The Dawn Patrol (1938)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Edmund Goulding

Writers:

Seton I. Miller (screenplay) and
Dan Totheroh (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

24 December 1938 (USA)

Genre:

War | Drama

Tagline:

They roared through the dawn . . . with death on their wings !

Plot:

British flying aces in World War I contend with the harsh realities of war.

Plot Keywords:

France | Boot | Self Sacrifice | Toast | Singing

Cast

Errol Flynn	...	Captain Courtney
Basil Rathbone	...	Major Brand
David Niven	...	Lieutenant Scott
Donald Crisp	...	Phipps
Melville Cooper	...	Sergeant Watkins
Barry Fitzgerald	...	Bott
Carl Esmond	...	Von Mueller
Peter Willes	...	Hollister
Morton Lowry	...	Donnie Scott
Michael Brooke	...	Captain Squires
James Burke	...	Flaherty - Motorcycle Driver
Stuart Hall	...	Bentham
Herbert Evans	...	Scott's Mechanic
Sidney Bracey	...	Major Brand's Orderly (as Sidney Bracy)
Leo Nomis	...	Aeronautic Supervisor

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #4585)

Filming Locations:

Calabasas, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

One of the Nieuports used in the movie is now on display at the Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker Alabama.

Goofs:

Continuity: (At 14:00) Phipps is writing a letter of condolence to the mother of a recruit who has been killed in action. As he stops writing to talk with Major Brand, he switches his pen from his right hand to his left hand and removes his glasses with his right hand. In the next shot, his pen is back in his right hand and his glasses are in his left hand.

Quotes:

Phipps: [Whimsically after reading a letter from home] You know, Brand, it'd be awfully nice if we had a dog around here in the mornings to come in and cheer us up.
Phipps: [Whistling and talking to an imagined dog] Here! Come on, fella! Come on here! Mind your muddy feet. Come on!
Maj. Brand: [Brand has been deep in thought and only now realizes Phipps is talking] What you doing?
Phipps: Uh, the dog.
Maj. Brand: Dog? What dog? Where?
Phipps: No, I say it would be nice if we had a dog to come in here in the mornings to sort of cheer us up, you know? And...
[He mutters as he realizes Brand has not been listening to him]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Waltons: The Quilting (#4.21)" (1976)

Soundtrack:

Plum and Apple

The real thing

My father was the pilot of the plane that flew directly at the blimp when it exploded (allegedly on impact).Dad was payed $1500 for the stunt, filmed in California or Florida using American pilots. The pilot was Gene Austin, stunt pilot, delayed jump record holder 1935 and member of the flying team, I think they were called Hell's Angels (title of another movie) in this picture. Hughes used the same sequence in 3 pictures marketed in 1933. The stunt placed a dynamite charge in the nose of the aircraft which had a delay to ignite to be activated as the pilot left the cockpit. As the story was later published, the charge exploded just as the pilot had his foot on the seat to exit, was blown out of the plane and luckily was awake enough to open his chute. Gene Austin's scrap book and other docs are in the SanDiego Aerospace Museum. Gene Austin was born 4/06/1900 and died 7/9/52 of a cerebral hemorrhage.