Hollywood during World War II was slightly schizophrenic as it alternated releasing escapist movies that allowed theater-goers to momentarily forget about the war and patriotic "B" films that reminded all of the continuing threat and the cost of fighting.
"Aerial Gunner" is in the latter category, reflecting Tinseltown's desire to showcase every branch of the service and virtually every specialty (no film that I can recall honored the Graves Registration units nor were black contributions to victory the subject of main features. I wonder why.).
"Aerial Gunner" deals with - aerial gunners, those enlisted men whose skill with machine guns in swerving aircraft under furious attack often made the difference between getting back to base or going down in flames.
The government generously supported these film projects and in this movie the producer, director and cast were given not only stock footage but also a base, hundreds of servicemen as extras and planes to film.
Ex-New York City assistant district attorney John Davis (Richard Arlen) was quite hated before the war by Coney Island barker "Foxy" Pattis for prosecuting his dad, leading to the old man killing himself. Big surprise, both men wind up at aerial gunnery school where SGT Pattis is SGT Davis's instructor. And he's determined to wash the lawyer out. Real original plot.
But then the scriptwriter came up with something truly novel. Both Pattis and Davis fall in love with the same girl, Peggy Lunt, played by Lita Ward. I don't think this had ever been done before in a war movie.
Pattis and Davis are sort of reconciled and, somehow, both wind up in the same unit in the Pacific where Pattis has become both an officer and a pilot (beyond highly unlikely for a noncom who graduated aerial gunnery school).
The rest of the drama is predictable. "Aerial Gunner" offers hefty shots of patriotism and reminds all that Americans make great sacrifices at the front.
What truly enraged me, and I'm sure will infuriate other viewers, was the scene when a gunner calls out that Japanese Zeros were attacking and there immediately is shown a single-engine monoplane with FIXED landing gear. Is there an American kid today who doesn't know that the vaunted Mitsubishi fighter had retractable gear?
5/10 (but it does recapture a time in which movies made the war more immediate and, dare I say it, entertaining).
