Winged Victory **** (1944, Lon McCallister, Jeanne Crain, and Edmond O’Brien) – Classic Movie Review 12,211

George Kaufman and Moss Hart.

Director George Cukor’s patriotic 1944 American wartime drama film Winged Victory is written by playwright Moss Hart, and stars Lon McCallister, Jeanne Crain, and Edmond O’Brien. Hart bases the screenplay on his own 1943 Broadway play. The film uses many members of the Broadway cast, who came to Hollywood. A joint effort of 20th Century-Fox and the US Army Air Forces, it opened after the play’s theatre run. Actual USAAF members in the film include Corporal Red Buttons, Sergeant Edmond O’Brien and Corporal Lee J Cobb.

The story of young recruits who join the US Army Air Forces as boys and grow into men during combat is a gut-wrenching flag-waver from the formidable combined talents of scriptwriter Hart (Once in a Lifetime) and Cukor (The Philadelphia Story).

Between them, they model a vision brimming with gallantry and pathos. There’s plenty of acting talent in view among the huge supporting cast, especially from Peter Lind Hayes, Gary Merrill and Lee J Cobb, but also Jane Ball, Mark Daniels, Don Taylor, Red Buttons, Judy Holliday, Barry Nelson, Karl Malden, Martin Ritt and Richard Benedict.

Winged Victory was shot from 15 June 1944 to 25 September 1944, and released on 22 December 1944. It runs 130 minutes.

The US Army Air Forces provided 14 technical advisers, including a chaplain and a flight surgeon, to provide information on training, graduation exercises and combat experience.

Dore Schary’s 1963 American film Act One is based on the 1959 autobiographical book Act One: An Autobiography by Moss Hart, and stars George Hamilton.

Also in the cast are Jo-Carroll Dennison, Jim Nolan, Anthony Ross, Ken Terrell, Alan Baxter, Geraldine Wall, George Humbert, Rune Hultman, Richard Hogan, Philip Bourneuf, Damian O’Flynn, George Reeves, George Petrie, Alfred Ryder, Harry Lewis, Ray Bidwell, Henry Rowland, Carroll Riddle, Sascha Brastoff, Archie Robbins, Jack Slate, Henry Slate, Timmy Hawkins, Moyna MacGill, Don Beddoe, Frances Gladwin, Sally Yarnell, Kevin McCarthy, Mario Lanza, Gil Herman, Ellanora Needles, Margaret Parmentier, Brad Dexter, Leonard Mudie, Keith Andes, and Ray MacDonald.

American playwright, librettist, and theatre director Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961). Hart married Kitty Carlisle on 10 August 1946 and they had two children. Kitty Carlisle Hart (born Catherine Conn; September 3, 1910 – April 17, 2007) is best remembered as the leading lady of the Marx Brothers movie A Night at the Opera (1935).

Moss Hart’s screenplays: 1944 Winged Victory, 1947 Gentleman’s Agreement, 1952 Hans Christian Andersen, and 1954 A Star Is Born.

Moss Hart’s plays: 1930 Once in a Lifetime (George Kaufman and Moss Hart), 1934 Merrily We Roll Along (Kaufman and Hart), 1936 You Can’t Take It with You (Kaufman and Hart; Pulitzer Prize winner), 1937 I’d Rather Be Right (Kaufman and Hart), 1938 The Fabulous Invalid (Kaufman and Hart), 1939 The American Way (Kaufman and Hart), 1939 The Man Who Came to Dinner (Kaufman and Hart), 1940 George Washington Slept Here (Kaufman and Hart), 1941 Lady in the Dark, with Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin, 1943 Winged Victory, and 1948 Light Up the Sky.

The cast are Lon McCallister as Frankie Davis, Jeanne Crain as Helen, Edmond O’Brien as Irving Miller, Jane Ball as Jane Preston, Mark Daniels as Alan Ross, Jo-Carroll Dennison as Dorothy Ross, Don Taylor as Danny ‘Pinky’ Scariano, Judy Holliday as Ruth Miller, Lee J. Cobb as Doctor, Peter Lind Hayes as O’Brien, Red Buttons as Whitey, Barry Nelson as Bobby Crills, Rune Hultman as Dave Anderson, Gary Merrill as Capt. McIntyre, George Reeves as Lt. Thompson, Jim Nolan, Anthony Ross, Ken Terrell, Alan Baxter, Geraldine Wall, George Humbert, Rune Hultman, Richard Hogan, Philip Bourneuf, Damian O’Flynn, George Petrie, Alfred Ryder, Harry Lewis, Ray Bidwell, Henry Rowland, Carroll Riddle, Sascha Brastoff, Archie Robbins, Jack Slate, Henry Slate, Timmy Hawkins, Moyna MacGill, Don Beddoe, Frances Gladwin, Sally Yarnell, Kevin McCarthy, Mario Lanza, Gil Herman, Ellanora Needles, Margaret Parmentier, Brad Dexter, Leonard Mudie, Keith Andes, and Ray MacDonald.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,211

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