Fighter Squadron

Fighter Squadron (1948)

If it had wings, they'd fly it! If it had skirts they'd fight for it!

During World War II, an insubordinate fighter pilot finds the shoe on the other foot when he's promoted.

Date of release
1948-11-27
TMDB
6.1 / 10 (14)
Runtime
1h 36m
Genres
Action, Drama, War
Director
Raoul Walsh

Casting

Interesting facts

Fighter Squadron is a 1948 American World War II aviation war film in Technicolor from Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by Seton I. Miller, directed by Raoul Walsh, that stars Edmond O'Brien, Robert Stack, and John Rodney.

Production

In Fighter Squadron, the fighter group is equipped with 16 Republic P-47 Thunderbolts provided from the Air National Guard units in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, which were still equipped with the type. To portray Luftwaffe fighters, the film used eight North American P-51 Mustangs from the California ANG, with ersatz German markings.

Fighter Squadron used previously unreleased aerial combat color footage shot by William Wyler for his documentary, Thunderbolt! (1947). Additional location shooting took place at Van Nuys Airport, California.

Fighter Squadron, while fictitious, is based on the exploits of the fighter groups based in England before the D-Day Normandy landings. Screenwriter Seton Miller based the film on the actions of the 4th and 56th Fighter Groups. In the 4th Fighter Group, the men called themselves "Blakeslee's Bachelors"; when one got married, it was followed by ordered transfers to other units.

Warner Brothers recycled Max Steiner's main theme music from their Errol Flynn naval aviation film Dive Bomber (1941) as the main theme for Fighter Squadron. This rousing march was used again, three years later, as the main theme music for Warner Bros. World War II submarine drama Operation Pacific (1951). It would appear yet again, in the 1959 submarine film Up Periscope.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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