Sam Zimbalist was the film's producer and Mervyn LeRoy directed. The picture stars Van Johnson as Lawson; Phyllis Thaxter as his wife, Ellen; Robert Walker as Corporal David Thatcher; Robert Mitchum as Lieutenant Bob Gray; and Spencer Tracy as Lieutenant Colonel—and soon General— Jimmy Doolittle. Tracy's appearance in the film is more in the nature of a guest star; he receives special billing rather than his usual top billing and has considerably less screen time than star Van Johnson.
In the book, Lawson gives an eyewitness account of the intensive training, the mission, and the aftermath as experienced by his crew and by others who flew the mission on April 18, 1942. Lawson piloted "The Ruptured Duck", the seventh of 16 B-25s to take off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. The film depicted the raid accurately and used actual wartime footage of the bombers.
Doolittle warns them: This work is top-secret. He offers them the chance to opt out, particularly if they have wives and families. Lawson's wife, Ellen, drives to Eglin Field to join him. She is pregnant. They are very much in love, but giving up never occurs to them.
The intensive training includes learning how to take off on a runway only 500 feet long as taught by an instructor Naval Aviator from nearby Pensacola Naval Air Station.[4] They are not told why, and those who guess keep quiet. Lawson's plane acquires the nickname "Ruptured Duck" and nose art to match. One dark morning, Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle sends them off to fly cross-country at hedge-hopping height to Naval Air Station Alameda, California. The planes are immediately loaded aboard the aircraft carrier USSHornet.
At last, Doolittle reveals the mission: Bomb Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe and Nagoya. The carrier will get them within 400 miles of mainland Japan. After dropping their payloads, they will continue to designated landing spots in parts of China controlled by Nationalist forces and regroup in Chungking.
The call to battle stations comes twice daily, at dawn and dusk, when the enemy "pig boats" (submarines) come up. When an enemy surface vessel does discover the convoy, the crews assemble to take off immediately—12 hours earlier than planned. It will be daylight over Japan and night when they reach China. Doolittle leads the raid, dropping incendiary bombs to mark key targets. The Ruptured Duck is the seventh flight. Flying low over the ocean and into Tokyo, through the smoke of burning targets, dropping their bombs as planned. Flak bursts around them, but fighters ignore them.
The Ruptured Duck continues on until running low on fuel approaching the Chinese coast. Lawson crashes in the surf while trying to land on a beach in darkness and heavy rain. With the exception of Thatcher, the entire crew is badly injured in the crash. Lawson's left leg is laid open to the bone, and McClure's shoulders are broken. Friendly Chinese soldiers help them, and the Americans face hardships and danger while being escorted through Japanese-held territory. In the absence of any medical supplies, the injured men endure terrible pain, and Lawson's leg becomes infected. Delirious, he dreams of Ellen.
There is a Red Cross banner in the village of XingMing. Doctor Chung arrives with good news and bad. He will take them to his father's hospital, some 19 miles farther. The bad news is that the Japanese have captured an American crew. Hurrying into the hills, they look back: XingMing is burning.
There is no surgeon at the elder Dr. Chung's hospital, but Lt. Smith's crew is on its way with Lt. "Doc" White, who volunteered as gunner. The Japanese approach, and the able-bodied Americans leave, except for Doc. He amputates Lawson's leg well above the knee, using the single dose of spinal anesthesia in their possession. It wears off too soon. Lawson passes out and dreams of Ellen.
A chorus of Scouts singing "The Star-Spangled Banner", in Mandarin, celebrate Lawson's first day out of bed. When the elder Dr. Chung gives Lawson an heirloom bracelet for his wife, Lawson is puzzled. He does not remember talking about her. When he totters on his crutches, he becomes distraught at the idea of Ellen seeing him without a leg. They hurry to Ch'ang Chou to rendezvous with an American plane that takes them home.
General Doolittle visits Lawson in the hospital and tells him he has work for him to do. Lawson doesn't want to see Ellen until he obtains a prosthetic leg and learns to walk properly. Ellen arrives unannounced. Lawson forgets his missing leg and stands; he falls and Ellen rushes to him and the two embrace on the floor, overjoyed to see each other.
Phyllis Thaxter, Tim Murdock, Steve Brodie, and Robert Mitchum made their screen debuts in this film.[5]
Production
There is an error in the onscreen credits, perpetuated in many sources, including the Variety review. They list Ted W. Lawson and Robert Considine as authors of both "the book" and a "story" in Collier's magazine. There was no such story. Lawson was the sole author of the book Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, and the word "Collier's" was crossed off in the credits of the copyright cutting continuity.[5]
The B-25s about to launch from USS Hornet. Admiral Halsey (Morris Ankrum) is saluting in the foreground."The Ruptured Duck" flies over a burning target in Thirty Seconds over Tokyo
The film is known for its accurate depiction of the raid and use of actual wartime footage of the bombing aircraft. The production crew worked closely with Captain Ted Lawson and other members of the raid to make the film as realistic as possible. Filming at Hurlburt Field and Peel Field near Mary Esther, Florida, and Eglin Field (the actual base where the Doolittle Raiders trained), and operational USAAF B-25C and B-25D bombers were used (closely resembling the B-25B Mitchells used in 1942). Auxiliary Field 4, Peel Field, was used for the short-distance take off practice scenes.[6]
Dean Davenport was a technical adviser and stunt flyer for the film. He flew a B-25 bomber off a pier in Santa Monica, Calif., for a scene showing the takeoffs from the Hornet.[7]
Although an aircraft carrier was not available, due to wartime needs (USS Hornet itself had been sunk in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on October 27, 1942 only six months after launching the raid), a mix of realistic studio sets and original newsreel footage recreated the USS Hornet scenes. Principal photography took place between February and June 1944.[8][Note 1]
Reception
The film received favorable reviews. Look magazine praised it as one of the five best films of the year, and the National Board of Review ranked it as eighth-best film of the year. The Hollywood Reporter reviewer called it "one of the greatest war pictures ever made".[5]
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo was recognized as an inspirational, patriotic film with great value as a morale builder for wartime audiences. The New York Times in 1944 summed the production, "our first sensational raid on Japan in April 1942 is told with magnificent integrity and dramatic eloquence."[9]Variety focused on the human elements, "inspired casting ... the war becomes a highly personalized thing through the actions of these crew members...this pleasant little family."[10]
Later reviewers have considered Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo the finest aviation film of the period.[11] The film is now considered a "classic aviation and war film."[12] The actual Raiders considered it a worthy tribute.[13]
Box-office
According to MGM records, the film made $4,297,000 in the US and Canada and $1,950,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $1,382,000.[2]
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo star Van Johnson appeared in a 1970 commercial for Post Fortified Oat Flakes breakfast cereal on a set evoking an aircraft carrier flight deck with B-25s on board. He ended with the line that the cereal would "take me to Tokyo – and back!"[16]
The film The Purple Heart (1944) is a fictionalized account of the fates of American airmen from the Doolittle raid who are placed on trial in a Japanese court.
The film Pearl Harbor (2001) includes a fictionalized version of the raid.
The opening scene of the film Midway (1976) uses footage from Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo to launch the film's plot with the Doolittle Raid.
In the Seinfeld season 3 episode "The Keys", Kramer mentions to Jerry that he is watching the film.
James Harold Doolittle was an American military general and aviation pioneer who received the Medal of Honor for his raid on Japan during World War II, known as the Doolittle Raid in his honor. He made early coast-to-coast flights and record-breaking speed flights, won many flying races, and helped develop flight-test instrument flying.
The Doolittle Raid, also known as Doolittle's Raid, as well as the Tokyo Raid, was an air raid on 18 April 1942 by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu during World War II. It was the first American air operation to strike the Japanese archipelago. Although the raid caused comparatively minor damage, it demonstrated that the Japanese mainland was vulnerable to American air attacks. It served as an initial retaliation for the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, and provided an important boost to American morale. The raid was named after Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, who planned and led the attack. It was one of six American carrier raids against Japan and Japanese-held territories conducted in the first half of 1942.
USS Hornet (CV-8), the seventh U.S. Navy vessel of that name, was a Yorktown-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy.
Ensign George Henry Gay Jr. was a Douglas TBD Devastator pilot in United States Navy Torpedo Squadron 8 operating from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II. Of the 30 VT-8 aircrew from Hornet that participated in the pivotal Battle of Midway, Ensign Gay was the sole survivor.
Destination Tokyo is a 1943 black and white American submarine war film. The film was directed by Delmer Daves in his directorial debut, and the screenplay was written by Daves and Albert Maltz, based on an original story by former submariner Steve Fisher. The film stars Cary Grant and John Garfield and features Dane Clark, Robert Hutton, and Warner Anderson, along with John Ridgely, Alan Hale Sr. and William Prince.
Major Ted William Lawson was an American officer in the United States Army Air Forces, who is known as the author of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, a memoir of his participation in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942. The book was subsequently adapted into the 1944 film of the same name starring Spencer Tracy, Van Johnson and Robert Mitchum.
Robert John Meder was a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces who participated in the Doolittle Raid. In February 1942, he volunteered to participate in the raid, which took place on April 18 that year. Meder and his bomber crew was captured by the Japanese after the completion of his bombing mission. He died while in Japanese captivity in 1943.
Jacob Daniel DeShazer participated in the Doolittle Raid as a staff sergeant and later became a Christian missionary in Japan.
Chase Jay Nielsen was a career officer in the U.S. Air Force. He participated in the Doolittle Raid in 1942 and was one of the four surviving prisoners of war from that raid.
David M. Jones served with distinction as a pilot and general officer, first with the U.S. Army Air Corps and later with the United States Army Air Forces and, after September 18, 1947, the United States Air Force. His record during World War II includes being one of the Doolittle Raiders whose exploits in April 1942 were dramatized in the film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. He then flew combat missions over North Africa, where he was shot down. He was a German prisoner of war for two and a half years, helping with the April 1944 mass escape at Stalag Luft III, and was the inspiration for Steve McQueen's fictional character, USAAF Captain Virgil Hilts, which was dramatized in the 1963 movie The Great Escape.
The Wild Blue Yonder is a 1951 war film directed by Allan Dwan. The film stars Wendell Corey, Vera Ralston, Forrest Tucker and Phil Harris. Wild Blue Yonder deals with the Boeing B-29 Superfortress air raids on Japan during World War II.
Richard Eugene Cole was a United States Air Force colonel. During World War II, he was one of the airmen who took part in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, Japan, on April 18, 1942. He served as the co-pilot to Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle in the lead airplane of the raid by sixteen B-25 bombers, which for the first time took off from an aircraft carrier on a bombing mission.
Thomas Carson Griffin was a United States Army Air Forces navigator who served during World War II. He was one of the eighty Doolittle Raiders who bombed Japan in April 1942. After the Doolittle Raid, he was relocated to North Africa and was shot down during an air raid in 1943, spending time in a prisoner-of-war camp until he was rescued in early 1945.
Denver Vernon Truelove was a United States Army Air Forces bombardier who served during World War II. He was one of the eighty Doolittle Raiders who bombed Japan in April 1942. After the Doolittle Raid, Truelove was involved briefly in North Africa. His awards included the Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart.
William Glover Farrow was a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces who participated in the Doolittle Raid. In February 1942, he volunteered to participate in the raid, which took place on April 18 that year. Farrow was captured by the Japanese after the completion of his bombing mission. He was tried, and along with two other crew members, sentenced to death and executed by firing squad. His ashes were recovered and interred in the Arlington National Cemetery in 1946, and he posthumously received multiple awards.
William ‘Billy Jack’ Dieter was a sergeant in the United States Army Air Corps. Dieter was a bombardier on the Green Hornet, the sixth plane to take off from a US carrier as part of the Doolittle Raid, a bold long-range retaliatory air raid on the Japanese main islands, on April 18, 1942, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack was a major morale booster for the United States. Dieter was one of only three airmen to die in the raid itself, when his B-25 Mitchell, 'Green Hornet', crashed on the coast of China, having run out of fuel.
Lieutenant Colonel Horace Ellis Crouch was an American military aviator whose career included service with the United States Army Air Corps and United States Air Force, he was a combat veteran of World War II and the Korean War who served as one of the crewmembers on the Doolittle Raid.
John Allen Hilger was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. Born in Sherman, Texas, Hilger graduated from Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas and was commissioned in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1934. He was assigned to the 89th Reconnaissance Squadron as commander in May 1940; flying North American B-25 Mitchell bombers on anti-submarine patrols from December 1941.
Everett Wayne Holstrom was a United States Army Air Forces bomber pilot and participant of the Doolittle Raid during World War II. He retired from the United States Air Force in 1969 at the rank of brigadier general.
Edward Joseph York was a United States Air Force colonel. A graduate of the United States Military Academy, he was one of the airmen who took part in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, Japan, during World War II, on April 18, 1942. After bombing Japan during the raid and due to mechanical trouble with his bomber, he was forced to land in the Soviet Union, where he was interned with his crew for 14 months before escaping back to the United States. He retired from military service in 1966.
References
Informational notes
↑ MGM's studio 15 provided room for 179 feet (55m) of carrier deck. Three actual B-25s were used on the set and the remainder were matte paintings of the deck and B-25s integrated into the background.
↑ Meyer, George. "Commentary for 'Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo'." The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season [DVD], 20th Century Fox, 2007.
Bibliography
Dolan, Edward F. Jr. Hollywood Goes to War. London: Bison Books, 1985. ISBN0-86124-229-7.
Glines, Carroll V. The Doolittle Raid: America's Daring First Strike Against Japan. New York: Orion Books, 1988. ISBN0-88740-347-6
Harwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies". The Making of the Great Aviation Films, General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
Orriss, Bruce. When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War II. Hawthorne, California: Aero Associates Inc., 1984. ISBN0-9613088-0-X.
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