Beyond the Line of Duty (1942)

Director:

Lewis Seiler

Guionista:

Edwin Gilbert (written by)

Release Date:

7 noviembre 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Biografía | Drama | War

Plot:

Reenactment of the events in the Army Air Force career of Captain Hewitt T. Wheless, particularly his...

Plot Keywords:

Aerial Combat | Propaganda | Airplane | Aviation | Basic Training

Awards:

Won Oscar.

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Texas Goes To War

Cast

Hewitt T. Wheless	...	Himself (as Captain Hewett T. Wheless)
Ronald Reagan	...	Narrator (voice)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt	...	Himself (voice) (archive footage)
Hubert R. Harmon	...	Himself (as Major General H.K. Harmon)

También conocida como:

Air Force Film 119

Duración:

22 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Clasificación:

USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

March Field, Riverside, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivialidades:

Vitaphone production reels #A1064-A1065

Soundtrack:

The Eyes of Texas

Texas Goes To War

If you remember in the Clint Eastwood film Flags Of Our Fathers the three survivors from that famous Iwo Jima photograph were taken from combat and put on a bond tour to sell war bonds and to make various other morale boosting public appearance endeavors. This film is another of those endeavors and in this case about an Army Air Force pilot.

With Ronald Reagan narrating, recent war hero Captain Hewitt T. Wheless who before the war was a young kid working on a ranch during his summers in Texas to pay for school, signs up for the Army Air Corps. The film we see is a dramatization of his story with Wheless playing himself from his days on the ranch, through his training and a description of the mission when he tangled with a squadron of Japanese planes in a running dogfight and a crash landing. He got the Distinguished Service Cross for this action.

Besides Clint Eastwood's film another things came to my mind in watching the film. First the narration of the film was taken over by President Roosevelt himself in one of his fireside chats where he describes Wheless's action. FDR did another such broadcast and that night one of his listeners was Cecil B. DeMille who heard the story of a Navy doctor named Corydon Wassell and who then proceeded to do a film version of his story with Gary Cooper.

Wheless was admittedly no actor and was probably more nervous playing himself than in combat. He was a short man and he reminded of another short Texas hero from World War II, Audie Murphy.

The film while nothing great cinematically is still a reminder of times when America really looked up to its war heroes.