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. ****

The Flying Tigers and God Is My Co-Pilot are the two films out of World War II which are dedicated to the American volunteers who flew for the nascent Chinese Air Force both before and after America officially got into World War II. Though this film is based on fictional people it holds up a lot better than God Is My Co-Pilot because it avoids the racial stereotyping of the Japanese. The Japanese are seen, but only in aerial combat shots with no dialog. And it's true they did have a nasty habit of machine gunning fliers while they were parachuting down, no avoiding that.The main plot of the film is John Wayne as the disciplined leader of this particular squadron of Flying Tigers based somewhere in western China and an old and rather undisciplined friend John Carroll in a rivalry over nurse Anna Lee. Carroll's irresponsibility causes the death of one man and maybe another.Still he's not a bad sort, just an overgrown kid. Carroll actually has the best moment in the film consoling Mae Clarke the widow of one of the Flying Tigers.Some nice aerial combat shots are in this film and it really should be seen today to explain some of the Chinese attitudes towards the Japanese today. We got into World War II on December 7, 1941 which in fact the men in Wayne's squadron hear about in the film. The Chinese were essentially at war with Japan starting in 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. It was a longer struggle for them than for any other country.Other performances of note are Paul Kelly as Wayne's second in command and Gordon Jones are Carroll's sidekick. Check it out if it is shone on TCM.

This film, made in 1942, is naught but a US propaganda film. This is an early John Wayne film and, unfortunately, his acting is absolutely not up to his later standards. The rest of the cast, quite frankly, isn't very good either. While the story is decent and it's quite well-written, I had to give it a pretty low score. It seems that most of the good actors were either already engaged or had joined the US Armed Forces by the time they filmed this. I don't think it was very well directed, either, or perhaps it was very hurried. I think they did everything in one take. It's sad, really, because the Flying Tigers story is epic and heroic. Instead, several of the pilots are shown to be nothing but money-hungry mercenaries whose only motivation is the bounty paid per aerial kill. Oh, well...sorry about that, but it wasn't even a very good try.

Did John Wayne really win the Second World War? Perhaps not, but he certainly took the attack across the silver screen. In this early war film Wayne played Claire Chennault disguised under a pseudonym Jim Gordon perhaps to keep US intentions from the Japanese.AVG, the official acronym of the Flying Tigers, was composed of American mercenaries who flew for the Chinese Republic. A picture of Chiang Kia-chek the nationalist leader hangs on the door. The pilots are paid on apiece work basis. Yet they work together against the fearsome Japanes onslaught besieging China.Enter Woody, a wise guy, who wants to be an ace, mostly for the money. He's an overgrown teenager in a fighter aircraft. Will he mature in the role or destroy the unit by showboating? It is easy to dismiss this as a formula US war movie but there is some perception of the difficulties faced in running a mercenary unit.