A weird kind of semi-documentary military drama, the sort of thing that Hollywood liked to make in the 50s with James Stewart and June Allyson. There are some great flight scenes, the "world" of the flight surgeon is an interesting one, dealing with black out, etc - but it just feels wrong to see Errol Flynn as a flight surgeon in a flier film when WW2 was on, even if America wasn't involved yet. (There was a rash of re-assuring patriotic armed services movies before Pearl Harbour).Errol's journey - from cocky, self-assured and not very popular to noble and accepted by the men - is similar to Tom Cruise in Top Gun but not as much fun since Errol is mostly on the ground. He flirts a bit with Alexis Smith (a potentially really fun character, a divorcee who chases Flynn) - but no way near enough - the film needed more romance (and perhaps less comic interludes from Allen Jenkins as a wacky serviceman whose wife - ha ha - is a money grabber).
For a while this is surprisingly engrossing, with all the technical jargon (it feels real), Technicolour photography (though you wish they'd used it on The Sea Hawk instead), serious treatment of a serious subject, production values (Navy co-operation) - but after a while it gets a bit boring. You start to wish they'd stop stuffing around with medical experiments and start fighting Nazis.
Fred MacMurray's conflict with Errol Flynn feels contrived - after a while you go "shut up pilot stop being annoying". (He has two friends at the beginning and when Fred says "we've been together forever" you know they're not likely to make the running time, and they don't.) Ralph Bellamy has a Ralph Bellamy role as a curmodgeonly surgeon. Note how he takes Errol's arm as they walk along. Also know how everyone smokes all the time - especially the doctors. Oh, and at the end Errol chucks a cigarette case out of a plane - what if it lands on someone's head? It could kill someone.
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