This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
| Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster |
|
| Directed by | Mervyn LeRoy |
| Produced by | Sam Zimbalist |
| Written by | Dalton Trumbo Book: Ted W. Lawson Robert Considine |
| Starring | Van Johnson Robert Walker Robert Mitchum Spencer Tracy Phyllis Thaxter Stephen McNally |
| Music by | Herbert Stothart |
| Cinematography | Robert Surtees, ASC Harold Rosson, ASC |
| Editing by | Frank Sullivan |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) |  15 November 1944 |
| Running time | 138 min |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is a 1944 MGM war film. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sam Zimbalist. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo was based on a 1943 book by Ted W. Lawson. In both book and film Lawson gives an eye-witness account of the training, mission and aftermath that he and his crew experienced as part of the Doolittle Raid in April 1942. Lawson shared his first-hand experience as the pilot of 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 Ellen Lawson, Robert Walker as Sgt. David Thatcher, Robert Mitchum as Lt. Bob Gray and Spencer Tracy as Col. Jimmy Doolittle, the man who planned and led the raid.
The film is also noted for its attention to historical details of the raid as well as its use of actual movie footage of the bombers in flying scenes.
Contents |
Plot
The film begins in February 1942 as the American Army Air Forces plan to retaliate for the Pearl Harbor attack by bombing Tokyo. Colonel "Jimmy" Doolittle (Spencer Tracy), the leader of the mission, assembles a volunteer group of aviators who begin to prepare by learning to fly B-25 Mitchell medium bombers from the deck of an aircraft carrier.
One of the pilots is Lt. Ted Lawson (Van Johnson), whose story frames the action of the training, launch from the carrier USS Hornet, and harrowing attack on Tokyo. Discovered by Japanese picket boats, the 16 bombers are forced to take off early. After the attack, all of the crews run out of gas before finding their recovery airfields in China, and Lawson crashes trying to crash-land on a beach. He and his crew face tremendous odds before being rescued.
Cast
As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Van Johnson | Lt. Ted W. Lawson |
| Robert Walker | Cpl. David Thatcher |
| Tim Murdock | Lt. Dean Davenport |
| Scott McKay | Capt. David M. "Davey" Jones |
| Herbert Gunn (as Gordon McDonald) | Lt. Bob Clever |
| Don DeFore | Lt. Charles McClure |
| Robert Mitchum | Lt. Bob Gray |
| John R. Reilly | Lt. Jacob "Shorty" Manch |
| Stephen McNally | Lt. Thomas "Doc" White (as Horace McNally) |
| Spencer Tracy | Lt.Col. James Doolittle |
| Phyllis Thaxter | Ellen Lawson |
| Donald Curtis | Lt. Randall |
| Louis Jean Heydt | Navy Lt. Henry Miller |
| William "Bill" Phillips (as William Phillips) | Lt. Don Smith |
| Douglas Cowan | Lt. Everett "Brick" Holstrom |
A full cast and production crew list is on the IMDb profile.1
Production
A measure of realism was maintained 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 studio sets and the original newsreel footage recreated the USS Hornet scenes faithfully. Principal photography took place between February and June 1944.2
Reception
Although recognized as an inspirational patriotic film bordering on propaganda, 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. The final episode of The Simpsons ' tenth season is titled "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo", another pun on the title.
See also
- The Ruptured Duck (B-25)
- Ted W. Lawson
- The Purple Heart (1945), a fictional account of the fate of a group of American airmen, presumably from the Doolittle raid
- Pearl Harbor (2001), which includes a fictionalized version of the raid.
References
Notes
- ^ Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo Full credits
- ^ Orriss 1984, p. 93.
- ^ Orriss 1984, p. 100.
- ^ Harwick and Schnepf 1989, pp. 13–14, 61–62.
- ^ Orriss 1984, pp. 93–94.
- ^ Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo Awards
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
|
|||||
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 20 November 2008, at 12:57.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.