Another av movie

[Richard]

I just finished watching a movie I don't remember seeing before. Captain in the Clouds, starring James Cagney, features flying in Canada around the beginning of WWII. It starts off with bush flying but after the evacuation at Dunkirk is reported everyone signs up for service in the RCAF.

The plot actually works and the 'special effects' are expectedly corny but the best parts were actual 20+ ship formation takeoffs. Oh yeah, look for Alan Hale's wildly PIO water landing, it takes porpoising to a whole new level.

 

[Len Lanetti]

. Oh yeah, look for Alan Hale's wildly PIO water landing, it takes porpoising to a whole new level.

The skipper's dad. They could be twins.

Is this the movie where the pilots have to prove their night depth perception by aligning two candles?

Len

 

[mikea]

I just finished watching a movie I don't remember seeing before. Captain in the Clouds, starring James Cagney, features flying in Canada around the beginning of WWII.

...look for Alan Hale's wildly PIO water landing, it takes porpoising to a whole new level.

I know I'm going to regret this but....

"PIO?"

 

[Frank Browne]

"PIO?"

Pilot
Induced
Oscillation

 

[Richard]

The skipper's dad. They could be twins.

Is this the movie where the pilots have to prove their night depth perception by aligning two candles?

Len

On the first, I do believe you're right. On the second, no, you're thinking of the Flying Tigers, about the AVG in China.

This movie is a Warner Bros release in full Technicolor. James Cagney is a Canadian bush pilot who is stealing work away from the other bush pilots. Soon, enough is enough as three other pilots team up and give chase to Cagney's character, Brian McClain, to force him to give up his selfish ways. Through a bit of close quarter maneuvering, McClain forces Hale's plane down onto a lake where he runs into the shore to damage his prop and a wing strut. Later, they all share a drink--no hard feelings.

They all have aspirations but WWII truncates all that and the boys join up in the RCAF. Or try to. Most of these guys are too old and have far too much experience so instead of getting to fight they are kept behind to instruct new cadets. Cagney gets court martialed for gross failure to obey orders. Hale dies when he blacks out trying to pull out of a dive after he and Cagney buzz the wings ceremony at the RCAF base. Cagney goes on to redeem himself by ramming a ME-109 as they ferry planes and pilots to England. Of course he died.


Lots of flying scenes. Real planes, real scenery, real wx, real men.