Flying Tigers

US (1942): Drama/War/Action/Romance

John Wayne is the leader of a squadron of American pilots-for-hire in WWII China in this Republic picture directed by David Miller. The men are desperately outnumbered by the Japanese, and also deal with difficulties within their own ranks. Excellent air-combat scenes, some taut military-court drama, and even a little romance between the Duke and a lovely British nurse. Supporting cast includes John Carroll, Anna Lee, Paul Kelly, Gordon Jones and Mae Clarke. (amctv.com)

George Lydeker relates this story about Howard and Theodore Lydeker, who worked special effects at Republic for the film, on GlassHousePresents.com:

"The capper on Flying Tigers though, was when they took the special effects shots to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar^® consideration," George Lydecker continues. "They were in the projection room with the entire award committee and began the picture. There was one 20-minute dogfight sequence, during which Farciot Edouart (who developed a dual rear projection system for Paramount) remarked, "Do we have to sit through the whole goddamn picture?" Howard got his back up and said, "Every airplane you've seen is a special effect. There's not one real airplane you've seen in any of this footage!" And Eduard called him a liar. Howard and Ted stormed out of the room and that was the end of that. They never again tried for Academy consideration. The truth of the matter was there were stock shots and newsreel footage interspersed with that of the models in Flying Tigers. But even the full size mockups that John Wayne and the rest of the cast got into were just that -- battery powered mockups."

 View a theatrical trailer for this film on YouTube.com.

· Music Scoring Awards (Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) 1942: Victor Young
· Sound Recording 1942: Daniel J. Bloomberg
· Special Effects 1942: Howard J. Lydecker - Photographic; Daniel J. Bloomberg - Sound

3 nominations