Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is a 1944 MGM war film. It is based on the true story of America's first retaliatory air strike against Japan four months after the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The movie was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sam Zimbalist. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo was based on the 1943 book of the same name by Captain Ted W. Lawson, a pilot who participated in the raid. In both the book and the film, Lawson gives an eyewitness account of the training, the mission, and the aftermath as experienced by his crew and others that flew on the Doolittle Raid of April 18, 1942. Lawson piloted the "The Ruptured Duck", the seventh of 16 B-25s to take off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet.
The film stars Van Johnson as Lawson, Phyllis Thaxter as his wife Ellen, Robert Walker as Corporal David Thatcher, Robert Mitchum as Lt. Bob Gray and Spencer Tracy as Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, the man who planned and led the raid.
The film is noted for its accurate depiction of the historical details of the raid, as well as its use of actual wartime footage of the bombers in some flying scenes.
Plot
The film begins in February 1942 as the United States Army Air Forces plan to retaliate for the Pearl Harbor attack by bombing Tokyo and four other Japanese cities. Lt Col "Jimmy" Doolittle (Spencer Tracy), the leader of the mission, assembles a volunteer force of aircrews who begin their top secret training by learning to take their B-25 Mitchell medium bombers off in the short distance of 500 feet or less to simulate taking off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. After depicting the squadron's month of hazardous training in Florida, the story goes on to describe the raid's successful launch from the carrier USS Hornet, the harrowing attacks on Japan by the 16 B-25s, and the raid's aftermath.
While en route to Japan, the Hornet's task force is discovered by Japanese picket boats, and the bombers are forced to take off twelve hours early at the extreme limit of their range. After their successful attack on Japan, all but one of the B-25s run out of fuel before reaching their recovery airfields in China. As a result, their crews are forced to either bail out over China or crash land along the coast (one bomber landed safely in Russia and its crew was interned for over a year). Lawson's B-25 unexpectedly crashes in the surf while trying to land on a beach in darkness and heavy rain. He and his crew survive, but then face tremendous hardships and danger while being escorted to American lines by friendly Chinese. While still in China, Lawson has a leg amputated by the mission's flight surgeon as a result of his serious crash injuries. The film ends with Lawson being reunited with his wife Ellen in a Washington, DC, hospital.
The B-25s about to launch from the
USS Hornet
The Ruptured Duck flies over a burning Tokyo in
Thirty Seconds over Tokyo.
Cast
As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):
A full cast and production crew list is on the IMDb profile.[1]
Production
Verisimilitude was obtained by working closely with Captain Ted Lawson and other members of the raid. The use of Eglin Field near Pensacola, Florida, the real base where the Doolittle Raiders trained, along with using operational USAAF B-25C and -D bombers which closely resembled the B-25B Mitchells used in 1942, made for a very authentic, near-documentary feel. Although an aircraft carrier was not available due to wartime needs, a mix of realistic studio sets and original newsreel footage faithfully recreated the USS Hornet scenes. Principal photography took place between February and June 1944.[2]
Reception
Although recognized as an inspirational patriotic film with propagandistic values, the New York Times critic Bosley Crowther in November 1944 summed up the universal verdict on the production, "our first sensational raid on Japan in April 1942 is told with magnificent integrity and dramatic eloquence..."[3] The film is now considered a "classic aviation and war film."[4]
Critical acclaim followed the film and many reviewers considered it the finest aviation film of the period.[5] The actual Raiders considered it a worthy tribute.
Awards
In the 1945 Academy Awards, the Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo team of A. Arnold Gillespie, Donald Jahraus and Warren Newcombe (photography) and Douglas Shearer (sound) won the Oscar for Best Special Effects. Robert Surtees, A.S.C. and Harold Rosson, A.S.C. were also nominated in the category of Black and White Cinematography.[6]
Popular culture
Actor Van Johnson did a 1970s commercial for Post Fortified Oat Flakes breakfast cereal on a set reminiscent of B-25s on an aircraft carrier flight deck, concluding with the line that the cereal would "take me to Tokyo – and back!" Jefferson Airplane's second live album Thirty Seconds Over Winterland (1973) is a humorous take on this title. Experimental rock band Pere Ubu's 1975 debut single is named after the film.
See also
References
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Dolan Edward F. Jr. Hollywood Goes to War. London: Bison Books, 1985. ISBN 0-86124-229-7.
- Harwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies". The Making of the Great Aviation Films, General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
- Orriss, Bruce. When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War II. Hawthorne, California: Aero Associates Inc., 1984. ISBN 0-9613088-0-X.
External links
