The Dawn Patrol (1930 film)
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| The Dawn Patrol | |
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 theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Howard Hawks |
| Produced by | Robert North |
| Written by | Story: John Monk Saunders Screenplay: Dan Totheroh Seton I. Miller Howard Hawks |
| Starring | Richard Barthelmess Douglas Fairbanks, Jr |
| Music by | Rex Dunn |
| Cinematography | Ernest Haller |
| Editing by | Ray Curtiss |
| Distributed by | First National Pictures subsidiary of Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | July 10, 1930 (NYC) August 20, 1930 (US) |
| Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English / German / French |
The Dawn Patrol is a 1930 World War I film starring Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. It was directed by Howard Hawks and won the Academy Award for Best Story for John Monk Saunders.
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[edit] Plot
The story revolves around the pilots and crew of an RFC airbase, who deal with the stress of combat primarily through nightly bouts of heavy drinking.
The two aces of the group, Courtney (Richard Barthelmess) and Scott (Douglas Fairbanks Jr), have come to hate the commanding officer, Brand (Neil Hamilton), blaming him for sending fresh pilots directly into combat. Unknown to them, Brand has been arguing continually with his commanders to allow him practice time with the new pilots, but command is desperate to maintain air superiority and orders them into combat as soon as they arrive. Brand is so disliked by the two he cannot even easily join the men for the nightly partying, drinking alone and clearly breaking under the strain.
The tension grows worse when an elite German squadron, implied to be the Red Baron's, takes up position on the line across from them. After losing several of the squadron's veteran pilots, the ranks become increasingly made up of new recruits, who have absolutely no chance against the Germans. In the midst of this, Brand is recalled to headquarters and Courtney is promoted to commander.
It is not long before he also learns of the impossibility of the job, and his relationship with Scott quickly sours. Things grow considerably worse when his brother appears as one of the new replacements. He then does his own pleading with headquarters, only to be refused, and his brother is killed on his first mission. When Scott volunteers for what amounts to a suicide mission far behind enemy lines, Courtney steals his airplane and flies off in his stead.
[edit] Preservation
The film was retitled Flight Commander for television when it finally became legal for it to be viewed once again. The original titles seemed to have become lost and these redrawn titles are on all known prints of the film.
[edit] Remake
The movie was remade in 1938 with Errol Flynn replacing Barthelmess in the lead, David Niven playing Fairbanks, Jr.'s role, and Basil Rathbone in Neil Hamilton's part.
Much of the flying sequences from the 1930 film, with several of the close-ups of the fighter planes, were re-edited verbatim into the 1938 movie, so as to save expense without having to search for or build new WW1 era aircraft.
[edit] Cast
Richard Barthelmess ... Captain Dick Courtney
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. ... Lt. Doug Scott
Neil Hamilton ... Major Drake Brand
Frank McHugh ... Flaherty
Clyde Cook ... Bott
James Finlayson ... Field Sergeant
Gardner James ... Ralph Hollister
William Janney ... Donny Scott
Edmund Breon ... Lieutenant Phipps
[edit] Aircraft
Howard Hawks assembled a variety of planes in a film squadron to shoot the flying scenes for The Dawn Patrol. Hawks used rebuilt Nieuport 28s as the primary airplane for the British squadron, and Travel Air 4000s (reconfigured for films and popularly known as "Wichita Fokkers")[1][2] for German fighters, but other aircraft in his small fleet included Standard J-1s for shots of entire squadrons, some of which were blown up in explosions, and Waterman-Boeing C biplanes for German aircraft destroyed in crashes. The scene in which Scott takes off with Courtney clinging to the wing switches to a shot of a Travel Air 4U Speedwing fitted with a round cowl over its Comet engine to resemble the Nieuports. Stunt pilots included Leo Nomis, Rupert Symes Macalister, Frank Tomick, and Roy Wilson.[3] Several Thomas-Morse S-4 aircraft were used in the 1930 film. The S-4 was an American built fighter plane that did not see combat in WW1. Plentiful in 1930, the S-4s were becoming rare by the time the 1938 film was produced, hence the re-use of aircraft sequences from the original film.
[edit] Miscellany
Warner Brothers released two Looney Tunes cartoons parodying this movie. Bosko starred in "The Dumb Patrol" in 1931 and thirty-three years later, in 1964, Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam appeared in a second cartoon spoof also called "Dumb Patrol".
[edit] References
- ^ "The Plane". FlyWithTheBarnstormer.com. http://www.flywiththebarnstormer.com/about_the_plane.htm. Retrieved 1 Apr 2009.
- ^ "Le Wichita Fokker" (French language). Aeromovies - films d'aviation. http://www.aeromovies.fr/articles.php?pg=285&lng=fr. Retrieved 1 Apr 2009. This site includes numerous photographs of the type in film livery.
- ^ "Aviation Films - D". Aerofiles.com. http://www.aerofiles.com/film-d.html. Retrieved 1 Apr 2009.
[edit] External links
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