DESPERATE JOURNEY is a World War II movie that I somehow
missed seeing on TV when I was growing up. In fact, I’m not sure I’d even heard
of it until recently. It was made in 1942, long before the war was over, and
stars Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Arthur Kennedy, Alan Hale, and Ronald
Sinclair as the survivors of a crash landing when the B-17 they’re in is shot
down in Germany after a successful bombing run. It’s not enough for them to
avoid capture by the Nazis and escape into Holland. They decide to turn
themselves into a five-man invasion force and wreak as much havoc with the
German war effort as they can along the way.
As helmed by veteran action director Raoul Walsh, this movie hardly ever slows down. Our intrepid heroes are in and out of one jam after another, blowing stuff up real good and confounding the German officer leading the effort to capture them, played by Raymond Massey. Along the way they even meet a pretty girl who’s a member of the German resistance, although there’s no time for any romance before the guys are dashing off to carry out another act of sabotage. Despite the serious subject matter—and the fact that not everybody makes it out alive—DESPERATE JOURNEY is almost breezy at times with its over-the-top adventure and wisecracking heroes.
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It’s old-fashioned entertainment. Flynn and Reagan are very good in their roles. Reagan has the best scene, when he’s being interrogated by Massey and pressured to give up Allied secrets. The script sort of glosses over the fact that out of the five protagonists, only one (Sinclair’s character) is actually British, although they’re all in the RAF. But that international flavor is at least acknowledged, even if nothing much is made of it. There’s some good miniature work, maybe not up to the same level as the Lydecker brothers over at Republic (but when it comes to miniature work, what was?) and an excellent car chase late in the picture. I’m glad I came across this movie and watched it, and if you haven’t seen it, it’s definitely worthwhile.
As helmed by veteran action director Raoul Walsh, this movie hardly ever slows down. Our intrepid heroes are in and out of one jam after another, blowing stuff up real good and confounding the German officer leading the effort to capture them, played by Raymond Massey. Along the way they even meet a pretty girl who’s a member of the German resistance, although there’s no time for any romance before the guys are dashing off to carry out another act of sabotage. Despite the serious subject matter—and the fact that not everybody makes it out alive—DESPERATE JOURNEY is almost breezy at times with its over-the-top adventure and wisecracking heroes.
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It’s old-fashioned entertainment. Flynn and Reagan are very good in their roles. Reagan has the best scene, when he’s being interrogated by Massey and pressured to give up Allied secrets. The script sort of glosses over the fact that out of the five protagonists, only one (Sinclair’s character) is actually British, although they’re all in the RAF. But that international flavor is at least acknowledged, even if nothing much is made of it. There’s some good miniature work, maybe not up to the same level as the Lydecker brothers over at Republic (but when it comes to miniature work, what was?) and an excellent car chase late in the picture. I’m glad I came across this movie and watched it, and if you haven’t seen it, it’s definitely worthwhile.
3 comments:
Oh yeah, very familiar with this as it has always been one of my wife's favorites. Ronnie had a great role and the whole thing was a lot of fun.
I thought Reagan was off in Europe during WW2
He was on active duty in the army starting in April 1942, so this could well have been the last movie he made before that. He never went overseas, though, but was assigned mostly to the army's motion picture unit and stayed in California making training films.
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