The Flying Tigers (film)

About this: This gets a little contentious as I explore the morality of propaganda (again), so you might wanna skip it if you find that thing kinda dull. It also get kinda heavy towards the end, so you have been warned.


I seem to be on a second world war kick, well here goes the third in a row. The Flying Tigers with John Wayne, bet you haven't watched it recently. I made a point of digging it out and re watching for the first time since I was about eleven. I was curious about the mock P40 aeroplanes that feature in the film, because it was released in 1942 real aeroplanes were not available for most of the production, being needed elsewhere at the time. The studio built their own non flyable mocks for the scenes that show p40's on the ground either stationary or taxiing, they are so elaborate, they even do a few mock take-off runs. They are quite unconvincing for anyone familiar with the p40 though, they couldn't get things like convincing canopies right, I suppose that's understandble too considering the film made under war time constraints.

Watching The Flying Tigers was an interesting experience, a bit like watching a film from an alien culture, it adheres quite strongly to dramatic conventions that seem quite crude and naive. Stock characters and plot elements abound, there's a troubled, unjustly vilified loner, the loyal compatriot who places himself in jeopardy by disobeying orders, the irreverent conceited ne'er do well, out for his own gain. Of course it was made at quite a charged time, when the US was smarting from the humiliation of Pearl Harbour and there is some strong content for the period, Japanese pilots suffering graphically depicted wounds at the hands of our heroes. Those depictions seem to be inspired by sadism rather than an incentive to realistically portray the perils of war, which actually isn't as bad as it sounds because the film is largely bereft of the kind of demonisation associated with war time propaganda.

As a drama the film has some short comings, it limps through the first act at dire pace that seems be drawn out to an unbearable degree, as if the script is struggling to portray any depth in characterisation under the burden of their stereotypes. Where the script does satisfy, is with dialogue, as you'd expect from this period, there a snappy unselfconscious delivery of well constructed, slightly stylised prose that works well enough to hold your interest through the dull bits. There's also some alarming technical accuracy, when John Wayne's character briefs his men, he's referencing aircraft his Japanese adversaries would actually have been using, this is probably a consequence of the fact members of the real AVG were closely involved in the production as advisers. The real strength of the film are the aerial combat sequences, which despite the fact that studio shots are repeated in the film, work quite well, thanks to the excellent standard miniature photography. The miniature effects are not all up to the same standard but a good deal is really convincing, especially those used for the film's climax. The film's other asset is John Wayne, this was before typecasting eroded the more delicate aspects of his on screen persona and he's a much more convincing screen presence than in some of his later roles, this is a film that really exploits his star quality. It's cause to reflect on the quality of some those later roles and ponder what he could've accomplished if more 'em had reflected the quality of things like The Searchers or Rio Bravo.

The Flying Tigers does turn out to be enjoyable if a little slow to get going but I find the film's message to be morally reprehensible. You might this a little odd since I've excused the sadism expressed with the gruesome depiction of Japanese airmen being killed. and noted the refreshing absence of the demonisation of the enemy beyond those instances necessitated by the plot.

[SPOILIERS AHEAD]

The problem for me occurs the films climax, that one so excellently rendered with special effects, you remember that conceited ne're do well? well he's probably the films best crafted character and the script does a good job of making you hate him. For those familiar with formulaic plot, it will be no surprise to learn that this character turns out to be misunderstood and cements his redemption in the eyes of the audience with a suicidal act of self sacrifice. The message is clear and explicit as we see him destroy a railway bridge by diving into it with an aeroplane loaded with explosives, a chilling and, as I'm sure you're aware, an unnervingly prophetic scene. So prophetic in fact, it's cause to wonder how audiences would react to that scene as the horrors of the war in the pacific unfolded. Our ne'er do well is not the only character to meet such a fate, there are two other notable incidences, both of them involve characters that seem to be carefully drafted to portray social exiles. I found this unselfconscious portrayal of self destruction as virtue particularly indefensible given the context and the cynicism with which the characters are manipulated. A fair portion of the audience would in fact be impressionable young men who did just as the film prompted, got themselves killed. I know this is a contentious opinion, I don't think there's ever been an occasion when I've expressed something like it, when it hasn't been vehemently contested. To be truthful, if someone were in a predicament where there own family were in immediate peril, I could empathise with any action they took to protect that family, that might endanger themselves but to glorify self extinction in the service of an external agenda such as patriotism seems to me to be the ultimate evil, a cynical manipulation of the vulnerable and impressionable. Yeah, I know you're still not convinced but ponder this, The Flying Tigers makes no explicit reference to atrocities inflicted on the Chinese mainland during The Second Sino-Japanese war, who do you think committed those acts perpetrated during such incidents as *The Rape of Nanking? Well I tell you who, the same people who were convinced it's sweet and fitting to die for their country, if you can push someone past the barrier of self preservation, you've essentially created a functional-psychopath, someone capable of anything.

*NB
Despite what you might read in Wikipedia, the 'Rape' in the The Rape of Nanking doesn't refer to mass sexual assault, that's not say incidents of such assault did not occur. It is in fact one of the last occurrences of the use the word in a classical sense, meaning an assault on a community with the consequence of depleting that community's ability to raise children. In this incidence by killing them and their actual or potential mothers.

Not Mellow Bird's

Yes Mellow Bird's, it's for people who like the idea of coffee but don't actually like coffee, not that I advocate that all samplings of that beverage should be succeeded by the sensation of ants crawling inside your skull for the next five hours, like the cappuccino in my local cafe, but it takes the concept of mellow to a ridiculous level. At one time Joanna Lumley graced the TV ads, as they were trying to lift the brand from its rather sedate customer base, that consisted largely of your granny and her mates at the jam making circle. The ads that established the brand featured Kenneth Moore, whose on screen chemistry was still potent enough to entice his ageing female fan base into the fold. Moore was an interesting screen personality, he's kind of like the British version of Marlon Brando, by that I mean they were both singularly undemonstrative but strangely effective actors. Brando would portray tension and repressed aggression, Moore would represent attributes associated more with a British stereotype, the stiff upper lip and those wounds that don't show on the surface but cut deep in the flesh of the character.

So it's with a certain fondness I remember one of his later outings on the small screen, An Englishman's Castle, written by Philip Mackie. These days it would be called a mini series but I think the term had little coin back then. First shown in 1978 or possibly 79, two - er interesting years if lived in Britain at the time, an Englishman's Castle is one of those alternative history stories ie, what if the Germans won the war. Mackie's take on this topic concerns a TV dramatist, the writer of a historical soap opera -- that concerns itself with the German invasion of Britain. The script is pretty damned clever and Mackie doesn't shy away from the odd stylisation and use of artistic licence to tell his story and it's a bloody good story too, that I recall resonated sharply with the audience. In fact I'm pretty certain that a British comic writer of renown cribbed more than a few ideas from it when he came to publish his own depiction of a dystopian Britain a few years later.

Unfortuantly there's some very bad news concerning An Englishman's Castle, see it was produced by the BBC and their custodianship of Britain's TV legacy is somewhat wanting, so it's no surprise to learn that the master has been long since been whipped. There is whoever some good news, looks like some naughty bod taped a monitor feed and if you can ignore the synchronous time stamp in the upper corner, some other naughty bod has made it available on Youtube, give it a go, it comes highly recommended from DeadSpiderEye.

Banzai, me dearies

Carrot crunchers, I think is the polite term for folk who inhabit Gloucestershire, although there is a more colourful term, pertaining to sheep that sometime gets applied in that context but lets not explore that further here. Notable fact concerning the county, is that it was home to a couple of Britain's foremost aviation concerns, The Bristol Aeroplane company and The Gloster Aircraft Company. Amongst Gloster's notable contributions to British aviation, is the development of Britain's first gas turbine powered aircraft, including the first British production jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor. They also had a contender in the bidding for the RAF's wartime fighter, although development of the project seems to have been slow in comparison to its illustrious rivals for that role. The Gloster project took a rather different approach, developed under the RAF's F 5/34 Specification for an air interceptor/fighter, it was a considerably lighter aircraft than its rivals, something that would have made it ideal for marine applications. This comparatively low weight achieved mainly through the then novel application of an aluminium wing spar, both the Spitfire and Hurricane utilised more conventional steel members.

The project never really fulfilled its potential though, there is certain amount of speculation as to why that should be: the rivalry between the RAF and the RN, could've meant that its suitability as carrier borne fighter, hindered its chances. It's generally believed though that support in the Air Ministry was gathering around the Rolls Royce Merlin and those aircraft designed to fulfil the specification conceived to utilise that engine. So it never made it beyond a few prototypes that flew just before the war, too late to beat the Hurricane into production, as far as it's known the project never even acquired a unique name and the aircraft is ubiquitously known by it's RAF specification number ie. the Gloster F 5/34

Gloster F 5/34

Meanwhile across the other side of the world, something rather odd happened, the Japanese Navy issued a specification for a carrier borne fighter that was considered impossible to fulfil by at least one major manufacture who pulled out of the running. The guy at Mitsubishi, Mr. Jiro Horikoshi, wasn't so faint hearted though, with a we can do that attitude he came with the now famous Mitsubishi A6M, commonly known as the Zero.

Mitsubishi A6M Zero

Looks kind of familiar doesn't it? and it's a familiarity that has been noted on more than one occasion. The absence of the turtle deck and the staggered configuration of the tail plain being obvious similarities. It doesn't end there though, guess what its wing spar is made of? that's right, aluminium again. There's a lot of huffing and puffing over this similarity, I'm pretty convinced there's good circumstantial evidence to suggest that the similarity is more than just coincidence. but it would be a mistake to conclude that the Zero was derivative design, there was a heck of lot of transfer of design and technology between nations before and during the war. Most radial engines can be traced back as derivatives of the Gnome Radial, the cooling systems on the Daimler Benz engines were derived from the Roll Royce Kestrel, likewise the fan installation of the Hawker Sea Fury was copied directly from the FW 190, only an idiot wouldn't copy something that worked. The Zero was even lighter that the F 5/34, the airframe being constructed from an aluminium alloy only the Japanese had access to, known as T-7178.

As I mentioned, I'm personally pretty sure there was some kind of transfer on the design and it probably wasn't just one way either, Gloster was a the British company with quite bit of presence in Japan. It would be interesting to really have the resources and dig into this story and not just mull over suspicions and speculation.

Esther's grin

Way back in the 70's and probably some distance into the 80's too there was this evening BBC television show, I think it was a Sunday evening thing but I'm not sure, it could've been Friday. That's Life it was called, a magazine show hosted by various inconspicuous male presenters but chiefly by Esther Rantzen and interspersed with skits and whimsical items, like dogs that could speak and hilarious clippings from the classifieds of local newspapers. In fact my local rag would feature regularly, the proprietor of a local second hand car dealer had a habit of including a candid description of one of his less desirable offerings. I think we would call 'em basket cases these days, honesty, it seems, is sufficiently amusing to warrant inclusion in such a context.

It wasn't all fun and games though, not by a long shot, the show was concerned itself rather earnestly with the malfeasance and shady practises of the commercial world: misleading adverts in the Sundays that promised a silver tea service for £5, dodgy bucket shops that ripped off unwary travellers, that kind of thing. Rooting out perfidy in the cause of the consumer, seems a great idea until you realise that the unforgiving nature of television scheduling demands that suitable candidates be offered up for the tumbrel according to a strict time table, which is where Esther, her show and I crossed paths, albeit indirectly.

I didn't watch the show myself, I'd given up watching most weekend telly by that time but I did form a picture of the kind article it was, that concerned itself with the issue in question, through vicarious means. Some clipping from the classifieds in London's Evening News probably and maybe a few interviews with disgruntled members of the public, who'd been, ripped off by unscrupulous traders. I learnt about this particular scandal as I sounded out a prospective venture with some associates, we were about to make a pick up as we embarked on a trip to London. Tea chests from the factory just outside town, unfortuantly when we arrived to make the pick up, we found the asking price for the merchandise had risen by 500%. You've guessed it, Esther had concerned herself with the shocking price asked for tea chests in London's classifieds. Unfortuantly the practical upshot was that although we did manage to offload this consignment at an inflated price, it barely covered the cost of the diesel and it certainly wasn't worth making a trip for it. It also put the kybosh on the business venture, without the profit from the tea chests to mitigate the risks it wasn't worth taking on. I'm not sure what they did with the tea chests at the factory after that, I think they burnt them in the boiler room. It was an interesting lesson in the power of the media, I spoke to a number of people who'd seen the item on tea chests and they were all, without exception, absolutely convinced that the price of tea chests was a criminal disgrace. The realities of costs like transport and mark ups levied by middle men, seemed to completely escape them. I wonder if those people in London moving house, who had fork out for crates or the ludicrous prices charged for corrugated card gave much thought to those realities afterwards?

I am legend

Back in the old days there were three countries which presented problems over issues of intellectual property these were, in no particular order: The Soviet Union, West Germany and the United States. The reasons for the difficulties presented by the Soviet Union are obvious, they didn't recognise any copyright or patents, Germany and the US presented rather more subtle and complex problems, Germany because she was out of step with the rest of the world insisting on an extra twenty years of copyright protection, the problem with the US was even more difficult though. They had and probably still do have, a habit of granting property rights to native interests, i.e. corporate entities and private individuals, that they properly had no rights to. The main instance I cite of this practice involves a song that people of my age will recall with a certain discomfort, that song being: The Okey Cokey. Scarcely a wedding or any family event from earlier years passed by without descending a into demonstrably rumbustious rendition of this song, which came with  actions all participants were expected to perform. Which was okay until I was about nine, at which age, engaging in such antics with your aunty Vi become the focus of some embarrassment when your focus of attention at such events is getting a dance with your elder cousin's girlfriend Mary. Hang on a second -- Mary ahhh, flaxen haired Irish girl with big, soft -- eyes. Anyway I digress, the point is some Herbert in the US decided to claim authorship of this song after he'd heard it here, it being unknown in the US at the time. Thing is, they granted it to him and he actually earned royalties from it by the simple expedient of changing the chorus from Okey Cokey to Okey Pokey -- unbelievable!

Anyway I've wandered a bit because there's another aspect of US copyright practice that needs addressing and that is their requirement that Films need to be catalogued with a copyright registry, something which incurs a not insubstantial fee. So not insubstantial, that it's common practice to let this registration slip when a film becomes unprofitable or in some instances not to bother with registration at all. When this happens, such films are considered to be in the public domain within US federal Jurisdiction, this is what I believe to be the case with the first adaptation of Richard Matheson's seminal novel, I am Legend. Called, The Last man on Earth and starring Vincent Price, it's a cheap Italian production, filmed entirely it seems without synchronised sound, common practice in a cinematic tradition that sees most of it's work dubbed in to other languages. There is one other striking clue to its origin outside the US, a shot that included a row parked cars, all of 'em Fiat 500's.

I always hesitate to recommend the novel because it's not everyone's cup of tea and that's especially true if you're not familiar with the pulp idiom but it has one of most choke inducing endings of any story. It's an ending that prompted me to immediately re-read the book because it casts the narrative in a completely different light. Of course, I am Legend was remade as the cult classic, The Omega Man with Charlton Heston and once again with the, not so classic, film starring Wil Smith in the lead role. While I do love the Omega man, The last man on Earth is much closer to the novel, it still doesn't quite do justice to the ending though. Still here it is, courtesy of the curious copyright practices of the US, that deem (I believe) this film to be in the public domain, at least in that country, which in practical terms means everywhere there's an internet connection. This particular version has been colourised, quite effectively I have to say and I it think works to enhance the film in this case.

watch

FIREBALL!

Do you recognise this person?

Here's an interesting find, this little chap is on the run from Germans, thankfully by the time this snap was taken, he'd arrived in Canada. Amongst things awaiting him in his future is a notable if mercurial career in television, where he featured in such iconic shows as UFO. He's probably best known now, for his contribution to Patrick McGoohan's cult vehicle, The Prisoner, where he featured prominently in the episodes: Living in Harmony and Fallout. Those with long memories though, will remember him from the Z Cars spin off, Softly Softly. Have you guessed who is it is yet?

Alexis Kanner