Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

Information from IMDb

Plot Summary
The amazingly detailed true story of "The Doolittle Raid" based on the personal account
by Doolittle Raider Ted Lawson.
Stunned by Pearl Harbor and a string of defeats, America needed a victory - badly.
To that end, Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, a former air racer and stunt pilot,
devises a plan for a daring raid on the heart of Japan itself.
To do this, he must train army bomber pilots to do something no one ever dreamed possible -
launch 16 fully loaded bombers from an aircraft carrier!
Remarkable in its accuracy, this movie even uses film footage from the actual raid.
Written by KC Hunt

Full Cast
Van Johnson ... Ted Lawson
Robert Walker ... David Thatcher
Tim Murdock ... Dean Davenport
Don DeFore ... Charles McClure
Herbert Gunn ... Bob Clever (as Gordon McDonald)
Phyllis Thaxter ... Ellen Lawson
Stephen McNally ... 'Doc' White (as Horace McNally)
John R. Reilly ... 'Shorty' Manch
Robert Mitchum ... Bob Gray
Scott McKay ... Davey Jones
Donald Curtis ... Lieut. Randall
Louis Jean Heydt ... Lieut. Miller
William 'Bill' Phillips ... Don Smith (as Wm. 'Bill' Phillips)
Douglas Cowan ... 'Brick' Holstrom
Paul Langton ... Captain 'Ski' York
Leon Ames ... Lieut. Jurika
Bill Williams ... Bud Felton
Robert Bice ... 'Jig' White
Hsin Kung ... Dr. Chung (as Dr. Hsin Kung)
Benson Fong ... Young Dr. Chung
Ching Wah Lee ... 'Guerilla Charlie'
Alan Napier ... Mr. Parker
Ann Shoemaker ... Mrs. Parker
Dorothy Morris ... Jane (as Dorothy Ruth Morris)
Jacqueline White ... Emmy York
Selena Royle ... Mrs. Reynolds
Spencer Tracy ... Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle
Dick Addison ... Lieutenant (uncredited)
Morris Ankrum ... William F. Halsey, Captain of the 'Hornet' (uncredited)
Jack Arkin ... Jitterbugger (uncredited)
Tom Avera ... Pilot in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Steve Barclay ... Pilot in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Carlyle Blackwell Jr. ... Pilot Singer (uncredited)
Karin Booth ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Steve Brodie ... MP Corporal (uncredited)
Hazel Brooks ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Ralph Brooks ... Sailor (uncredited)
Lucille Casey ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Wally Cassell ... Sailor (uncredited)
Luke Chan ... Chinese Runner (uncredited)
Mary Chan ... School Teacher (uncredited)
Keye Chang ... Chinese Officer (uncredited)
Lyle Clark ... Pilot in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Eleanor Counts ... Jitterbug (uncredited)
Elizabeth Dailey ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
John Dehner ... Lieutenant Commander (uncredited)
Myrna Dell ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Hal Derwin ... Singer in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Natalie Draper ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Johnny Duncan ... Jitterbugger (uncredited)
Blake Edwards ... Lt. Smith's Crewman (uncredited)
Harold Fong ... Captain of Patrol Boat (uncredited)
John Gannon ... Lt. Smith's Crewman (uncredited)
Leatrice Joy Gilbert ... Girl (uncredited)
Charles Gordon ... Sgt. Williams (uncredited)
Genevieve Grazis ... Jitterbugger (uncredited)
Eddie Hall ... Joe (uncredited)
Harry Hayden ... Judge (uncredited)
Bill Healy ... Eglin Captain (uncredited)
Shirlee Howard ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
John James ... Lt. Smith's Crewman (uncredited)
Virgil Johanson ... Eglin Colonel (uncredited)
John Kellogg ... C-47 Transport Pilot (uncredited)
Mike Killian ... Sailor (uncredited)
Charles King Jr. ... Sailor (uncredited)
Michael Knudsen ... Pilot in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Michael Kostrick ... Pilot in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Joan Lawrence ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Edith Leach ... Girl (uncredited)
Martin Lowell ... Pilot in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Ann Lundeen ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Bob MacLean ... Pilot in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Peggy Maley ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Jack McClendon ... Dick Joyce (uncredited)
Beryl McCutcheon ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Bob McCutchin ... Co-Pilot (uncredited)
Sybil Merritt ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Harlan Miller ... Pilot in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Lorraine Miller ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Charles Mitchell ... Pilot in Officers' Club (uncredited)
William Moss ... Ship's Clerk (uncredited)
Frances E. Neal ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Jay Norris ... Hallmark (uncredited)
Moroni Olsen ... General (uncredited)
Noreen Roth ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Erin Selwyn ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Elaine Shepard ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Arthur Space ... Deck Officer (uncredited)
Harold Sworland ... Lieutenant (uncredited)
Bob Thom ... Lieutenant Commander (uncredited)
Eugenia B. Thompson ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Brad Towne ... Pilot in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Gordon Trigg ... Bit Part (uncredited)
H.T. Tsiang ... Wang Tsung (uncredited)
Joy Vahl ... Jitterbugger (uncredited)
Peter Varney ... Spike Henderson (uncredited)
Will Walls ... Hoss Wyler (uncredited)
Richard Wang ... Chinese Officer (uncredited)
Eve Whitney ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Kay Williams ... Girl in Officers' Club (uncredited)
Wah Yee ... Foo Ling (uncredited)

Writing Credits
Dalton Trumbo (screen play)
Ted W. Lawson (based on the book) (as Captain Ted W. Lawson) and
Robert Considine (based on the book)

Original Music
Herbert Stothart

Cinematography
Harold Rosson
Robert Surtees

Trivia
Actual footage of the B-25 Mitchell bombers taking off from the U.S.S. Hornet was used in the film.

Feature film debuts of Tim Murdock, Scott McKay and John R. Reilly.

Scenes of Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle briefing the B-25 crews on the USS Hornet show a hornet's nest on a branch in the background on the overhead behind Doolittle's left. The presence of the hornet's nest, while possibly a tribute, is an accurate detail. The book upon which the movie is based mentions a dried up hornet's nest hanging nearby as Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle was speaking. The actual Hornet was sunk in 1942 soon after the raid.

When Lawson's plane arrives in "Tokyo" and sees the fire and smoke from the previous bomber, Davy Jones, we are not looking at a special effect. During the making of the film, there was a fuel-oil fire in Oakland, near the filming location. The quick-thinking filmmakers scrambled to fly their camera plane and B-25 through the area, capturing some very real footage for the movie.
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Debut of John Dehner.

The scars visible on Van Johnson's forehead at the end of the film are not makeup, they're real. He was involved in a near-fatal car accident the previous year just after filming A Guy Named Joe. The filmmakers chose to accentuate rather than hide these scars for the post-mission half of the movie, since his character Ted Lawson was quite banged up, too. They're particularly evident in the last scene of the movie when he's on the floor talking with his wife.

The real Ted Lawson showed-up the day the scenes of Van Johnson's character (Ted Lawson) was having his leg amputated. The mood around the set was quiet and tense.

The MGM composer Herbert Stothart quotes the catchy title song from the 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway musical "Oklahoma" a number of times in his background score for this 1944 film. As none of the fliers came from that state, no one has ever determined whether it was a bit of unconscious plagiarism on his part, or a subliminal tribute to Americana. One of the 80 fliers in the Doolittle Raid was indeed from Oklahoma. He was Robert J. Stephens, born February 28, 1915, in Hobart, Oklahoma.

According to the documentary Going Hollywood: The War Years, for this movie, the MGM studio recreated the section of an air craft carrier flat top on a sound stage large enough to fit four genuine B25 bomber planes whilst a whole sixty foot miniature was also built, placed in the studio tank doubling as the ocean. Moreover, this special effects Academy Award winning movie utilized model planes, hydraulic jacks, wires, motors, pulleys, and a miniature model of Tokyo used to show the bombing of that city with mini explosions.

This film represents one of four movies made by Hollywood during the 1940s which were about or related to the USA military's Dolittle Raid on Tokyo, Japan during World War II. The four movies (the first three considered "fictionalized") are Destination Tokyo; The Purple Heart; Bombardier and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, the latter being the most accurate and least fictionalized of the four.

Twice while the Ruptured Duck is flying over Japan the crew spots Japanese fighter planes and tenses for an attack, but both times the fighters ignore them. This is factual. In an unbelievable coincidence, the Japanese had planned a major air raid drill for the same time in Tokyo, and the fighters thought the American B-25s were part of the drill until the bombs started exploding. Also, according to the book upon which the movie is based the planes' crews were told prior to the mission that there was a slight chance that the Japanese would not recognize them and react because the Japanese air force had a bomber very similar to the B-25.

Walter Sande is listed in studio records for the role of "General" in this film, but he was not seen in the movie at all.

Goofs
Anachronisms
After their arrival at Alameda, as the pilots are watching the Ruptured Duck being towed toward the Hornet by the "Navy guys", the underside of an aircraft wing is visible behind them. The US national insignia on the wing is the 1944 version, which is different from the insignia used in early 1942 (a red disk within a five-pointed white star on a circular blue field).

Continuity
When Lawson's plane lifts off the carrier deck, they immediate raise the landing gear; Several seconds later, when viewed from the side, the gear raises again.

When the Ruptured Duck takes off from the carrier, the front of the engine cowls are dark colored. After the bomb run over Tokyo, an exterior view shows the cowls are white.

After first landing at Eglin Field, from the pilot's seat, Lawson is speaking to another pilot on the ground. In this scene, the propeller blade visible to Lawson's left is almost parallel to the ground and the tip is close to the fuselage. In the next scene from the ground, the propeller blade is at a much higher angle.

Errors in geography
When the ladies are at the beach, a mountain can be seen in the background. The land on the gulf coast of Florida is very flat.

Factual errors
The 3-pointed 'pinwheel' shoulder patches worn by the crewmen are those of the General Headquarters (GHQ) Army Air Corps, which was established in 1935. However, when the Air Corps was renamed the Army Air Forces (AAF) in June 1941 (ten months before the Doolittle raid), GHQ was abolished and a new 'winged star' AAF shoulder patch was adopted. The new patch should have been worn in this film.

Revealing mistakes
Ted Lawson's amputated left leg is briefly visible when he puts the sandal on his right foot.

When Lawson tries to go to his wife, you can clearly see his "amputated" leg foot and all, flail up behind him as he falls to the ground. He was only sitting on it the entire scene.

Immediately after take-off from the Hornet, Lawson puts the RUPTURED DUCK into a left turn as indicated by the actual horizon outside the windshield. However, the Attitude Indicator (Or Artificial Horizon Gyro Instrument) on the instrument panel shows the aircraft in straight and level flight.

The leather flight jackets worn by most of the flying personnel in the film were close commercial copies of military A-2 flight jackets. Authentic military-contract A-2 jackets had a one-piece back, without a horizontal seam across the shoulders. Most of the jackets in the film have a seam across the back.

Memorable Quotes

Filming Locations
Chico, California, USA
Eglin Air Force Base, Fort Walton Beach, Florida,
USAFort Walton Beach, Florida, USA
Monterey, California, USA
Oakland, California, USA

Watch this Trailer

[extendedmedia]

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is a 1944 MGM war film.
It is based on the true story of the Doolittle Raid,
America's first retaliatory air strike against Japan four months
after the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Mervyn LeRoy directed Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Sam Zimbalist produced the film
. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo was based on the 1943 book of the same name,
written by Captain Ted W. Lawson, a pilot who participated in the raid
. In both the book and the film, Lawson gives an eyewitness account of the training,
the mission, and the aftermath as experienced by his crew and 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.

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo 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 Jimmy Doolittle,
the man who planned and led the raid.
The film is noted for its accurate depiction of the historical details of the raid,
as well as its use of actual wartime footage of the bombers in some flying scenes.

User Review

Quote

A very accurate account of a major World War II event.
9 March 2003 | by david-valenzuela

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is the most accurate portrayal of the Doolittle Raid on Japan during World War II. Whenever a movie is made from a book, there are usually changes made for "dramatic effect". However, there does not seem to be any such changes in this movie, as there is plenty of drama in the original story. Most of the dialogue was taken directly from the book by the same name. There are some scenes that may seem to be "propaganda" or "corny", but one must remember that in 1943, the atmosphere was different in the United States and the rest of the world. All of the characters in the movie were real life people from the Doolittle Raid and from accounts in the book and other sources, they are accurately portrayed by the actors in the movie. The main character, Ted Lawson, was the original technical advisor, but he was replaced by Dean Davenport (Lawson's co-pilot) after Lawson was re-called to active duty. Most of the flying scenes were done with actual B-25's accurately marked and even the take-off, which was done on a sound stage, used real aircraft on an aircraft carrier mock-up. The scenes that used miniatures were also well done for the time period (before digital effects). The movie "Pearl Harbor" also has an account of the Doolittle Raid, but it is very, very inaccurate. This movie is worth watching for everyone who has a desire to see historical events and is a must for all aviation and military buffs.