This Man's Navy

Chief Petty Officer Wallace Beery is in the Navy Dirigible Corps. He wrangles with fellow CPO James Gleason, virtually adopts crippled Tom Drake, shepherds him through a romance with Jan Clayton, gets his legs fixed and a a Naval commission, then turns around into setting up a base in India and bs-ing his way into a rescue of Drake, who has gone down while flying over the Hump. All while Luftwaffe and Japanese planes punch holes in his dirigibles.

Every branch and sub-branch of the service got at least an Oscar-nominated short subject during the Second World War, and this is the Dirigible Corps' moment in the sun, quick, before the War is over. It looks dorky to the modern audience. Nowadays we think of the Goodyear Blimp, and that's it. But the Navy didn't retire its last dirigible until 1962. Of course, the Navy keeps a small forest in Indiana for wood to replace parts of the U. S. S. Constitution, so take that for what you will. If you're going to enjoy this movie, it will be for Beery's trademark aw-shucks charm, a chance to see his brother, Noah Beery Sr., in the same movie, and surprisingly, a charming performance by Selena Royle as Drake's mother. With Henry O'Neill, Steve Brodie, George Chandler, and Dell Henderson.

Bunny Comes Home 'This Man's Navy' deserves more credit than it gets, a clever script by Borden Chase, directed by 'Wild Bill' Wellman, the film has just the right feel for early post WW11 euphoria and goodwill, and none of the blind terror that came into play few years later. Produced in 1944, the Japanese defeated, the battle scenes a little déjà vu, Tom Drake's melancholy attraction for radiant young Jan Clayton has solid chemistry, plays real and validates Drake's career at Metro. The following year Jan opened on Broadway in 'Carousel.' Wally Beery, a little bleary-eyed, boasts to an always incredulous Jimmy Gleason… his memories an improvement over reality, and give Beery a Ulysses-like shadow to play against. The Navy LTA (Lighter Than Air) shots are authentic, photographed at Tustin and Lakehurst, and the P-38 squadron is out of March AFB. Lot 3 doubled for India, and Bunny's U-turn… Bunny Comes Home… gives back to Beery an authentic slice of his past, something he had wanted to believe was true… then, the future we spin into again is fantastical… now on a grander scale, a newly designed Navy LTA with launch capabilities for a reconnaissance plane… how expensive, blissfully optimistic… still, "You got to believe in it, that's the way you make things come true…"

Not many movies were made about the Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) aspect of aviation, but this is one of them and it's damn good. Just a fun film to watch.

Most of the movie takes place at the Navy blimp operations at NAS Lakehurst (with NAS Tustin playing the role). Wallace Beery plays a likable but Munchausen-like Senior Chief Ned Trumpet, an enlisted pilot, whose tall tales have gotten so frequent nobody really believes him. Half the fun is near the end of the movie when events start proving that most of his more outlandish tales are actually true.

Set during WWII, the main plot centers around bachelor Trumpet wooing a local widow only to end up having a father-son relationship with the widow's crippled son, Jess. Told he would never walk without crutches by doctors, Chief Trumpet pulls some strings and a Navy flight surgeon helps in restoring the lad's crippled leg. Jess goes on to join the Navy to become a flight officer, flying blimps back at Lakehurst and facing a whole new set of challenges.

A very well-done movie, albeit not without some corny Hollywood dialogue slipping past the technical advisers, and Beery's apparent inability to march in step. Otherwise this movie gets good grades for technical accuracy, and gives a rare look into the Navy's LTA operations. The Cash Register Scene, an exchange between Trumpet and Jess's future love interest Cathy, is an absolute hoot.

Talkative Navy balloonist Ned Trumpet (Wallace Beery) falls out of his basket into the middle of nowhere. He befriends farm boy Jess Weaver. He has been telling tall tales about his fictional son which gets more and more elaborate. In reality, he never got himself a family. He tries to recruit Jess into the service and then Jess reveals a lame leg. He introduces unsuspecting Cathey Cortland (Jan Clayton) to Jess. Before he knows it, he has his fictional family.

This is Wallace Beery being Wallace Beery in a lower level wartime war movie. The family story is sentimentality mixed with Beery's sweet brutishness. I'm perfectly happy with that part. The war fighting is less convincing and the military drama is less engaging. It's fine for some wartime fare.

Only Wallace Beery could have sold this film even to wartime audiences for MGM. In This Man's Navy Beery plays an old time sailor with the dirigible lighter than air unit of the navy relegated to a lot of minor support duties.

Beery brags about his non-existent family so when put to the test once by his pal James Gleason, Beery comes up with a pretend wife in Selena Royle and son Tom Drake whose farm he visited after bailing out of a balloon. The two of them amazingly enough are flattered by Beery's attention and Drake likes having a father figure almost real.

In the end Beery gets to rescue Drake when both are serving in China although let us say despite his praise of dirigibles the weakness of them in combat is rather graphically exposed.

Beery and Gleason are a fine team and play well off each other. This Man's Navy is also an opportunity to see both Wallace and Noah Beery, Sr. in the same film. Noah who played in a gazillion B westerns usually as a villain, was reputed to be a nice man unlike Wally who may not have had two friends in Tinseltown. His screen image was a total fabrication.

This Man's Navy was an entertaining wartime propaganda film, but except for Wallace Beery fans does not hold up all that well today.