MovieChat Forums > Thunder Birds: Soldiers of the Air (1942) Discussion > What did you rate ''Thunder Birds'' (194...

What did you rate ''Thunder Birds'' (1942)?

posted 14 years ago by J. Spurlin
1 reply | jump to latest

A veteran American flyer (Preston Foster) trains new recruits, including the acrophobic son (John Sutton) of his dead war buddy. Complications arise when the younger man falls in love with his mentor's girl (Gene Tierney).

This propaganda piece, with a hackneyed love triangle, contains one bad scene: at a Red Cross station, where nurses are being trained, we get some dull slapstick and an unchivalrous attempt to make an unattractive girl the butt of several jokes. Everything else works well enough. The acting is solid, the color is gorgeous and the aviation scenes are impressive. A nice flashback scene features Dame May Whitty, as Sutton's grandmother, strutting her stoic English stuff. The main reason to watch this is for Gene Tierney, who is as beautiful and charming as ever.

I rated this film 5/10 for the database. What did you rate it? And what did you think of it?

imdb.com/title/tt0035438/ratings

...Justin

[–] dannieboy20906 8 years ago

It is a mediocre movie and an invaluable historic snapshot. I have not rated it, but a 5/10 as a movie seems about right to me. However, I would give it another 3 raising it to 8/10 overall for the coverage about Thunderbird Field. The background plot of rapid expansion of the Air Corps that would soon (based on the movie's time setting) become the Army Air Force.

In June 1938 there were 20,000 soldiers in the Army Air Corps. In June 1939 there were 26,000. In June 1940 there were 52,000. In June of 1941 there were 101,000 in the newly established Army Air Force and 150,000 by the time of the Pearl Harbor raid on 7 Dec 1941. They were growing fast and that growth is why a newly minted second lieutenant in 1941 could finish the war as a full colonel.

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