You know what this place is? It’s a slaughterhouse, and I’m the butcher! – The Dawn Patrol (1938)
Using the aerial combat shots from the 1930 version of the film, the director brought the anti-war message to countries on the brink of entering another World War. This film expanded on the four central tenets of the genre defined in the earlier film. The tenets are Counting the sounds of the motors of the returning aircraft to determine how many planes were lost, higher echelon commanders phoning in impossible orders with callous indifference, inexperienced pilots arriving at the last minute only to be thrown directly into combat, and assembling the crew for orders and stoically delivering the message.
Introduction – The Dawn Patrol (1938)
Hello to all of the classic people that are returning. I am glad you are back. I want to welcome new visitors and let you know there will be spoilers. Today on Classic Movie Review, we are taking on The Dawn Patrol (1938).
I have loved this movie since the first time I saw it. The film has a decent rating of 7.5 on iMDB.com[1]. Of course, I feel this should be much higher. On Rottentomatoes.com, the film surprisingly doesn’t have a Tomatometer score but is well-liked by audiences at 83 percent[2].
Variety said in a December 31, 1937 review:
“Dawn Patrol sparkles because of vigorous performances of the entire cast and Edmund Goulding’s sharp direction. Story [by John Monk Saunders] is reminiscent of previous yarns about the flying service at the front during the World War. Yet it is different in that it stresses the unreasonableness of the ‘brass hats’ – the commanders seated miles from the front who dispatched the 59th Squadron to certain death in carrying out combat assignments.”[3]
While it is still worth watching, especially for the aerial sequences, I don’t care as much for The Dawn Patrol (1930), as it’s a little too English for my tastes.
Actors – The Dawn Patrol (1938)
The pilots in this film drink and fly with the swagger of a buccaneer. One look at the cast makes it clear why they swagger.
Returning
In the role of Flying Officer Courtney is none other than Errol Flynn. As an actor, Flynn set the bar for these types of roles. Flynn was first covered in the great swashbuckler Captain Blood (1935).
Conjure the perfect pirate baddy, and you have a high probability of coming up with Basil Rathbone. Rathbone was cast as Major Brand, a commander who would rather be flying than sending others to die. Rathbone was first covered in Son of Frankenstein (1939).
David Niven played Flying Officer Scott, and he was pretty impressive as the heavy drinking with the devil may care attitude about flying. Niven was first covered in The Bishop’s Wife (1947).
Venabrale actor Donald Crisp was cast as Phipps. Crisp was first covered in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939).
A very young and thin Melville Cooper played Sgt. Watkins, part of the ground crew. Cooper was covered as the Sheriff of Nottingham in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).
New
Barry Fitzgerald played Bott. Fitzgerald was born in Ireland in 1888. Initially trained in banking, Fitzgerald became interested in theater in the 1920s and joined the Abbey Players. He acted on stage in “Juno and The Paycock.” When this story was made into a film, director Alfred Hitchcock cast Fitzgerald.
Director John Ford hired the diminutive Irishman to work in the USA in 1935. Ford loved to pair the small man in proximity to exceeding talk actors such as Victor McLaglen or John Wayne. Fitzgerald’s films included The Plough and the Stars (1936), The Long Voyage Home (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and Going My Way (1944), where he was nominated for the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Oscars. He won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
He continued with And Then There Were None (1945), Two Years Before the Mast (1946), The Story of Seabiscuit (1949), and The Quiet Man (1952), where he was fantastic as a well-grounded priest. Fitzgerald died in 1961.
Story – The Dawn Patrol (1938)
The movie begins with the 59th Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps fighting over France in 1915, long before the United States was to enter the war. Courtney (Errol Flynn) brings down a Hiney with grim determination.
On the ground, the mechanics complain about the deplorable conditions of the planes they are asked to repair. Sgt. Watkins (Melville Cooper) gives the man a dressing down for disparaging the King’s property.
They are all waiting for A Flight to return. Major Brand (Basil Rathbone) is called to the phone by his adjutant Phipps (Donald Crisp). Higher headquarters wants to know the results of A Flights attack. Brand gets indignant when the higher-ups question the ability of the 59th. Due to the strain of command, Brand is near the breaking point. As A Flight returns, Brand counts to propeller sounds to learn how many have not returned.
Courtney and his pal Scott (David Niven) smile and show no sign of the strain of combat. A new pilot, Hollister, has made it back but is crushed by the loss of his best friend during the fight. They try to cheer him up, but the man continues to sulk. Courtney and Scott begin drinking right away. Bott (Barry Fitzgerald), an enlisted billet man, comments on the sadness of losing the new pilots.
Courtney stocially delivers his report on the attack. Brand chides Courtney, hoping to get the pilot to blame him. But Courtney won’t blame Brand.
Later in the evening, Brand gets a call from headquarters, assigning them another mission for the morning. Replacements with no combat experience are expected to arrive by morning. Brand tells HQ the mission is a death trap.
The pilots are called together to receive the news of the new attack. Courtney takes the orders with a simple “right.” This makes Brand furious. Scott is passed out drunk.
Scott is badly hungover for the morning attack. The new replacements arrive in an open car and are singing happily. Courtney takes the two new pilots with the most flying hours. Brand watches as A Flight leaves. He is in a funk all day.
Eventually, they hear the propellers of the return planes. Both new men have been lost, as well as Scott, who went down protecting Hollister. Courtney delivers the information that Scott has been shot down. Brand tries to console Courtney, but their different jobs separate the two men. Courtney says he disabled the engine of the plane that shot down Scott.
Some artillery troops bring in German pilot Hauptmann von Mueller (Carl Esmond). They say that the leader of A Flight brought the plane down, meaning this is the enemy that shot down Scott. Courtney can’t be mad at the German for doing his job. They give the prisoner a drink. Hollister is angry with the German pilot. Courtney and Mueller drink to the dead until it becomes a full-on party.
Hollister comes down and attacks the German. But the British pilots restrain him. Shortly after, Scott arrives back at the base safe and sound, carrying bottles of champagne. Scott is drunk, and the German is happy that Scott is alive. Scott is shocked to meet the German who shot him down but remains friendly. Courtney, Scott, and Mueller try to leave in a motorcycle and sidecar. The guard won’t let the German leave to go drinking with the two pilots.
Brand has to work hard to get the two drunken pilots released from the police. B Flight returns from a mission with only three planes and a wounded commander. The commander says that von Richter is now facing them in the line. Of course, this is supposed to be Von Richthofen, AKA the Red Baron and the dreaded flying circus.
Almost immediately, a checkered-winged German plane flies over the airfield and drops a pair of trench boots and a message taunting the fliers to come up. Brand orders that there will be no volunteer flights going up in response. Naturally, Courtney and Scott steal the boots from Brand and secretly fly into the rising dawn.
Armed with bombs, Courtney and Scott arrive at the German aerodrome while the enemy planes are still on the ground. The English pilots strafe and drop hand grenades. The bombs destroy most of the planes on the ground. The few that try to get into the air are shot down before they can get airborne. Shooting of planes attempting to take off is featured in Tora, Tora, Tora (1970), and Midway (1976). Both of these are great movies. The English fliers destroy a hangar and kill some ground crew before dropping the boots and flying away.
Courtney’s plane is hit by anti-aircraft fire before he can cross into friendly territory. He crash lands the plane and is okay. Scott makes a daring landing, and Courtney rides on his wing as they escape. This riding on wings was something that was shown in The Great Waldo Pepper (1975). On the way back, Scott’s plane is hit by anti-aircraft, and he is blinded by oil. Courtney helps the temporarily blinded Scott crash land. They laugh with joy at being alive. Not from the wing, but leading a blind pilot back was reused in The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954).
Back at base, Brand is having a fit because the two pilots disobeyed his orders. The two pilots arrive back at the base. Brand begins dressing them down. Brand has already sent a report to HQ about the pilots disobeying orders. Brand gets a call from HQ, and they are thrilled with the damage done to the Germans by Courtney and Scott.
Brand receives some more news and begins laughing. He hangs up and pours drinks for himself, Scott, Courtney, and Phipps. Brand is being promoted to HQ and he appoints Courtney to command.
Courtney immediately gets a call from a higher-up, giving him attack orders for the next day. Courtney becomes isolated and starts drinking heavily. He has become just like Brand as he gets orders for a mission daily, and a long line of replacement pilots continues to arrive and die.
They will receive six rookie pilots to fly against von Richter and his veteran pilots for an upcoming mission. Courtney’s role as commander and Scott’s as flight leader has created a strain between the two friends. Courtney says he feels like an executioner.
The rookie pilots arrive in an open car, singing merrily. Scott greets them and is shocked to find his schoolboy young brother Donnie (Morton Lowry). Scott is shocked that Donnie has less than ten flying hours.
Courtney assembles the Squadron to announce the mission, as Brand had done many times before. The mission is to take off at dawn and fly low to stop a big German push. It is perilous because the planes are exposed to a lot of ground fire, and enemy planes can attack from above without being seen. They are to fly four missions a day.
Donnie says hello to Courtney. Scott demands that his brother not go up without additional training. Scott talks in private and wants to train his brother. Courtney cannot make an exception for his friend’s brother. It ends in a yelling match, but finally, Scott says, “Right.” Later, Courtney calls the commanding general and asks for more time to prepare the rookies. He is told that the attack must go forward.
Donnie comes in and tells Courtney that he has the skills needed for the mission. Courtney gives Donnie some advice about combat. Donnie leaves a rowing medal with Courtney in case he is shot down.
In the morning, Scott won’t talk to Courtney as he brings Donnie out as a part of A Flight. The flight is attacked by von Richter. It is not long until von Richter himself shoots and kills Donnie. Scott sees his brother die but can’t do anything to help. Only Scott and another flyer make it back alive. Scott accuses Courtney of killing his brother.
Brand arrives for a visit. Brand is surprised that Scott and Courtney are no longer friends. Brand gives Courtney orders for a mission. They want a single plane to fly almost 40 miles behind enemy lines and blow up a supply depot located at a railyard. Courtney realizes it is a suicide mission and says he will go himself. But Brand says he must ask for a volunteer from the flight.
Courtney gathers the men and reads the order. He asks for volunteers. All the men volunteer but Scott gets his name in first. As Scott prepares, Courtney comes in with a bottle of whiskey and a planned attack route. Scott is hostile at first but eventually begins drinking. Courtney pressures his friend into drinking more.
Before long, the two men have reconciled their friends. Once Scott is drunk, Courtney encourages his friend to take a quick nap. Courtney leaves his sleeping friend and goes on the mission to blow up the ammo dump. Courtney is spotted over the German line, and von Richter’s unit is alerted.
Courtney makes it to the supply dump and successfully blows up his target. If I could just think of one movie where a single pilot needs to fly down a well-armed trench to fire a missile into an exhaust port… Oh, right, Star Wars (1977), the original, The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), and Top Gun: Maverick (2022).
He heads for home but is attacked by von Richter and two other planes attack. Courtney uses his flying experience and downs one German. He then gets von Richter in his sights and kills the veteran German pilot. The third German moves behind Courtney. He wounds Courtney and disables his plane. Courtney waves to the man who brought him down. Courtney’s plane is shown going down, but the crash is not seen.
Back at base, Scott has been moved to squadron commander. He is on the phone with HQ, and they are giving him orders for the next day. They hear the engine of a fighter over their field. Thinking it is Courtney, they light a petrol trench to illuminate the airfield. The engine is a German fighter that only drops a package.
The package contains Courtney’s helmet and goggles as a sign of respect. Phipps talks about the futility of war and the deaths it causes.
Scott delivers the news of Courtney’s attack to the depleted Squadron when a batch of replacements arrives in an open car, singing like drunken birds. He gives the orders for the following morning. As the movie ends, Scott has taken over the role that was held by Brand and then Courtney.
Conclusion – The Dawn Patrol (1938)
If this movie were terrible, I would still watch it for the aerial sequences. The aerial dogfighting scenes are incredible. This film is a remake and is one of the few times a remake is better than the original.
The Dawn Patrol (1930) and The Dawn Patrol (1938) are both based on the short story “The Flight Commander” by John Monk Saunders. Howard Hawks directed the earlier film, and director Edmund Goulding stayed close to the original script.
Most of the aerial sequences were filmed as part of the earlier film and reused in the latter. Needing more shots of the planes taking off and landing, Goulding had 17 original Nieuports assembled for the movie. Fifteen of the 17 planes were accidentally crashed by stunt pilots during the filming.
One of Howard Hawks’ themes was that the aviators were in a pressure cooker, and this theme has undoubtedly been carried forward in most military aviation movies. I have read American World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker’s book “Fighting the Flying Circus: The Greatest True Air Adventure to Come out of World War I” and this theme of pressure cookers and sudden death was featured there. It is also a theme in the fictional W. Somerset Maugham book “The Razors Edge” 1944.
To me, it seems death is just as sudden and shocking whether you are sleeping in a muddy trench and drinking burned coffee or sleeping inside with clean sheets and wine. Hawks’ themes continue from these movies, including: “white scarves, hard-drinking fatalism by doomed pilots, chivalry in the air between combatants, the short life expectancy of new pilots, and the legend of the “Red Baron,”[4] and the stress and PTSD of constant stress.
One thing I picked up from Rickenbacher’s book is that it was very cool in the cockpits. There were no wool-lined flight suits for the cold. A scarf would undoubtedly help with this, and it could be used to cover your mouth to keep out engine fumes or whip off fogged instruments.
The pressure of command and PTSD is shown in military aviation movies such as Command Decision (1948) and Twelve O’Clock High (1949). I have given both of these the treatment. The links are in the description.
The futility of war is questioned in films such as The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), which I have reviewed, and The Flight of the Intruder (1991). There are so many movies about facing the Red Baron, or from the Red Baron’s point of view, I won’t list them.
As for drinking, I submit the following. Rathbone was already a World War I veteran. Not long after this movie, Niven reentered the British Army. Flynn, by then an American citizen, attempted to join the military but was ruled medically ineligible. To show how they were living before the war, Flynn and Niven shared a house in Malibu named Cirrhosis-by-the-Sea.
World-Famous Short Summary – Maverick is sad about the death of Goose but carries on the mission.
Beware the moors.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030044/
[2] The Dawn Patrol – Rotten Tomatoes
[3] The Dawn Patrol (variety.com)
[4] The Dawn Patrol (1938 film) – Wikipedia
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