Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Just saw it today for the first time, and I really loved it. I don't care if its labeled "propoganda" and I don't care if a bunch of guys here don't like it because its not some boring war movie with hours of flying sequences. I especially loved the review that mourned the fact that we didn't get to see more planes refueling. Honey, it's not a documentary!It's charming and Grable's musical numbers are so fun! (And this is the first time I have ever liked Grable).. The tunes are fantastic. Today's Hollywood on its best day couldn't put together a movie have as cohesive or fun.Best of all, it's got Tyrone Power who, along with Errol Flynn, are the two best looking, most charming male actors ever. Love love love it!

When I first read the reviews for A Yank in the R.A.F., I thought, come on, it can't be THAT bad! As a pilot myself, who is eternally enamored of historical aviation related movies, I went into this viewing experience thinking, Tyrone Power - the R.A.F. - it's got to be, at least, an O.K. flick. I was wrong.Some viewers complained about the aviation scenes as weak points (and some of the special effects simulations were weak - even by 1941 standards). I found the few minutes of actual footage of Spitfires, however, being refueled, rearmed and taking off in mass formations to be the only high point of the film. One scene of a Spitfire being brought in for refueling, with the wingtips being tended by the ground crew, as it spins around very quickly to line up with the refueling truck is especially awesome. The crewman on the wingtip on the outside of the turn looks like a rag doll as the Spit does a very fast 180 degree turn. This scene was from candid footage, clearly in full combat mode, and would never be seen today.Cinematography and character development are both effective. The problem is that once the characters are developed one realizes that it's impossible to care about (or even respect) either of the two American leads. Power's character, a combination of sophomoric imbecile/great heroic pilot (a combination I would challenge anyone to find in real life), was too much a distraction to be entertaining. Even WWII wasn't enough to straighten him out.There seemed to be hope for Grable's character. For a time one imagined that by movie's end she would be able to make a good decision and live in splendor in a beautiful country estate with a titled English gentleman for the rest of her life. But even that was a disappointment.

This is a fun to watch propaganda piece from 1941 that down deep is pretty silly and inconsequential. Now this ISN'T to say it's not worth watching, but it just isn't that great a film from the point of view of logic. In other words, to enjoy it, it might be best to turn off your brain first--at least the part of it that might balk at the silly writing and impossibilities! Tyrone Power plays a pretty obnoxious but highly talented jerk. He joins the RAF--not because he necessarily believes in the cause but because he wants to bag a girl! Throughout the film he chases pretty Betty Grable and you assume he somehow becomes a better person by the end of the film and they get married. Well, this is half right. He's still a jerk but apparently Miss Grable has learned to lower her standards (for more on this, do a search on "Artie Shaw"). However, unlike Betty, I found Tyrone was great fun to watch and a "swell guy" but someone no sane woman would want, since he's pretty much full of himself and never seems to learn! Fortunately, while this relationship made no sense, the action was excellent and exciting. While the cockpit wasn't quite right (for airplane purists, it looked like that of a Hurricane fighter not a Spitfire), the use of stock footage was for once impeccable. Instead of the usual grainy footage poorly integrated into the film, this was gorgeous and much of the footage of Spitfires in flight appears to have been staged for the movie. When stock footage was employed, it was seamless.So overall, it's a dandy little curio from WWII. It's neither great nor bad--just a mixed bag that is still somehow pretty watchable.

Darryl F. Zanuck paired his two superstars, Tyrone Power and Betty Grable together just once, and it was for "A Yank in the RAF." Power plays a cocky American know-it-all who, for money, flies a plane from Canada to the British forces and sticks around in the RAF after spotting his old girlfriend, played by Betty Grable.No one could have played the role of Tim Baker except for Tyrone Power. The character is such a bounder and such a complete jerk that without those devastating good looks, that devilish smile, that way of taking a woman in from top to bottom with those eyes, and all that charm, he would have been unlikeable. It's easy to see why Grable is so crazy about him, but you can't help being angry with her nonetheless as she spurns handsome, kind, and gentlemanly John Sutton for this gum-chewing womanizer. Like the later Crash Dive, which Power made before going into the Marines, the third angle of the love triangle is again Power's boss. In the original film, Grable ends up with Sutton, but preview audiences objected fiercely, so it was changed. The ferocious war does humble the Power character somewhat, though, particularly when his plane crash lands in Holland and they all realize the Germans are there, and his involvement in the Battle of Dunkirk. There are some exciting war scenes in the last forty minutes of the movie. Reginald Gardiner is a standout in the supporting cast, sparring with Sutton and Power with some of the best dialogue in the film.It's always amazing how long our country managed to stay out of the fray. This is a propaganda film, of course, urging the U.S. to get into the war. A few months later, the U.S. had no choice.