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Wednesday, 1 February 2012

Thunder Birds [Soldiers of the Air] (1942



Director: William A. Wellman
Gene Tierney, Preston Foster, John Sutton, Jack Holt, Dame May Whitty, George Barbier, Richard Haydn, Reginald Denny, Ted North, Janis Carter





























 
A veteran American flyer (Preston Foster) trains new recruits, including the acrophobic son (John Sutton) of his dead war buddy. Complications arise when the younger man falls in love with his mentor's girl (Gene Tierney). This propaganda piece, with a hackneyed love triangle, contains one bad scene: at a Red Cross station, where nurses are being trained, we get some dull slapstick and an unchivalrous attempt to make an unattractive girl the butt of several jokes. Everything else works well enough. The acting is solid, the color is gorgeous and the aviation scenes are impressive. A nice flashback scene features Dame May Witty, as Sutton's grandmother, strutting her stoic English stuff. The main reason to watch this is for Gene Tierney, who is as beautiful and charming as ever.

 

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