Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

Heart-Warming Romance . . . Ripped from the Heart!

In the wake of Pearl Harbor, a young lieutenant leaves his expectant wife to volunteer for a secret bombing mission which will take the war to the Japanese homeland.

Date of release
1944-11-15
TMDB
6.7 / 10 (74)
Runtime
2h 18m
Genres
War, Drama
Director
Mervyn LeRoy

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $6.2M
  • Budget: $2.9M
  • Earned 2.2× its budget
  • Awards: 2 · Nominations: 2. Including: Academy Award for Best Special Effects; National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is a 1944 American war film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo is based on the 1943 book of the same name by Captain Ted W. Lawson, who was a pilot on the historic Doolittle Raid, America's first retaliatory air strike against Japan, four months after the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid was planned, led by, and named after United States Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, who was promoted two ranks, to brigadier general, the day after the raid.

Production

An error in the onscreen credits is perpetuated in many sources, including the Variety review. They list Ted W. Lawson and Robert Considine as authors of both "the book" and a "story" in Collier's magazine. Lawson was author of the book Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, although Robert Considine is given the credit "edited by". An extract of the story was in Collier's in May–June 1943.

The film is known for its accurate depiction of the raid and use of actual wartime footage of the bombing aircraft. The production crew worked closely with Captain Ted Lawson and other members of the raid to make the film as realistic as possible.

Dean Davenport was a technical adviser and stunt flyer for the film. He flew a B-25 bomber off a pier in Santa Monica, California, for a scene showing the take-offs from the Hornet.

Although an aircraft carrier was not available, due to wartime needs (USS Hornet herself had been sunk in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on October 27, 1942, only six months after launching the raid), a mix of realistic studio sets and original newsreel footage recreated the USS Hornet scenes. Principal photography took place from February to June 1944.

MGM informed the War Department that they aimed to dispel rumors that the Army and Navy were not effectively collaborating during the war, as well as generating support for China by depicting the aid provided for the downed Americans from the Chinese Army and peasants. However, the studio did not mention that the Chinese helping the downed flyers were Communist guerillas.

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

Recommended