“That’s for Roger . . . that’s for the corporal . . . this one’s just for me.” — Tim Baker (Power) to the nameless enemy pilots he’s shooting down
The first thing to notice about A Yank in the R.A.F., especially if viewed for the first time and at this late date (almost eighty years after its making), is the disparate assortment of genres. Which does the film want to be, if anything—a war movie, a musical, a comedy or a romance?
As a war movie it’s perfunctory, the airplane models amateurish, even for the time, though the authentic World War II footage, then fresh from Europe, adds to what little grasp the film has on reality. As a musical, with both British and American pop tunes of sorts, it’s a showcase for the singer, pinup girl of the era, Betty Grable, charming in her usual sweetie-cutie way.
As a comedy, A Yank in the R.A.F. is at its weakest, struggling halfheartedly, as if unsure of total commitment, perhaps wanting more to be a romance, which it shifts into almost simultaneously, all possible clichés intact. It’s the time-worn story of two men in love with the same girl, loving and competing between combat heroics. John Sutton’s voice—one of the most mellifluous in the business—is appealing, and his unroughable, British stiff-upper-lip charm is the exact opposite of Tyrone Power’s boyish, devil-may-care antics.
Power, who himself has charm to burn, is the best part of the film, and Grable seems to agree, selecting him, to no surprise, as her choice in the final scene. In the original screenplay, Power dies in the end. After seeing what 20th Century-Fox production head Darryl F. Zanuck submitted for approval, the British military consultants suggested Power’s death inferred that Americans then flying for the R.A.F. might die.
Zanuck was more than just a little pro-British and authored the script under the pseudonym Melville Crossman. The film was released a little over two months before Pearl Harbor. Knowing its shortcomings, Zanuck banked of the magnetism of his two money-making stars to carry the picture.
Fox wasn’t alone in the war effort. Warner Bros., one of the first studios to sense the Nazi menace, released Confessions of a Nazi Spy in 1939 and Sergeant York in 1941—this before December 7, 1941. Even later, in 1942, the studio was releasing effective propaganda Looney Tunes cartoons, including The Ducktators in which three ducks of the Axis Powers terrorize a barnyard of animals. And Charlie Chaplin released The Great Dictator, a scalding satire of Adolf Hitler, in March of 1941.
From the first scene, Ty’s charm is over-persuasive, even without a gal in sight—during 1940 and ’41, he had shared the screen with Linda Darnell in his three previous films, Blood and Sand,The Mark of Zorro and Brigham Young.
It’s just before the U.S. entry into the war, and Tim Baker (Power) thinks he’s landed an American-made fighter in Trenton, New Jersey, for transfer to Canada and then to England. But he’s landed in Trenton, Ontario, Canada! When a Canadian major (Frederick Worlock) suggests he could fly bombers from Canada to England for $1,000 a trip, Baker figures that’s the money-making deal for him.
While in London, Tim comes across an old girl friend, Carol (Grable), an ambulance service volunteer. She gives him a most convincing kiss, but immediately remembers she dropped him because he’s irresponsible, and pushes him away.
Undaunted, Tim believes he can win her back and accepts her dare that he join the Royal Air Force. But he’s quickly bored with the classes in rudimentary flying techniques, so beneath his advanced skills as a star fly boy.
Unknowingly, he has competition. Carol meets Wing Commander John Morley (Sutton) and later, when he’s attended her nightclub show and escorted her home, she believes he’s the one, especially after Tim has just stood her up. Being the girl she is, she continues to date both men, who are unaware they are dating the same girl.
On a run to drop propaganda leaflets on Berlin, which Tim perceives as a waste of time, part of his crew includes John and Corporal Harry Baker (Donald Stuart).
Tim returns from a night out with fellow pilots Roger (Reginald Gardiner) and Al (Ralph Byrd) to find that Carol has left for a weekend in the country with John.
Then there’s a mission—no leaflets this time. Roger’s plane is shot down, and when Tim and John’s damaged aircraft lands on a Dutch beach, Harry sacrifices himself so his two companions can elude a German patrol.
By now the two men learn they are both pursuing Carol. Though unscathed, Tim fakes a broken arm and a limp to draw her sympathy, forcing an engagement ring on her.
In another mission, Tim flies a Spitfire, part of a squadron attacking the Germans at Dunkirk. After shooting down two enemy planes, as he says, one for Roger and one for Harry, Tim is himself shot down and presumed lost. John returns safely and realizes that Carol is in love with Tim.
Carol and John meet a returning boatload of Dunkirk evacuees that includes Tim. Carol shows him the ring and John congratulates him in best British fashion. But the cocky Tim hasn’t changed, and he knows it. After returning an overcoat to an attractive nurse (Lynne Roberts), toward whom he obviously made a pass during the voyage, he says to Carol, “Yes, I know, honey. I’m a worm.” The three walk off together.
If not expecting too much, it’s easy to enjoy A Yank in the R.A.F. for what it is, in the context of its time and as a pro-British propaganda film. If the juxtaposition of its various elements is somewhat jarring, the charm of the players, particularly Power and Grable, goes a long way in carrying the film, just as Zanuck had believed.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cpa8RMtrGI[/embedyt]