AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Steineded How sad is this?

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

gregormandella Flight Command is a wonderful look into a Navy Fighting Squadron a year before the U.S. entered World War 2. Starring Robert Taylor as Ensign Alan Drake, a fresh graduate of the Navy's Flight School in Pensacola, he's an eager young pilot assigned to a veteran Squadron, Fighting 8, better known as the "Hellcats". Walter Pidgeon is his CO, Lt. Commander Bill Gary and Ruth Hussey plays Pidgeon's wife, Lorna Gary. All three put in a fine performance. The supporting cast does a fine job as well, making it believable that they were a very tight knit group of fliers.The movie had full support of the U.S. Navy and it shows. The attention to detail is excellent, giving the viewer a great inside look into what the pilots did in and out of the cockpit. The aircraft featured is the Grumman F3F-2, the last biplane fighter ever flown by the Navy on their aircraft carriers. It's great to see these pudgy fighters going through their paces. At the time this movie was filmed, Fighting Squadron 8 actually didn't exist. It wouldn't be formed for another year in the fall of 1941.The story line is quite touching at times, especially between the three main characters. Ruth Hussey plays the outwardly tough but inwardly unsettled wife of the squadron commander very well. There isn't a bad portrayal by any of the actors in the film. Hats off to the production team for keeping this film on the level. There's a realism to Flight Command that is very well done. I can imagine that this movie had an effect on recruitment of Navy pilots just like Top Gun did back in the mid 80's.I really couldn't recommend this movie enough, I feel it's that entertaining in so many ways. The story line, the acting and the look back at Naval Aviation at the end of its Golden Era make Flight Command a great choice.

Robert J. Maxwell I kind of enjoyed most of it. Robert Taylor, freshly out of Navy flight school at Pensicola, is assigned to the famous Hellcat fighting squadron in San Diego. He's an eager young boot. Like most, he tries too hard at first and receives various reprimands. When one of his mates is killed in a flying accident, Taylor tries innocently to comfort his buddy's sister, Hussey -- who happens to be the wife of the Hellcats' commander, Walter Pidgeon.The other Hellcats can't help but notice that Taylor is squiring around the commander's wife. He does things like fly her around upside down. It looks more than ordinarily suspicious because Pidgeon is conveniently off somewhere on duty. The other Hellcats get ideas and give Taylor an even rougher time. In a high dudgeon, Taylor initiates his resignation from the Navy.Well, things look pretty gloomy. Taylor and Hussey are guilty of nothing but Hussey has been made to question the kind of relationship she has with Pidgeon. ("Keep the flag flying," he always tells her.) And Taylor is being what the Old Order Amish call "shunned." This is 1940 and not yet wartime, but the moment has come for Taylor to perform some heroic deed and prove himself -- his flying skills and his moral stature -- in the eyes of his comrades. He does so.The triad of Pidgeon, Hussey, and Taylor is more textured and nuanced than it usually is in these routine stories. Hussey and Taylor, with a little less effort, could have fallen in love. That would require Pidgeon to die a hero's death. But Hussey and Taylor DON'T fall for each other, and the marital relationship is subject to some subtle questioning that almost resembles real life.The flying scenes, and there are three or four big ones, are exciting. They cry out for color. The pre-war paint schemes on these airplanes were really exuberant -- bright yellows, reds, and greens. When war came they got rid of the flamboyance and gave them colors with names like "sea gray" and "dull blue." A terrible loss.And you ought to see these stubby little biplanes. They're Grumman F-3-Fs. They're as unstable as inverted pendulums and they wobble all over the place when they fly in formation off the San Diego coast. The film misrepresents them slightly. They were armed with one .50 caliber and one .30 caliber forward-firing machine guns, whereas the movie gives them two guns of the same size. And when the aviators talk about "cruising at 350 miles an hour" they're dreaming. Two fifty was about it. Ugly suckers, they were quickly replaced by Grumman's single-wing Wildcat, and a good thing too.The performances are about what you'd expect in a more or less routine story about pilots, love, and the challenge of flight. No one stands out, except maybe Walter Pidgeon who, as always, stands out for not standing out. He always reminds me of some iron statue in the park. That's not necessarily bad. We need statues. Red Skelton is in the cast but has little to do. Paul Kelly, as "Dusty" Rhodes, is on hand to provide intensity.

jotix100 The Hell Cats, a group of Navy pilots are the subject of the film. These men showed a tremendous amount of courage in those early days of aviation before WWII. It's amazing what they could do, given the state of the technology. Basically, the film shows how the cliquishness of the more experienced pilots do to a newly arrived ace whose presence threatened the way they did things up to the time when Alan Drake, aka, Pensacola joins the group.The director, Frank Barzage, did marvelous things with what must have been a difficult task to photograph some of the scenes from the planes commanded by the Hell Cats. For having been made in 1940, the film must have been a ground breaker in showing some incredible stunts, like the landing in the aircraft carrier in formation is seen from one of the landing planes.The film showcases Alan Drake, an eager young pilot who joins the squadron. In joining the unit, he almost dies and has to eject from the plane he is commanding. That is when he meets Lorna Gary, who unknown to him is married to the base commander. "Pensacola", as he is known to the other men in the base, proves to be popular until his best friend dies trying to perfect a technique not approved by the Navy. The company sensing he and Lorna are having an affair quickly join ranks against him.Robert Taylor makes a good contribution as Drake. Ruth Hussey is wonderful with her Lorna Gary. Walter Pigeon plays her adoring husband Bill. Paul Kelly, Shepperd Strudwick and Red Skelton also make good appearances as some of the pilots."Flight Command", although dated, proves to be a pleasant time at the movies.

gleywong "Flight Command" was shown as part of the TCM Memorial Day series, and it deserves to be remembered for its excellent performances by the leads and all the supporting players, as well as the air scenes of single-engine planes flown by the squadron of Navy pilots. There is a lesson in their comraderie which is all the more moving when one considers the 1940 date and the skilful stuntwork of the planes for its time. Walter Pidgeon gives a classic performance, both strong and vulnerable, for which he will become better known in later films, and Ruth Hussey, usually in a secondary role, puts in a sensitive and generous performance as the "skipper's" stalwart wife in a part that could have been given to Myrna Loy. I am not a fan of Robert Taylor, but I felt he gave one of the more honest of his performances, and his good looks did not for once detract. Ruth's brother in the film, Shepperd Strudwick, hardly a known name, was well-cast as the outgoing, daring inventor working on a fog-navigating device. Between Pidgeon's Apollonian personality and Taylor's Dyonisian charm, Strudwick's relaxed and interestingly handsome face reminded me of Joseph Cotton in having a natural sense of gravitas in his manner.Even though the plot was not a complex one, the different character relationships, whether between the pilots themselves, or of the perceived triangle of Taylor, Hussey and Pidgeon, was sensitively handled, and the several tricky maneuvers demanded of the pilots kept me glued to the screen. Credit should be given to the director, Frank Borzage, for coaxing such balanced performances from the cast. As for the supporting roles, Paul Kelley and Red Skelton (apparently in his first film appearance) both deserve mention, as do the script writers. The situations and dialogue appear routine, but nothing that is said or done is hackneyed or banal.Of four ****, I would give it a highly recommended three***.