Fight in the clouds

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Fight in the clouds
Original title A guy named Joe
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1943
length 120 minutes
Rod
Director Victor Fleming
script Dalton Trumbo
David Boehm
Frederick Hazlitt Brennan
production Everett Riskin for MGM
music Herbert Stothart
camera George J. Folsey
Karl Freund
occupation

Fight in the Clouds (Original title: A Guy Named Joe ) is an American war film with Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne directed by Victor Fleming from 1943. In Germany, the film was first shown on January 1, 1997 on television.

action

The American bomber pilot Pete Sandridge is stationed in England. His flying skills are already legendary on the base. With no regard for his own safety, Pete flies one successful attack after another. His girlfriend, the pilot Dorinda Durston, is at his side, even if she is secretly afraid for his life. After a particularly dangerous mission, Pete is moved by his commanding officer to another base, where he wastes his time on harmless tasks. Dorinda, still hoping that Pete will finally marry her, one day has a premonition about Pete's future fate. She tries in vain to warn him during a visit. At first Pete brusquely refuses her pleading requests to return to the USA with her as a flight instructor. In the end, however, Pete realizes how much Dorinda loves him and he agrees to follow her. A short time later, Pete is ordered to do a routine job, but it goes wrong. Pete sacrifices his life for his comrades only to end up in a kind of in-between world a short time later. While Dorinda learns of Pete's death on the mission, a being called The General explains his strange situation to him: He may have died, but his soul will act as a guardian angel for the young pilot Ted Randall. Ted, the son of a millionaire banker, becomes a real ace thanks to the support of Pete. One day, after a successful enemy flight, Ted meets Dorinda in a bar, who has not yet got over Pete's death. Ted flirts with her and Dorinda gradually gets involved in a relationship. Immediately after his promotion to captain, Ted makes her a proposal, which Dorinda accepts, to Pete's displeasure. Only gradually does Pete realize that he has to let go of Dorinda. He appears to her in a dream and asks her to marry Ted. The young woman gets into deep conscience. Only when Pete reveals to her how dangerous Ted's mission will be does she make a decision: She wants to sacrifice herself for Ted and flies to her destination with Pete's support. Together they do the job and Pete finally releases Dorinda on the approach to the base. Dorinda and Ted hug while Pete goes to his next wards.

background

Irene Dunne was one of the highest paid female stars in early 1943 and had just signed a non-exclusive deal with MGM . After some back and forth over the appropriate script, Dunne finally decided to star in A Guy Named Joe alongside Spencer Tracy . The unusual story of two bomber pilots, one of whom is more or less dead and who love the same woman, borrows from Here Comes Mr. Jordan , Outward Bound and Topper - Das blond Gespenst . In these films a character continues to exist in a kind of intermediate realm after his physical death and influences the existence of the living. For Irene Dunne, who was known for her perfect manners and elegant demeanor, working with Spencer Tracy turned out to be a nightmare. The actor, who was well known to director Victor Fleming after four previous films together, never missed an opportunity to humiliate Irene Dunne and sometimes to treat Irene Dunne badly in front of the entire crew. He loathed Dunne's demeanor and considered it to be graceful behavior. It wasn't until a dramatic incident during the filming that Tracy was forced to adopt a more civilized approach to Dunne:

After a number of supporting roles, the film offered Van Johnson his opportunity to break through towards an established star. Shortly after filming began, the actor had such a serious accident in a traffic accident that he almost died of the consequences. The studio wanted to replace Johnson with another actor as soon as possible and re-shoot his scenes. Tracy eventually got the studio on hold for a few months until Van Johnson recovered. At the same time, Tracy and Dunne took the opportunity to re-shoot a number of scenes together that were more or less useless because of the strong personal dislike that both actors could not hide. In the end, Irene Dunne paid a high price for the courtesy: The delays in the shooting schedule meant that the actress had to work on A Guy Named Joe and her follow-up project The White Cliffs of Dover in parallel . Despite the difficult conditions, Irene Dunne counted the role in A Guy Named Joe to her favorite films. She got along so well with Johnson, who was 18 years her junior, that she got him a supporting role in The White Cliffs of Dover , in which he also played her lover.

In a short supporting role, you can see Esther Williams , who carefully built the studio into a star. She had her breakthrough in the mid 1944 Romance Bathing Beauty on the side of Red Skelton rotate together and should more films with Van Johnson, most elaborate musicals like Thrill of a Romance and Easy to Wed . The original script called for Dorinda's death while on duty. However, since the version indicated death as a deliberate self-sacrifice of the pilot, the censorship authority, which categorically rejected any glorification of suicides, demanded a change.

Steven Spielberg shot a remake with Always - Der Feuerengel von Montana and Richard Dreyfuss , Holly Hunter and Audrey Hepburn .

Awards

The film went into the 1945 Academy Awards with a nomination in the category

Theatrical release

With a production cost of $ 2,627,000, the film had a significantly increased budget compared to the studio average. It was very successful at the box office, grossing $ 3,970,000 in the US, with a further 1,393,000 coming from overseas markets. With a cumulative total result of 5,363,000 US dollars, the studio was able to realize a high profit of 1,066,000 US dollars in the end.

Sources used

Web links