of loosing the surly bonds of earth and all that, but the pictures are captivating.

What splashes of color! The navy blue uniforms glittering with gold, the taupe summer dress, the subfusc leather flight jackets and while silk scarves, the haricot green oxygen tubes, the maize life jackets, the cornflower blue skies and puffy bone-white cumulus formations. And the sleek airplanes themselves with their gay, pre-war paint schemes: teal blue tails, Chinese red cowlings, canary yellow wings with diagonal stripes of heliotrope, the dashing squadron insignia of fuchsia and chartreuse, and -- and -- wait. A tragedy. My thesaurus just burst its heart and died of exhaustion.

But, really, I can't think of another film that beats these scenes of obsolete airplanes on the ground and in the air. It was released in 1941 and the irony is that every airplane we see, with only three exceptions that I was able to note, were already obsolete and about to be replaced, sometimes not soon enough. The dive bombers are underpowered Vindicators. The aviators called them "wind indicators." The attractively faired torpedo planes were Devastators, many of which were lost to the Japanese. The Grumman biplane in which MacMurray makes his final dive was to be replaced by the F4F Wildcat before the first battles at sea.

The acting is professional all around. (There is an entirely adventitious semi-romance between Alexis Smith and Flynn, creating a semi-rivalry between Flynn and MacMurray -- as if one were needed.)

But the acting hardly matters. The story is interesting and the photography outstanding. Flynn never looked more handsome, MacMurray more ordinary, and Bellamy more put-upon. Unpretentious and enjoyable.

Worth diving for

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 1 June 2022]

My main reason for seeing 'Dive Bomber' was for the cast. Particularly for Errol Flynn in a departure role, or at least in this particular period in his career where he was best known for his heroic roles in swashbucklers. That didn't bother me one bit, there have been plenty of actors in film history that take on atypical roles at least once in their careers and fare extremely well. Have also liked Fred MacMurray and Ralph Bellamy in other things.

While not a must see, 'Dive Bomber' is recommended by me or just about. Not just for the cast, but it also has very impressive aerial sequences and everything with the aircraft fascinates. 'Dive Bomber' is not a perfect film by all means, but anybody wondering as to whether Flynn could do more dramatic roles in more serious films and doubt it should see this. Was not sure initially myself, but it did surprise me and did remind me of his later roles where his acting did mature.

Am going to mention the not so good things first. Do have to agree that the humour is really not great (painful at its worst actually), very corny and forced with nothing being particularly funny. Also thought that for a film like 'Dive Bomber' it was not necessary, likewise with the very contrived subplot it features heavily in. Allen Jenkins did get on my nerves and felt out of place.

The pacing also isn't perfect, with it taking quite a while to get going. It runs on for a little too long perhaps as well.

However, a lot of things are great. It looks good, with some ravishing Technicolor that really shine in the action, the aerial shots absolutely astonish and the sets while simple don't look cheap or too claustrophobic. While still having that feeling in atmosphere. Max Steiner's score is typically stirring and lush, while not descending into melodrama. Michael Curtiz (another interest point, with him having directed two of my favourite films, 'Casablanca' and 'The Adventures of Robin Hood') directs with an assured hand on the most part, floundering only with Jenkins' subplot and to be honest it would have taken a miracle for anybody to make that subplot work.

Excepting Jenkins' subplot (sorry to go on negatively about this but that's how badly done it was and how much it stuck out), the dialogue intrigued and thought provoked. The story was far from perfect, but on the whole it engaged. The aerial action is enough to make the jaw drop and everything with Flynn and MacMurray anchors the film beautifully. Keeping personal life subplots to a minimum (generally) was a wise move, despite it meaning that Alexis Smith is underused. The acting on the whole is very good, with only Jenkins being bad. Flynn is really quite excellent and shows no sign of being taxed. Despite his acting style being very different to Flynn, MacMurray actually wasn't a mismatch and they are entertaining together. Smith does wonders despite being underused, but the best supporting performance comes from suitably stern and perfectly cast Bellamy.

Despite being far from a classic and having some big issues there are more than enough strengths to recommend it. 6/10.

A wonderful look at US Naval Aviation on the eve of World War II

[ELD · 15 June 2000]

While Dive Bomber has some formulaic elements, it is a glorious technicolor view of US naval aviation just before the US entered World War II. The air sequences include shots of aircraft (Vindicators, Devastators, Curtiss Hawks, etc.) that soon became obsolete and that I have never seen in any other technicolor film. The carrier scenes are set on the USS Enterprise the year before this ship fought in the Midway and Guadalcanal battles. The film is shot on location in San Diego, and I noticed landmarks like the Hotel Del Coronado and the Cabrillo lighthouse in the background. Thanks to Turner Classic Movies for playing this.

Up in the wild blue yonder.

[michaelRokeefe · 6/10 · 16 April 2005]

Legendary Michael Curtiz directs this exciting, well paced aviation drama about two naval officers(Errol Flynn and Fred MacMurray)who put aside their personal differences to work together conducting experiments to understand and prevent pilots from suffering altitude blackouts. Visually exciting pre war flick filmed at Pensacola that in turn led to accusations that in real life Flynn aided Nazi agents.

MacMurray and Flynn have very different acting styles, but work well together...of course Flynn seems to always be the focus. Alexis Smith is the rose among the thorns so-to-speak. The cast also features: veteran actor Ralph Bellamy and Regis Toomey, Robert Armstrong and Craig Stevens. After all these years DIVE BOMBER can still hold your attention.

Gorgeous Technicolor and impressive stars

[csteidler · 7/10 · 31 August 2018]

Fred MacMurray is a Navy flight instructor. Errol Flynn is a Navy doctor who signs up for flight doctor training. Ralph Bellamy is Flynn's gruff superior. These personalities clash but eventually earn each other's respect and join forces. Their big problem: How to prevent blackouts and high altitude sickness in fighter plane pilots.

Outstanding photography and stirring music back up the excellent star performances in this high class Warner Bros. production. The opening sequence contains amazing footage of the fleet in Hawaiian territory (less than a year before Pearl Harbor); the skies are filled with impressive planes and maneuvers throughout the picture, right through to a beautiful closing shot.

Flynn is totally charismatic in a role that's less flamboyant than his usual swashbuckler but no less heroic. Bellamy's lead doctor approaches his job with gravity and complete dedication. MacMurray is brash, demanding, loyal to both his work and his men.

The solid supporting cast includes Regis Toomey in a good role as MacMurray's pilot buddy. Not essential to the plot but adding pizzazz are Alexis Smith as a sort of off-and-on love interest and Allen Jenkins as a corpsman who spends the picture hiding from his wife. Cliff Nazarro also contributes comic relief with his double-talk bit.

Plot and dialog are solid...but this picture's main appeal is that everything in it just looks so good.

Warner Brothers Revisits San Diego

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 14 February 2006]

Seven years earlier Warner Brothers did a film called Here Comes the Navy which launched the buddy film genre and the teaming of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. It was shot entirely on location at the naval base there.

This time it's a more sophisticated story about Navy test pilots and flight surgeons trying to lick the problems of flight. Dive Bomber takes for granted the fact that very shortly the USA will be in a shooting war.

What is unusual is the reverse casting in Dive Bomber. Normally Errol Flynn would have been the test pilot and visiting from Paramount Fred MacMurray would be the doctor. My guess is that Errol probably asked Jack Warner for the change to do something a little different. Errol told many a tall tale in his memoirs, but one thing that was consistent was that he did get bored with his heroic image.

It works out fairly well for both guys. In fact later on Fred MacMurray played Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, World War I air ace in another film and I'm sure he was cast there as a result of what he did in Dive Bomber.

Of course a lot of the film is phony. Our pilots or no one else's pilots ever used those diving suit like contraptions that Flynn and fellow doctor Ralph Bellamy designed for high altitude flying during combat. That did come post World War II however.

Nice aerial footage done in gorgeous technicolor is another positive feature of Dive Bomber. Howard Hughes couldn't have done it better.

One other thing, leading lady Alexis Smith met and married her husband Craig Stevens on the set of this film. Stevens was a contract player doing secondary roles for Warner Brothers. He would wait for stardom much later on as TV's Peter Gunn.

Dive Bomber should still have appeal for aviation fans everywhere on the planet.

Rake In A Plane

[writers_reign · 6/10 · 11 May 2012]

This is something of a curio and a title that has certainly eluded me until now. 'Spig' Wead garnered most of his flying experience in the first world war and beginning in 1929 he converted this experience into dozens of screenplays throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s and it's reasonable that his early success as a scriptwriter enabled him to research developments in aviation. In Dive Bomber he turned in a screenplay that was released in the very year that America entered the second world war yet there is scarcely a reference to something that was surely on everyone's mind. Instead Wead gives us what amounts to a quasi documentary on medical research into high altitude flying and although he does fly a little 'action man' Errol Flynn is cast as a naval lieutenant who is also a qualified doctor and spends more time in a laboratory than in the air. The lion's share of flying is done by Fred MacMurray, on loan from his home studio Paramount and the film is formulaic inasmuch as Flynn and MacMurray clash in the first reel and only come to respect each other and develop a tentative friendship around reel 10. Likewise romance gets short shrift and Alexis Smith (receiving her first screen credit following a string of uncredited appearances) could just as well have phoned it it. It also marked the final collaboration between Flynn and Mike Curtiz who had been at odds all through a long a fruitful collaboration. Strangely bland but worth a look as a curio.

forget the plot, forget the actors,

[r4qire8 · 10/10 · 26 December 2004]

The real "stars" of this movie are the actual aircraft the US Navy had in 1940, both old and new. Those aircraft are all in their original markings and complicated paint schemes, during the time the Navy was converting from colorful to subdued colors. Every color was part of a complicated plan to identify each aircrafts place in squadron formations allowing quick identifications of exactly where each aircraft "belongs". All the planes are here, Vought Vindicators, Helldivers, Buffalos, F4Fs, PBY's, and even the little used and known Northrup dive bomber competitor of the Vindicator. The US Navy went all out with massed formations in the air and on the ground, close ups, long shots, all of it the most impressive I've seen on the screen, and every foot of it in living glorious color. No attempt to censor or exclude anything, almost as if the US Navy was saying, "Don't underestimate us".

There is only one thing better than seeing this film on VCR or DVD, and that's seeing it on the large screen as I have thrice in my life. If you find the chance to see it on the large screen, don't miss it.

The frosting on the cake is the stirring and patriotic score by Max Steiner, parts of which show up in his other film classics like Fighter Squadron. This movie may have been made made over sixty years ago, but you'll find yourself ready to go running off to your local Navy recruiter, the effect it must have made on its audiences at the time.

When you view this film try and imagine the actions most of these airplanes were in against the Japanese less than two years later, at places like Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, Coral Sea and Midway Island.

Too bad Germany, Japan, Russia, and most of the other warring powers didn't leave a color documentary of their air forces of the time.

"A girl can't compete with nuts and bolts"

[Steffi_P · 7/10 · 22 October 2010]

Although at this point America was not actually part of the war yet, there was a feeling that it soon would be, and as such a number of pictures appeared which could be described as preparation propaganda. This was especially the case at Warner Brothers, by far the most anti-isolationist of all the major studios. The trouble is, if your countrymen aren't actually out there fighting yet, what can you actually make your picture about? Dive Bomber takes up the *ahem* glamorous and exciting subject matter of aviation safety equipment testing. And this is not just some inconsequential MacGuffin that drives along drama and action, it truly is the heart of the picture, and the screenplay demands you pay intention to it. The beginnings of a romantic subplot involving Alexis Smith peter out and are never consummated or given closure, which is almost unheard of for a picture of this time. This is not to say that there is no human angle to this story, and indeed there is very well-written theme of camaraderie and the overcoming of antagonism which acts in lieu of a love story, a theme which is able to run alongside the research business rather than distract from it. Writers Frank Wead and Robert Buckner (the first a real-life pilot, the second a regular Michael Curtiz collaborator) make a fine job of balancing things out, often putting some device in early on that will pay off later. For example, MacFred, Regis Toomey and their buddy Swede are all introduced showing off their matching gold cigarette cases. When Swede's plane crashes in the next scene, he just looks like any other guy in goggles and leathers. But then the cigarette case falls out of his pocket and we remember the human being we saw alive and well a few minutes earlier.

If Wead and Buckner came up with this brilliant motif, director Curtiz makes it function, drawing us in on the dropped case with a smooth dolly shot which matches the pacing of Swede being taken away on a stretcher. This is very much the Curtiz style, using a camera move to pull our attention, but disguising it with some other movement so it doesn't look too forced. Another great example of this is in the bar after Regis Toomey has landed in the RAF plane. The camera is on Toomey and his pals, but pans over to Errol Flynn sitting across the room. During this movement a waiter walks through in the direction of the pan, which looks coincidental, but it smooths out the movement and stops it looking obvious and jarring. Dive Bomber is often praised for the quality of its aerial photography, but for me the moment that really shows a plane at its best is on the deck of the aircraft carrier. We cut from a shot of planes coming into land, to a very typical Curtiz set-up with a plane viewed from low angle filling the frame, which really demonstrates the scale and power of these machines.

A feature of Dive Bomber almost as strange as the jettisoning of the love angle, is the appearance of Errol Flynn in a non-action role as a Navy medic. He pulls it off fairly well, nailing the most important moments of emotional strain as he deals with the death of a pilot he operated on. Still his failure to master an American accent is grating, as it often was. Co-star MacFred is at his most bland, but at least he is not conspicuously bad, and his rivalry with Flynn is believable. However the only real standout performance is that of Ralph Bellamy, cast a little against type but still well within the range of such a versatile character player. Although his Dr Rogers is introduced as a rude and impatient man, we instantly warm to him, and we get the feeling he has kind of earned the right to be so curmudgeonly through his experience and professionalism.

The Achilles heel of Dive Bomber is, understandably, the fact that it's subject matter doesn't exactly scream excitement. And yet those involved, most of all the screenwriters, have done a very good job of making it work. True, it is a little long, and it never quite sets your pulse racing, but it manages to wring suspense and poignancy from the most unlikely places. The balance of flight scenes and ground-based science keeps up a good pace, so much that a handful of comic relief scenes featuring Allen Jenkins, Dennie Moore and Cliff Nazarro are pretty much unnecessary. And it even just about makes you interested in military medical research.

This should have been made as a documentary

[richard-1787 · 5/10 · 6 April 2022]

The biggest problem with this movie - and there are several - is that it tries to turn a scientific discovery into a dramatic feature-length film. Yes, Hollywood had done that successfully with biops of Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and others. But this time it just doesn't work. The eventual development of a pressure suit that allows fighter pilots to dive thousands of feet from great heights was certainly an important advance in military aviation. But it just doesn't make for a gripping story.

It doesn't help that efforts to add a *human element* are weak. Yes, there is the beautiful Alexis Smith, but her role is underwritten and none of the men really fall in love with her. That singular devotion to duty is admirable, of course, but not very interesting in a movie.

Yes, there are several instances here of brave men sacrificing their lives to further the military science we will need to win the war (which we hadn't entered yet, but it was inevitable by 1941). And there is Max Steiner's stirring music to make them even more inspiring.

But at two hours, this movie is way too long for the story it wants to tell. It would have been better as a 15-20 minute documentary.

Very enjoyable pre war flick

[reve-2 · 8/10 · 30 May 2000]

I really enjoyed this beautifully photographed pre WW II movie. At 133 minutes in length it is pretty long but, so fast paced that the time goes by quickly. There seems to be great chemistry between all of the actors. Sterling performances are the order of the day by Flynn, MacMurray, Toomey and Bellamy as the leads. Add to that, good secondary performances by the large cast and it adds up to one fine film. The air sequences are vivid with detail and the color photography is outstanding. In a bit of irony, at one point Flynn is assigned to duty on the USS Saratoga in Pearl Harbor but his orders are changed. Since this movie was filmed and released just prior to December 7th, 1941 it seems almost clairvoyant. Lastly, I must second the comment made by another reviewer concerning a ridiculous bit of nonsense concerning the character played by Allen Jenkins as he tries to evade his wife. IMHO this bit was totally unnecessary and did nothing but detract from the story. What is really unexcusable is that they performed this bit on three occasions (talk about overkill). But, the rest of the movie was far too superb to allow this one bad bit to mar the overall enjoyment.

FLYNN TRIES TO DO RIGHT BY THE AIR FORCE...!

[masonfisk · 7/10 · 11 May 2022]

Errol Flynn rears his gorgeous head in this military drama from 1941 where he plays a doctor in the air force hoping to come up w/a system so pilots won't black out (something that occurred w/some frequency) during flights where they'd contract altitude sickness. After a pilot dies from injuries sustained from just such a diagnosis, Flynn decides to enroll in aviation courses to better understand the effects of the phenomena abetting another researcher played by Ralph Bellamy. Reconnecting w/the friends of the deceased pilot, one played by Fred MacMurray, Flynn makes headway when they volunteer (after blaming him for the death of their friend) but when Flynn's theories bear fruit (as MacMurray's colleague is discharged for excessive fatigue only to perish flying for the Canadian air force), will his findings be implemented in time? When the film sticks to this particular malady pilots once faced, it soars (sorry!) but then Alexis Smith (who made a couple of films w/Flynn) shows up as the nominal love interest between Flynn & MacMurray & it seems director Michael Curtiz (directing Flynn for the 12th & last time here) got cold feet the audience wouldn't be engaged in its male dominated yarn, a shame.

Let's Smoke 'Em Out!

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 8 August 2013]

After a tragic World War II-era mission near Hawaii, handsome US Navy doctor Errol Flynn (as Douglas "Doug" Lee) must perform a controversial operation. This puts him at odds with dive bomber Fred MacMurray (as Joe Blake). The storyline involves complications from "blackouts" pilots experience during dive bombing. The co-stars continue to study the problem in San Diego, under the command of stern Ralph Bellamy (as Lance Rogers). There are so many cigarettes you'd think the film was promoting tobacco more than the War. Feminine attraction is provided by beautifully-proportioned Alexis Smith (as Linda Fisher) and some shapely female extras. The film looks nice in Technicolor.

***** Dive Bomber (8/12/41) Michael Curtiz ~ Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Alexis Smith

dauntless aviators

[mundsen · 1 November 2004]

As a snapshot of the US military on the eve of Pearl Harbor, this has a poignancy that it didn't have on original release. The "Enterprise" has a starring role, just two years before Midway (and incidentally, notice how SMALL the carriers are: I guess jet fighters needed vastly bigger ships).

And look at the aircraft: innumerable biplanes, and the rest of them already obsolete. No combat (- and, in fact, no bombs, which is odd, tho' i guess in 1941 the idea of Americans actually dropping nasty weapons like bombs was still a controversial notion.) Lots of formation flying: (this is Warners, after all, the home of Busby Berkeley!) Almost every outdoor scene has a flight of real aircraft zooming through it: the effect is sumptuous, and makes even "The Battle of Britain" look very small beer. Much credit to Michael Curtiz and crew for stage-managing all this.

There are no real surprises in the plot, though it moves through the clichés at an agreeable pace; nonetheless, it's an interesting commentary on the days when flying was not a "routine" activity.

But the reason to watch this is the photography. This is a Technicolor show-piece. The aerial footage is downright glamorous, and many of the interior scenes are filled with interest (though interior lighting problems are apparent, particularly in Flynn's make-up).

Plot-wise, the focus wanders back and forth from Flynn to MacMurray, which leaves both characters slightly unfinished. Flynn was obviously very difficult for Americans to write for: this actually sounds like Bogart dialogue. Flynn looks embarrassed and diffident throughout(he's very good though, and his voice is beautiful). Alexis Smith is fun; possibly the only interesting twist in the script is that the women are both unredeemed ratbags: the slush component is, hence, lower than it would be once hostilities commenced. Ralph Bellamy is good, doing the transition from "guy who doesn't get the girl" to "gruff character actor".

Modern viewers will laugh at the chain-smoking doctors (especially the one with the heart problem).

Max Steiner's score doesn't grab me particularly, but there are some nifty musical effects during the "blackout" sequences.

Holding a salute is mandatory Wrong headrest

[rljsmlch · 7/10 · 18 July 2016]

When pilots take off from carrier early in film they first show the three of them in planes with large light brown headrests then they show them in planes with small dark brown headrests. Before they take off McMurray does not hold his salute when receiving orders from the commanding officer; a great no, no. Tim and swede Larson also have not been schooled in how to salute. A minor point except to those of us who have been in the military. Film is very pedantic excessive minutia dialog. Since not at war as of filming. The RAF would have given Tim a very through physical after he was grounded by US Navy and would not have let him fly their planes if he was fatigued. Bad error in film. The Limeys are not that big a fools. The RAF plane that Tim flies is a silly little racer and not a real RAF fighter. Poorly done.

A Cigarette Was The #1 Prop For Pilots & Military Medics

[strong-122-478885 · 6/10 · 24 October 2013]

Released in 1941 (just a few short months before the Japanese actually attacked Pearl Harbor) - Dive Bomber (with its spectacular Technicolor photography of pre-WW2, U.S. navy aircraft) was also something of a historical document of the American military just prior to its involvement in the war.

Dive Bomber's story-line, though not historically accurate, was depicted in a near-documentary style that contained elements of true events that involved period aero-medical research, as well as the use of real contemporary medical equipment.

Even though big-name stars such as Errol Flynn and Fred MacMurray headlined Dive Bomber's list of first-rate actors, it was this film's vivid cinematography and its superb aircraft (both old and new), along with its wonderful flying sequences, that were the real stars of the show here.

With its story set mainly in and around the U.S. Naval Base at San Diego, California, Dive Bomber tells the tale of a military surgeon and a high-ranking navy flier who overcome their personal differences and team up to develop a high-altitude suit that is specifically designed to protect pilots from "altitude sickness" and blacking out (a very big problem) when their aircraft goes into a deep dive while still high in the sky.

Regardless of Dive Bomber having a rather lengthy running time of 132 minutes, it was, for the most part, a very entertaining and interesting look at military aviation from yesteryear.

This film was directed by Michael Curtiz whose other notable films included The Adventures Of Robin Hood, Casablanca, Mildred Pierce and White Christmas.

A nice change of pace for Flynn

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 12 August 2007]

This is a very unusual film for Errol Flynn, as he plays a doctor and pilot trying to create better pressure suits for the Army Air Corps. This is far from the usual romantic or action adventure role, but it suits him well. Also unusual is seeing Flynn paired up with Fred MacMurray, but they work out well together.

Despite much of the film being spent in labs and pressure chambers, there are plenty of aerial scenes to please airplane buffs (like me) and keep the movie from being too technical or too claustrophobic. While the overall film doesn't offer a huge number or surprises, it was amazingly good and a much more serious film than the Cagney film CAPTAINS OF THE CLOUDS--which was released a short time afterwords--also by Warner Brothers.

Flight surgeon story is a time capsule redeemed by gorgeous Technicolor...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 14 April 2007]

DIVE BOMBER is a rousing tribute to "those magnificent men in the flying machines" at a time when America was about to enter into WWII when those bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor. This is a pre-war film starring ERROL FLYNN and FRED MacMURRAY, filmed in stunning Technicolor with some great looking aerial scenes, and interesting for showing the techniques being used then to combat altitude sickness among flyers during typical dive bomber maneuvers.

Flynn is fine, and so are his co-stars, FRED MacMURRAY (on loan from Paramount) and RALPH BELLAMY. ALEXIS SMITH appears once in awhile as Flynn's aristocratic looking girlfriend who can't get his full attention because he's too intent on working on solutions with flyer MacMurray. It's not the usual love interest angle but Smith makes the most of her flattering close-ups.

She made the most of other compensations--she met hubby CRAIG STEVENS on the set of this film and promptly wed him before filming was over. Stevens has a small role as a student prone to get into fights who almost gets kicked out of the service by MacMurray after some sloppy flying.

It all looks gorgeous in some of the best three strip Technicolor Warners did in the '40s--even better than CAPTAIN OF THE CLOUDS with Cagney. And, of course, air force aficionados are going to get a lot of glee out of observing all the aircraft of the period used for the flying scenes (of which there are many).

Seems that this is the film that put a real strain on the relationship between Flynn and director Michael Curtiz. Hereafter, Flynn refused to be directed by the volatile Hungarian and his next films were helmed by Raoul Walsh.

The story takes awhile to get going and when it does, it suffers from some poor comedy from ALLEN JENKINS in a contrived sub-plot that has him hiding from his wife. REGIS TOOMEY is good as an over-aged pilot, but among the supporting players, it's RALPH BELLAMY who does the smoothest job as the lab doctor dedicated to his job.

Summing up: Neither plot nor stars are quite up to the magnificent Technicolor photography but, as usual, Max Steiner's jaunty score sure helps.

Trivia note: The non-stop smoking while working in labs, let alone during all casual talk, is a reminder of how much non-restricted smoking went on in everyday life during that time period. Times have changed!

US Naval Aviation on the eve of its greatest trial

[clyde6970 · 9/10 · 29 December 2000]

Fred MacMurray's character tells a group of cadets that they will soon realize that they will share in "making history as it is made today." Given the immediate future of the US Navy, those were prophetic words. A year after the making of this movie the US Navy was fighting for its life, at long odds, against the Japanese. This movie gives a glimpse at some of the planes that the Navy used in the early days of the war. A poignant sight is the view of the "Devastator" torpedo bomber squadron. They are the all blue planes shown early in the movie right after Errol Flynn says "those planes do something to you don't they?" In the critical battle at Midway a year later, the sadly out-of-date Devastators were almost totally wiped out in a brave but futile attack. Many of the pilots flying those Devastators in the movie must at have fallen at Midway. Errol Flynn puts his swashbuckling on ice in this movie as his character's main deeds in this movie are cerebral. The Navy's aviators and planes are the stars of this show and Flynn is more a team player in this movie than usual. The planes and pilots provide thrills enough.

Last Michael Curtiz-Errol Flynn collaboration features military flying techniques

[jacobs-greenwood · 6/10 · 18 December 2016]

This last of the twelve (director) Michael Curtiz-Errol Flynn (actor) collaborations is a drama which details the research that went into solving two aviation problems experienced by pilots just before the United States' involvement in World War II: blackouts, caused by pulling too many g-forces, and altitude sickness, caused by flying too high.

A dive bomber is a pilot who flies his airplane to a high altitude before he points it straight down to launch a high speed attack on an enemy target, like a warship, before pulling up and leveling off. This technique allows the fighter-bomber the element of surprise while providing a minimal target to the enemy during their approach, and before they deploy their ordinance. Unfortunately, despite its title, this is not well explained (perhaps because it's in evidence) in the film, which focuses instead on the role of the flight surgeon, credited with solving the aforementioned problems.

The film-makers received unprecedented access to the Naval Air Station on Coronado Island near San Diego, California. So, in addition to the drama itself, the movie contains lots of footage of air military operations, such as flying in formation, and even a glimpse of the aircraft carrier soon to see significant action (even becoming "famous") in the war's Pacific campaign, the U.S.S. Enterprise.

These sequences and the "early" Technicolor helped cinematographer Burt Glennon earn the last of his three unrewarded Academy Award nominations. The story, by former Navy aviator Frank 'Spig' Wead and screenwriter Robert Bruckner, is somewhat average, but it is interesting and does hold one's attention despite the film's 2+ hour length. Besides Flynn, it stars Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Alexis Smith (the first of a handful of films she made with Flynn), Robert Armstrong, Regis Toomey, Allen Jenkins, and Herbert Anderson (among others).

MacMurray, Toomey, and Louis Jean Heydt play three of the Navy's hotshot, top hat, pilots. Naturally, one of them has to die (Heydt, whose character meets the same fate in a similar Wead film, Test Pilot (1938)) by blacking out during a dive bombing exercise to get the story rolling. Flynn plays a Harvard educated doctor who convinces the senior surgeon (Moroni Olsen) to operate on the dying pilot right away, but to no avail. This causes MacMurray and Toomey to falsely blame Flynn for their friend's death. Because he wants to help solve the blackout problem, Flynn decides to become a flight surgeon, a doctor who receives flight training. It should come as no surprise that MacMurray is assigned as his flight instructor.

Bellamy is the flight surgeon educator who teaches Flynn the other parts of his job, and seems to resent his college educated student's cocksure attitude. However, after Flynn learns that Bellamy was injured by being his own guinea pig while solving some of aviation's earlier problems, his respect for (and assistance to) Bellamy becomes mutual, and the two work together to solve the issues at hand. It takes a bit more for Flynn to win over MacMurray, especially after the flight surgeon trainee grounds Toomey for declining health. Even though pupil Flynn shows teacher MacMurray that he's learned to fly well AND solves the blackout problem (with a belt that keeps significant amounts of blood from rushing below one's heart), it isn't until Toomey dies as an RAF pilot that the flight commander apologizes to his student, and then agrees to be a guinea pig himself. MacMurray then works with Flynn and Bellamy to develop a high altitude suit not unlike that pictured in this article, to solve the other problem.

To add (?) to the story, Smith plays an initially married woman who chases Flynn's character and is almost featured in a love triangle with MacMurray's. Armstrong plays an airplane designer. Jenkins plays a sidekick of sorts to Flynn's character; his sidekick Cliff Nazarro, master of double-talk gobbledygook, helps Jenkins avoid his wife (Dennie Moore). Anderson plays 'Slim' (not 'Chubby' as listed on IMDb.com), a fellow flight surgeon trainee to Flynn's character, and Craig Stevens plays the Yale educated pilot trainee Anthony.

Smoke Bomber

[ArtVandelayImporterExporter · 5/10 · 6 February 2021]

There are a lot of pluses to this navy propaganda film: beautiful movie stars including Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith; Technicolor flying sequences of super-cool flying buckets; and scenes at or over the lighthouse at Point Cabrillo, NAS North Island, Hotel del Coronado, the long-stretch of beach in front (or back, if you prefer) of the hotel, and the Naval Training Center (now Liberty Station). I highly recommend visiting any of these spots (well, you probably aren't walking on to the actual base, of course) if you're ever in San Deigo. America's most beautiful city, for my money.

Unfortunately it's all in service of a super-dull story about the flight health of various curmudgeonly naval pilots. It was like watching a film in science class. The conflict between MacMurray and Flynn seems contrived. Alexis Smith's radiant beauty is wasted. The ''comic relief" is irritating and completely out of place. And the smoking. Always with the smoking.

Beautiful but overlong and ultimately not very gripping other as a technicolor record of Flynn and Smith's ridiculous good looks and San Diego's numerous charms.

An Excellent, Underrated Film

[DrHypersonic · 10/10 · 13 October 2006]

Dive Bomber is a far better film than commonly assumed. Rather than just another '30's flying flick, it addresses some issues that were, in fact, at the very top of aeromedical research at the end of the 1930's: high altitude flying, cabin pressurization, the physiological strain of repeated flights to high altitude and then rapid descents, the ability of pilots to withstand high-g loadings (on the order of 8 or 9 g) during dive pull-outs. It was a time when all the U.S. military services (and foreign ones as well) were rapidly expanding their recruitment and training of flying doctors--what were called flight surgeons in American practice--who coupled the practical experience of being trained aviators with the professional expertise of trained physicians and laboratory researchers. Such individuals played a major role in advancing flight into the stratosphere and, after the war, into space. Once stripped of these more significant elements, Dive Bomber echoes many of the themes found in more conventional aviation films of the time period: brash young pilot, grumpy older squadron-mates, kindly mentor, the "guy you know will die," etc. What it has in abundance is extraordinary COLOR footage--not tinted--of some of the most interesting aircraft of the time period: Grumman F3F biplane fighters, Vought SB2U Vindicator dive bombers, Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers, Stearman and Ryan trainers, etc. The Navy really supported the film (Fred MacMurray was, in fact, a USN Reserve officer, and there are wonderful shots of old North Island NAS in San Diego, as well as landmarks such as the Hotel Del Coronado, beloved by generations of naval aviators. It also shows one of the ironies of the period: dive and torpedo bombers were modern cantilever monoplanes, while the Navy's fighters were still braced biplanes! There is a somewhat sobering element as well. The film was made before Pearl Harbor, and one wonders just how many of the young aircrew seen in the film--particularly those TBD pilots, many of whom perished at Midway--survived the war. Rent it tonight!

A shining tribute to the Navy.

[bobsgrock · 7/10 · 22 October 2009]

Michael Curtiz's Dive Bomber is without a doubt one of the most beautiful and humbling films to pay tribute to the boys that guard us on the sea and in the air. Here, Errol Flynn plays a Navy surgeon trying to solve two of the biggest problems facing Navy pilots: blackouts and high-altitude sickness. He teams up with researcher Ralph Bellamy and pilot Fred MacMurray to test different theories and see what works and what doesn't.

There is a lot that doesn't work with this movie, but there is some which does. The aerial shots of planes taking off cruisers and flying in different patterns in the air is somewhat beautiful and totally astonishing. The colors blend well together and it truly is a credit to Curtiz that he made all that work. Aside from that, the biggest weakness here is the plot. It is too long and has too many subplots that have nothing to do with the main thread of finding cures for pilots, such as that of a man avoiding paying his wife alimony and Flynn fighting a man after crashing into him on the road. Flynn and MacMurray are great actors, but the dialog here seems dumbed-down some and the characters are too stiff and aristocratic for us to relate to them.

I would recommend seeing this for its aerial cinematography and because Flynn and MacMurray are two of the most likable actors of all time. Still, more than once is not necessary.

Plays out more like a newsreel, than a film.

[yarborough · 4/10 · 31 July 2003]

Dive Bomber is a movie that seems like it could be based on a true story, but the problem is it's just not that entertaining of a story or film. The film actually seems like a overlong newsreel about the importance of aviation and it's safety. Errol Flynn does a great job and so does Fred McMurray. But the rest of the cast is downright annoying, especially the one naval officer who has the problems with his sister. Ohh man, I have no idea what the filmmakers were thinking when they put that garbage in the film. I think that guy and Joe Brown have got to be probably the two most annoying actors to ever grace the big screen. I feel sorry for Olivia De Havilland, she had the wonderful oppurtunity to work with these two goof balls. In all not one of Errol Flynn's better films. *1/2 out of ****.