Too many fans seem to be blown away

Sadly Over-hyped

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Copyright 20 December 1944 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 20 December 1944. U.S. release: December 1944. U.K. release: 26 February 1945. Australian release: 28 June 1945. 15 reels. 130 minutes. Cut to 100 minutes in Australia.NOTES: Opening on Broadway at the 44th Street Theatre (sic) on 20 November 1943 and running a sold-out 212 performances, Moss Hart's Air Corps recruiting venture traced the exploits of a group of typical young Americans from induction to graduation, and thence to combat duty in the Pacific. Brilliantly staged by its author, with an enormous cast of uniformed men and civilian colleagues, Winged Victory was one of the major theatrical events of the wartime years. Space permits only a partial cast listing. Prominent in the company were: Edmond O'Brien, Don Taylor, Mark Daniels, Barry Nelson, Lee J. Cobb, Peter Lind Hayes, Alan Baxter, Philip Bourneuf, Dick Hogan, Rune Hultman, Red Buttons, Kevin McCarthy, Karl Malden, Danny Scholl, George Reeves, Ray Middleton, John Tyers, Whit Bissell, Ed McMahon, Gary Merrill, Anthony Ross, Martin Ritt, Don Beddoe, Michael Duane, Don Hanmer, Ray McDonald, Victor Young, Zeke Manners, Alfred Ryder, Phyllis Avery, Elisabeth Fraser, Olive Deering. Allergic to airplanes, Moss Hart nevertheless flew thousands of miles in Air Force bombers gathering material for his play. In addition, he insisted on waiving all royalties. During its S.R.O. six-month Broadway run, Winged Victory grossed more than one million dollars for the Army Emergency Relief fund. The play was produced by the U.S. Army Air Forces. Harry Horner designed the sets, David Rose wrote the music. COMMENT: Director George Cukor here proves that he does indeed have "the big feel" of a broad dramatic canvas. It was a mistake to fire him from Gone With The Wind. In fact, Cukor's skilled, polished direction and his spectacular handling of the action locations, are as major an asset to this tribute to the Army Air Force as is Moss Hart's restrained, naturalistic script, or Glen MacWilliams' admirably crisp photography. Cukor elicits uniformly excellent performances from his AAF cast. No expense has been spared, and production values are outstanding, with Barbara McLean's skilled film editing a treasure in itself.

Has anyone been able to buy this movie? My Uncle "Hutch" was a Real (not Reel) pilot who is seen tossing his wings in the air and then snatching them with his fist as he was awarded his pilot's wings. He's only on screen a few seconds but my family would love to have the movie. He was killed in a dogfight over Italy, he was only 24 at the time. Do we know the film studio that made it?Or has anyone seen it at a video store, like Blockbuster? I wish they would make entire catalogs of these old movies available as it is so cheap to make DVD's these days.Please email me at nfny40@yahoo.com if you know where I can buy a copy. Thank you.

I had a personal interest in this movie. When I was 17 and just out of high school I got a job at 20th Century Fox as a member of the Laborers and Hod Carriers Union. At the end of my first day (sweeping the deck of an aircraft carrier) I was told to bring a suitcase the next morning with enough clothes etc. for one or two weeks. When I arrived the next morning a bus was waiting and about 20 of us headed south toward San Diego. Just short of there we stopped at an army base called either Camp Callan or Camp Hahn. Once we were bunked in we went north a few miles into Camp Pendleton, the big Marine base. There, on the beach, we started building what was supposed to be a Japanese Pacific island base. It took us about a week or ten days to complete the installation, which included a water tank, gun entrenchments, sand-bagged trenches and living quarters. All this was at very high pay, sometimes 'golden time', which was triple our regular hourly wage. Our food was also first rate = prime rib at lunch, etc. - which was amazing because it was wartime and very hard to get good meat at home.Once the job was finished I waited eagerly for the movie to come out, which was about eight or ten months later. Then I waited eagerly through two hours of the movie before my handiwork finally came on screen. Then it was no more than three or four minutes (maybe less) of the movie's heroes dive bombing the base and blowing it to smithereens. A bit disappointing, but still fun. In spite of the disappointment I enjoyed the movie and have not seen it since. I learned later that this movie was underwritten by the government and Fox was paid on a cost plus basis, which maybe accounts for our extravagant pay and lifestyle down there. Bob Weverka

As has been noted, this is one wartime film that got it right. Apart from the accurate depiction of army flight training, WV probably remains the only movie featuring the Consolidated B-24. A flight instructor who helped with the film reports that most of the cast got along well with the supporting officers and men, the exception being Edmund O'Brien. While filming an engine-start sequence he noted the usual "fire guard" with the extinguisher and became exceedingly nervous. Finally he "abandoned ship" and refused to proceed with the shot. Considering that his performance was witnessed by genuine airmen, let alone some combat veterans, EO's stock plummeted on base.