Aerial Gunner (1943)

Interesting facts

Aerial Gunner is a 1943 American black-and-white World War II propaganda film produced by William C. Thomas and William H. Pine, who also directed. The film stars Chester Morris, Richard Arlen, and Jimmy Lydon. This was the first feature film directed by Pine, who produced other films through his company, Pine-Thomas Productions. Aerial Gunner was distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Production

The film was announced in August 1942 and was based on an idea by Army lieutenant Jack Dailey, who had worked in public relations for Paramount; after joining the service, he worked in public relations for Harlingen Air Force Base. It became a vehicle for Richard Arlen and Chester Morris, who were the two top stars of Pine-Thomas Productions.

In October, Jimmy Lydon, who played Harry Aldrich in a series of B movies for Paramount, joined the cast. William Pine directed; it was his first film, though he had directed several wartime propaganda shorts. Thomas announced he would direct Alaska Highway, but he ended up not doing it, making his directorial debut on a different feature.

Principal photography for Aerial Gunner by the Paramount Pictures Pine-Thomas Productions unit took place from October 21 to mid-November 1942. Location work was done at the air gunner training school at Harlingen Air Force Base, Texas. Many of the USAAF trainees from the base are used in the film as extras.

Lita Ward made her film debut as the female lead. She lived in Texas and was cast while the film was shooting on location.

With the assistance of the USAAF, aerial scenes featured North American T-6 Texan and Beech AT-11 Kansan trainers at Harlingen Air Force Base, and Lockheed B-34 Lexington bombers. The use of operational aircraft lent an air of authenticity to this low-budget B film feature, although a number of ground scenes that were later added had to rely on studio rear projection work.

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