Trailer
Plot summary
The Flying Tigers are a squadron of American volunteer pilots who fly Curtiss P-40C fighters over China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, before the United States enters World War II. Their commander is Jim Gordon. The pilots are a mixed group, some drawn by the bounty paid for each enemy plane shot down, others by the thrill of aerial combat. Jim's old friend Woody Jason turns up at the airbase, an arrogant hot-shot aviator who causes trouble from the start. Jim must send his outnumbered band of pilots against the Japanese and handle the different personalities and problems among his flyers.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Flying Tigers (1942)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Wartime priorities barred U.S. military aircraft from Hollywood productions, so Republic Studios went to Curtiss-Wright in Buffalo: P-40F fighters awaiting delivery to the Army Air Forces were repainted in American Volunteer Group markings and flown in the film by Curtiss test pilots. Chief Production Test Pilot Herbert O. Fisher substituted for John Wayne on screen.
- Flying Tigers's special effects were nominated for an Academy Award, but many voters did not realize that some of the "aircraft" were actually miniatures, and the film lost the Oscar.
- The American and Japanese dogfight footage was made by pulling miniatures along off-screen wires, created by Republic's special effects men Howard and Theodore Lydecker. The same method produced the miniature train and bridge in the film's climax.
- For ground shots, full-size P-40 mockups were used that could do no more than taxi. They were powered by V-8 automobile engines, and the elevators and ailerons were missing from their wings and rear horizontal stabilizers.
SPOILER
The film's death of pilot Blackie Bales copies a real incident: on January 23, 1942, Flying Tiger Bert Christman's fighter was hit in the engine and he bailed out, only to be strafed and killed by a Japanese fighter as he descended in his parachute.- The real American Volunteer Group pilots were recruited from active or reserve U.S. military forces and, unlike the film's characters, saw no combat before Pearl Harbor. Their first combat mission came on December 20, 1941, nearly two weeks after the attack.
