Dive Bomber (1941) on Netflix
A bombing squadron flier blacks out in a steep dive and crashes. Navy doctor Doug Lee urges surgery on him, then qualifies as a flight surgeon to learn why pilots lose consciousness.
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- IMDb6.5/102,256 votes
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Plot summary
Lieutenant Doug Lee is a Navy doctor at the base hospital in Honolulu when a bombing squadron flier, Swede Larson, is brought in after losing consciousness at the controls in a high-speed dive. Lee urges his senior surgeon to operate, and the pilot dies during the operation. Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake, a squadron veteran, blames Lee for rushing it, and friends of the flier share his dislike. Lee decides to qualify as a naval flight surgeon and trains at the base in San Diego under instructors who include Blake. Divorcee Linda Fisher becomes a romantic interest for both men. Lee is then posted as assistant to Commander Lance Rogers, and the two begin research on a suit to keep pilots from passing out in steep dives.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dive Bomber (1941)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- On the last day of shooting, Admiral "Bull" Halsey, angry that lending his ship for a week cut into training, leaned over the bridge railing and yelled "NOW GET THE HELL OFF MY SHIP!"; Errol Flynn gave him a single-digit salute and dived off the deck into San Diego Bay.
- Errol Flynn had a pilot's license but was expressly forbidden to fly in Dive Bomber under threat of suspension from Warner Bros. for his "buzzing" of the cast and crew of 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood; he did taxi a dive bomber so closeups could be shot of him in the cockpit.
- As war preparations ramped up, the U.S. Navy ordered a new gray camouflage for its sea-based aircraft while associate producer Robert Lord scrambled to win a concession so a few aircraft in each squadron kept their colorful schemes to match footage already shot.
- When a formation of aircraft flew over the set while the cameras were being reloaded, director Michael Curtiz stood up and waved it off, screaming "No, no. Go back!"; the pilots, setting out on a daily exercise, ignored him, to the crew's amusement.
- The "Schneider index" test central to the plot was a real cardiovascular fatigue test familiar to pilots of the era, developed in 1918 by Major Edward C. Schneider of the Air Service of the AEF and used by the military until World War II.
- Max Steiner's theme for Dive Bomber was reused as the main theme for Warner Bros.' Fighter Squadron and Operation Pacific, and also turned up in Up Periscope.
- Warner Bros. originally intended to star James Cagney, George Brent and Ronald Reagan in Dive Bomber with Lloyd Bacon directing, before the project was revised and reconfigured in February 1941 as an Errol Flynn film with a new director.
