When Bing Crosby is singing what I think is The Song of Freedom, a montage of film clips is shown behind him. They are of American weapons and marching soldiers in that war year of 1942.
One of them shows biplanes, the type of double winged aircraft used in World War I. Looking at this scene, I could hardly believe my eyes. If I were in the Army Air Corps, as our air force was then, I would have strongly protested to Paramount Pictures.
Interesting. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that The War had just begun. It was during filming that the Holiday Inn cast and crew heard about Pearl Harbor, and the patriotic footage was quickly added. There were far more modern planes available, but I wonder if they may have hesitated to show them for security reasons?
share"There were far more modern planes available, but I wonder if they may have hesitated to use for security reasons?"
You could have a point about security. But our enemies would have found it laughable had they seen the movie.
Also, the reason for the scene was to stir up patriotism and help film goers feel like their country was being protected. What could a picture of obsolete aircraft do for homeside morale?
You're right. Come to think of it, Dive Bomber had just come out a few months before December's attack, with the U.S. knowing full well that it might get involved, and that movie showed off myriad U.S. planes (looking particularly beautiful in color!).
share"One of them shows biplanes, the type of double winged aircraft used in World War I."
By the time this movie hit theaters, WWII had already been raging for 3 years in Europe and Asia. Some of our allies were still using biplanes as their only means of air defense when the war broke out. England had been successfully using the Swordfish torpedo bomber(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Swordfish) since 1936 and continued using them throughout the war. Although antiquated, their advantage/disadvantage was their slow speed when approaching enemy ships. Naval armaments were geared to defend against faster-moving aerial attacks. In fact, it was torpedoes delivered by Swordfish planes that gave the crippling blow to the Bismarck.
There were still some biplanes in use at the time the U.S. entered the war, just shortly before the movie was made. The footage they used was not of 1914-1918 era planes.
shareThe U.S. Navy was still using biplanes on its carriers (the F3F) only a few years earlier. As well, biplanes were still being used as training aircraft. The footage might well have been from training flights.
Any Army Air Corps/Army Air Force members in the audience would have likely just realized that the footage was simply taken a few years prior and in all likelihood wouldn't have been perturbed by it.