God Is My Co-Pilot (1945)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Robert Florey

Writers:

Abem Finkel (writer)
Peter Milne (writer)

Release Date:

7 April 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Biography | War

Plot:

Robert L. Scott has dreamed his whole life of being a fighter pilot, but when war comes he finds himself...

Plot Keywords:

China | Flying Tiger | Fighter Pilot | Beautiful Woman | Aerial Combat

Cast

Dennis Morgan	...	Col. Robert Lee Scott
Dane Clark	...	Johnny Petach
Raymond Massey	...	Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chennault
Alan Hale	...	Big Mike Harrigan
Andrea King	...	Catherine Scott
John Ridgely	...	David 'Tex' Hill
Stanley Ridges	...	Col. Meriam 'Steve' Cooper
Craig Stevens	...	Ed Rector
Warren Douglas	...	Bob Neale
Mark Stevens	...	Sgt. Baldridge (as Stephen Richards)
Charles Smith	...	Pvt. Motley
Minor Watson	...	Col. Caleb V. Haynes
Richard Loo	...	Tokyo Joe
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Addison Richards	...	(scenes deleted)
Donald Woods	...	(scenes deleted)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (certificate #11444)

Filming Locations:

Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Cheers: Fear Is My Co-Pilot (#4.21)" (1986)

Dennis Morgan gets a chance to play a real-life hero...

DENNIS MORGAN is one of those actors under contract to Warner Bros. who seldom got a chance to do anything but lightweight roles and occasionally given a fairly good musical such as the Technicolored MY WILD IRISH ROSE where he played Chauncey Olcott, songwriter.

But GOD IS MY CO-PILOT is a rarity in that he gets to fill most of the screen's running time as Col. Robert Lee Scott, one of the first Americans to join the "Flying Tigers" just before World War II. Scott went on to a distinctive wartime record and only recently died at a ripe old age, a hero of his hometown of Macon, Georgia.

The film is a typical Warner war film--cast with all of their most dependable stock company players--including RAYMOND MASSEY, ALAN HALE, CRAIG STEVENS, newcomer MARK STEVENS, ANDREA KING, DANE CLARK, JOHN RIDGELY and DONALD COOK. But as a film, it falls strictly into the Saturday afternoon adventure mold for kiddies, only occasionally rising to the occasion of being a good biography of the wartime hero.

Despite the rather plum role, Morgan is still a lightweight, leaving the heavier histrionics to Raymond Massey and Alan Hale--but his fans loved him in this, regardless. It's probably the film he's most remembered for during the '40s.

And incidentally, there was no political correctness going on in the '40s as far as America and the Japanese were concerned, for those taking affront at the slurs against "the Japs". That's the way they were regarded then. Even having dishes that bore "Made in Japan" on them, was enough for an American to consider throwing them out. That's how it was--deal with it.