Leofwine_draca FLYING TIGERS is one of those American war movies that came out while WW2 was still in full swing. I always find such pictures have a little more dramatism to them, a little more urgency in depicting a battle against a nefarious and overwhelming enemy. This film's milieu is a little different, chronicling as it does the adventures of a group of voluntary American pilots battling the Japanese in the skies over China just before Pearl Harbor.The film is low budget but effective and the lack of real plane interiors and the like is well disguised by the director's efforts. I suppose you could argue that all of these pilot films are quite similar and they are, but it's the human drama that makes them watchable. Most characters here play simply in support but John Wayne does his usual macho man stuff very well. The real star of the piece is John Carroll playing the brash young ace who undergoes an intriguing character arc and is far more complex than the trappings of the genre would have you assume. The ending is dramatic and thrilling in equal measure.

Edgar Allan Pooh " . . . because Hap paid the check," Jim says to his girl and the guy who just paved the way for Japan's successful sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Surprisingly, some FLYING TIGERS viewers haven't put two and two together. They think they're watching a simple war flick, not realizing that this John Wayne vehicle actually is a film noir outing featuring Brooke, the deadliest Femme Fatale in recorded human history. It's clear that Jim's night patrol just before midnight, Dec. 6, 1941, was perfectly positioned to give the U.S. Pacific Fleet a heads up on TORA! TORA! TORA! But hot-to-trot Brooke lures key pilot Woody from his duty station for a night on the town, since Woody is much better looking than Wayne's Jim, her stodgy steady. As a result, visually impaired Hap dies in Woody's place, and Jim's assigned mission is cut short before it can blow the whistle on PEARL HARBOR. As John Wayne stares into the distance while socialist president FDR drones on from the radio about "Days of Infamy," you can tell that he's thinking "Some day my grandchild will drive a Lexus." FLYING TIGERS is a cynical look at war profiteering and mercenaries from beginning to end. Despite its opening on-screen tribute to "Chiang Kai-Shek," viewers soon see that Jim is musing "Just wait till my buddy Ronnie Reagan sells your world council seat to the Commies."

thinker1691 Here is a movie straight out of the annals of World War Two. The Japanese Empire was sweeping through Asia and destroying large parts of mainland China. Few of their adversaries were able to stop them, but one unit made history, by encountering them over the skies of China. In 1940-41 General Claire Chennault formed a mercenary group of American Flighter pilots to combat the invading Japanese. The movie based on their exploits is called " Flying Tigers " and star's John Wayne as Capt. Jim Gordon. Although an America propaganda film, it was designed to stimulate America's involvement in the war. Later, it came to symbolize America's contribution to the multi-national effort to fight the Japanese. The movie is in Black and White, crude, coarse and blatantly patriotic. Still it gave a boost to morale at a time when things were not going well for the U.S. or China. As a result with the additional cast of John Carroll, Paul Kelly, Gordon Jones and Edmund MacDonald as 'Blackie Bales' the movie succeeds in creating a rousing yarn of heroic young men and the niche they created over the Asian skies. ****

tmpj I got hold of a 50th Anniversary edition VHS of this movie. I dig old celluloid. This film is typical John Wayne stock of the period, though many of his scenes are stolen by John Carroll, who displays a lot of personality and gives the film a real boost. Carroll's character is introduced to the audience as a "devil may care' type, always bucking convention and discipline until...as you might expect...reality catches up with him. The Flying Tigers were a volunteer air security team stationed in China both before and during the second world war. Hostilities between Japan and China were in full sway by 1931, and the Chinese suffered many civilian casualties...especially women and children. But...not all of the volunteers were there for humanitarian reasons. Some were in it for the money, and a bounty paid for the number of Japanese planes downed by the Tigers made this an attractive means of income for some mercenary types. Woody ( Carroll) comes on-board just this way. But after a number of mis-steps...one of which costs the life of one of the members...he begins to take on a different perspective. There are the usual ups and downs of the crew in this situation...even to the point of Wayne and Woody jockeying for position with Wayne's girl, a nurse for the shelter. One tear jerking scene is where Woody gives his bounty earnings to the wife of a now dead flyer who was trying to right some past actions that had him thrown out of flying and which did not put him in good footing with the other men. Woody felt personally responsible, and made up a story that made the man's wife proud, though it did not take away the pain and grief of his loss entirely. Woody redeems himself in the end...but you will have to view the film in order to see that. In the cast are a few stalwarts of the period. Jimmie Dodd was there...he would later go on to Mickey Mouse fame and fortune. Mae Clarke was there...but no grapefruits were present. Tom Neal was also there, though "Detour" was yet several years off, along with other 'poverty row' features. This is the kind of film that is tolerable to watch, and the whole family can get in on the act, though it would be good if an adult is on-hand for the kids in order to answer questions about the "old school" way of doing things.