Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Sanjeev Waters A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

weezeralfalfa A love triangle develops between womanizing American volunteer for the RAF Tim Baker(Tyrone Power), his bomber squadron leader, British aristocrat John Morley(John Sutton), and American nightclub entertainer Carol Brown(Betty Grable). Each of the two suitors have their pluses and minuses, as afar as Carol is concerned. Tim is footloose and impossibly handsome, meaning he has no problem attracting all the women he wants. Carol is his female counterpart in this respect, but acts more restrained when it comes to admitting new men into her life(unexpected for a nightclub entertainer). Morely is a classic gentlemanly British aristocrat, seemingly a tad dull on the surface, with a huge ancient mansion just waiting to be occupied by the right girl. Realistically, a show girl, however beautiful and sexy, would be an unlikely choice for a wife for a man in his position. She would much more likely be his mistress. Given the short mean life expectancy of RAF pilots then(Baker's plane was shot down twice within a short time), unless they quit the service at the end of the film, there was a high probability that neither Baker nor Morley would be alive for very long, especially since the 'Battle of Britain' would soon begin, with high casualty rates for pilots on both sides. Against expected plot formula, originally, the ending had Baker die a hero in the historic Dunkirk evacuation. However, a test screening elicited a strong negative reaction in the audience. Also, since Fox chief Zanuck hoped this film would promote popular sentiment toward a formal entry of the US into the war, it was feared that Baker's death might prove a war morale damper, rather than booster.The Lockheed-built Hudson light bomber is portrayed as the RAF bomber of the times. Superficially, with its dual tail fins, it looks rather like the then current RAF 2-engine Hampden bomber, as well as the later, much improved, 4- engine Lancaster bomber. However, it was used by the RAF primarily for training, submarine and coastal patrol and reconnaissance. It wouldn't be making bombing raids over Germany, as depicted(Where were the expected German defense fighters?). Also, it wouldn't be flying across the Atlantic, as depicted. Rather, when they reached the Canadian border, they were dissembled(believe it or not), and packed in crates, to be loaded on a ship and reassembled in the UK. Brash former mail pilot Baker decided to ignore this neutrality rule and flew his Hudson across Lake Ontario to Trenton. As some others have noted, the often clearly faked aerial maneuvers and battles make the film look cheesy.. Fortunately, some shots supplied by the RAF of real British warplanes and battles lend some credibility to the limited aerial segments.Although clearly very popular with film audiences of the time, I seldom find the characters played by Tyrone Power appealing or especially interesting. In the film, clearly, he had an advantage in his persistent pursuit of the resisting Carol, in past experiences of having her breakdown her defenses periodically. Clearly, she was going to have to accept the fact that Baker wasn't a 'one woman' man, if she was going to accept him back into her life...In contrast, I found Carol(Betty) very appealing, as obviously did many men in those times. Betty did a great acting job and the camera close-ups of her head were great. Also, she was the leader of a couple of brief song and dance performances at the nightclub the fliers frequented. Marriage between the two, as suggested in the final scene? It wouldn't have lasted a month, even if Tim was still alive. If you think Baker's treatment of Carol was chauvinistic, wait until you see his treatment, as a pirate, of Maureen O'Hara's character, in the following year's "The Black Swan"!Britisher John Sutton plays Power's chief rival for capturing Carol's heart, apparently ending as runner up: a fate he graciously accepts, knowing that he would be fighting an uphill battle all the way, considering that Baker and Carol had a long history of romantic involvement. For some reason, Fox generally chose to cast the gentlemanly, athletic, rather good looking Sutton as 'the other man', often comparatively stuffy. For example, he suffered a similar fate in competition with Victor Mature over Rita Hayworth, the following year, in "My Gal Sal". However, earlier in '41, he was the romantic lead to Gene Tierney, in "Hudson's Bay": my favorite of his roles that I've seen.

Rob-120 "A Yank in the R.A.F." is the first World War II movie I've ever seen where I was actually rooting for the Nazis to shoot down the hero's plane and kill him!The story centers on Tim Baker (Tyrone Power), an arrogant hotshot American pilot who flies a fighter plane from Canada to Britain, as part of the Lend Lease Act, in the days before the London Blitz begins. Tim decides to stay in London and join the R.A.F. after he runs into an old flame, Carol Brown (Betty Grable), an American showgirl living in London. Tim and Carol had a thing going back in Kansas City. She left him because he kept cheating on her with other girls. But now, Tim insists they should get back together, even though Carol tells him she wants nothing to do with him. Tim follows her around London, forces his way into her apartment, turns on his oily charm, kisses her, and suddenly she's all his again, even though she calls him a "worm."The inevitable "love triangle" follows. Carol meets John Morley (John Sutton), an R.A.F. bomber pilot who turns out to be Tim's commanding officer. Morley is a true English gentleman, who falls in love with Carol, appreciates her for who she is, and could probably make her very happy. But Carol turns down his marriage proposal, even though she says she doesn't really love Tim.Tim is a world-class a—hole! He treats Carol like dirt, and yet she seems to be putty in his hands. When he's not chasing Carol, Tim is chasing after every other pretty girl he sees. After being shot down in Holland, he escapes back to England and ends up in the hospital – and immediately propositions the pretty nurse by his bedside.When they have a date, Tim stands Carol up to go drinking with his R.A.F. buddies, then gets mad when he comes to her apartment and finds she's gone out with Morley. Finally, Carol gets fed up with Tim and throws him out of her apartment. I was hoping she'd throw some things at him, or maybe kick him in the nuts, but I guess Daryl Zanuck thought that wouldn't be a good use of Betty Grable's famous legs.Up until this point in the movie, I really hated Tim Baker. After what happens next, I started to loathe him. Tim goes to Carol's apartment, wearing his arm in a sling and walking on a cane, pretending he was injured when he crashed in Holland. Carol sees through his ruse ("I'm dumb, but I'm not THAT dumb.") and tells him to get out.Instead, Tim pulls out an engagement ring, throws Carol down on the couch, jumps on top of her, and forces the ring onto her finger while kissing her face as she screams in protest. He tells her, "You're my girl, like it or not. And when I come back, I'll make it official and marry you."Engagement by rape. How romantic! If I were Carol, I'd buy a gun.The climax of the movie has Tim Baker in a British Spitfire, going "mano a mano" with a German fighter pilot during an air battle. Tim is wounded in the exchange. I was hoping his plane would burst into flames and kill him, but no such luck.Instead, the move cuts back to England – and whaddaya know, Carol is worried sick about Tim, crying her eyes out, afraid he was killed because he hasn't returned from Dunkirk. It turns out she actually loves him! (Hey, guess what? She really IS "that dumb.")Carol and Morley go to the London docks to meet the last hospital ship bringing home wounded soldiers from Dunkirk. Carol spots Tim on the gangplank, runs up to him, and kisses him! She happily shows him the engagement ring that he forced onto her finger, which she couldn't get off. Tim smiles at Carol – then immediately gives the "brush off" to the lovely nurse that he met on the hospital ship, whom he was about to go out on a date with. "Sorry, honey, I won't be needing you tonight."What an incredible jerk! Tim and Carol head off together, and they are right back where they started. He will keep cheating on her, even after they're married; she will keep forgiving him. These two deserve each other! The movie has a few good points. It features some actual footage shot in England by future director Ronald Neame ("The Poseidon Adventure") of R.A.F. fighters and bombers flying and taking off. There are some realistic depictions of R.A.F. bombings over Berlin, and some exciting aerial dogfights between English and German fighters, plus a good on- the-ground depiction of the evacuation at Dunkirk. The special effects in the movie are well done for their time."A Yank in the R.A.F." was made in 1941, before the U.S. entry into World War II. Had the picture been made a year later, it probably would have included a patriotic "Hooray for our English allies" theme, and more wartime propaganda speeches. As it is, it's a romantic melodrama with shallow, stupid characters that trivializes the war and is best forgotten.

sol **SPOILERS** Being released some two months before the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor "A Yank in the R.A.F" is hampered by having the movie take sides with a combatant, the UK, at war with a neutral, at that time , country Hitler's Germany. Obviously made to drum up support for a US entrance into the war against Germany & Italy which was barley 10% in many US public opinion polls taken at that time among the American people. It was the air force and navy of the Japanese Imperial Empire by it's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that did more to turn US public opinion around to an entrance into the war then all the pro-war films coming out of Hollywood from 1939-41 combined.The film itself is anything but a war, pro or con, movie with young wise-cracking American mail pilot Tim Baker, Tyrone Power, ending up in the UK just weeks after it together with it's far flung empire declared war against Germany. Tim seems to have absolutely no idea of what's going on between the allies, Britian & France, and the Germans and is only in London to rekindle his love affair with pretty and leggy all-American girl Carol Brown, Betty Grable, who somehow got herself a job as a chorus girl at London's Regency Club.Tim it seems joins up with the R.A.F only to impress Carol and nothing else his feeling for or against Nazi Germany are left only to the viewers imagination. The only time Tim showed any antipathy against the Germans was after he lost a number of friends, fellow R.A.F fliers, in the war which is very understandable but had nothing at all to do with what Hitler's Germany stood for or did. Tim would have felt and acted the same way if he had joined the German Luftwaffe, if his girlfriend Carol decided to live in Germany instead of the UK, and lost a number of his German pilot buddies to the R.A.F.The movie drags along for almost an hour until we finally get to see what's happening on the front lines with Tim and his fellow pilots shot down and landing in neutral Holland only to find out that it's been invaded by the German Army. Hiding in a windmill Tim together with Group Cmdr. John Morley, John Sutton, and Cpl. Baker, Donald Stuart, are confronted by this German officer Frederick Glermann who unknown to the three English-speaking pilots knows and speaks English. Acting like a real jerk as you could already see here, even before the US entrance into WWII, that with soldiers like Glermann in it's ranks Germany didn't stand a chance. Glermann instead of just waiting for the German troops coming to relieve him of the three R.A.F guys blows his cover by talking English to them showing Tim & Co. that he's on to them it's then that the three RAF men overpower and kill Glermann. All that Glermann had to do was to just keep his big mouth shut instead of trying to show the downed airmen what a great linguist he is and just let the German Army come to his rescue.The movie also has a love triangle in it between Tim and his R.A.F commander John Morley vying for the hand of the drop dead gorgeous Carol Brown, incidentally this was the only movie where Tyrone Power and Betty Grable were in together.It seems like Tim was winning over Carol who then later found out that he was cheating on her by playing abound with one of the nurses who was looking after him. This new romance on Tims part happened after he was rescued, together with thousands of British servicemen, during the retreat from the French port city of Dunkirk.The really best part of "A Yank in the R.A.F" comes in the last few minutes of the film with the battle and evacuation of Dunkirk. Thats where Tim finally shows what he's made of by, after being hospitalized for exposer, going back into action over the skies of German occupied France with his Spitfire taking the war back to the advancing Germans and shooting down a number of Luftwaffe Me-109 fighter planes. Tim ends up getting shot down himself and is missing in action until the movies final, and very unsurprising, ending sequence.

Neil Doyle You know from the beginning that TYRONE POWER had better shape up as more than a playboy if he wants to win BETTY GRABLE's love in this entertaining wartime romance from Fox. Betty acquits herself very well in all the dramatic moments and looks as fresh as a daisy. Tyrone is at his handsomest and has some stiff competition in the "other man" department from JOHN SUTTON, who finally had a more substantial romantic role than usual.What with the romance between Grable and Power being shaky at best, you just know he's gonna have to reform himself with some wartime heroics as an R.A. F. flier before there can be a final clinch between the two.Crisply written with some good, natural dialog, beautifully filmed in glorious B&W, it's a well crafted film that deserves more attention from Betty's fans in particular. There's some nice chemistry going on between the three mentioned stars and it's certainly a worthwhile film to watch for fans of nostalgia. REGINALD GARDINER does a nice supporting role job as Power's debonair best friend.