A Guy Named Joe (1943) was reportedly director Steven Spielberg's favorite and remade by him in 1989. Spielberg's film, entitled Always (1989), starred Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter and Brad Johnson in the principal roles, as the same Pete Sandich, Durinda Durston and Al Yackey. The characters of "Ted" and "Nails" were also included. The setting of that film was updated to the present and centered on the activities of forest fire-fighting pilots. Spielberg also included a clip from 'A Guy Named Joe' in his film Poltergeist (1982).
Three weeks after Van Johnson ("Ted Randall") began shooting his scenes, he was critically injured in an automobile accident on 31 March 1943; the next day, MGM announced they would replace him---reportedly with either John Hodiak or Peter Lawford. But Spencer Tracy, a close friend and mentor, insisted that they shoot around him during his convalescence. Johnson didn't return to work until the first week in July of 1943, more than three months later.
This picture was featured as MGM's big Christmas spectacular of 1943.
The P-38 Lightning, featured in this film, was one of the best planes of WWII in the Pacific since it was faster than most Japanese planes, highly maneuverable and could accept heavy damage and still fly. It featured forward firing guns, including 20mm cannon, rather than the angled wing guns on most planes. It had two bad features. First, it was not suited to cold weather at high altitudes in Europe, which kept it out of air-to-air fighting there and limited its participation to low-level strikes. Second, when bailing out a pilot had to roll the plane and fall out rather than crawling out and jumping since the horizontal stabilizer between the two tails frequently would hit the pilot as he jumped.
Along with Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne insisted the film's production be halted until Van Johnson was well after his auto accident, in which he was seriously injured. During this period, MGM snatched Dunne up to make The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), released the following year as the MGM 20th Anniversary film. As a thank you for her gratitude, Johnson appears in a small role in 'Dover.'