The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955) on Netflix
Brigadier General Billy Mitchell argues that air power should stand as its own service, then faces a court martial after he accuses the Army and Navy of neglecting it.
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Plot summary
Brigadier General Billy Mitchell believes the Air Service should stand as its own branch, and to prove its worth he goes after a battleship, loading heavier bombs and flying lower than the Army and Navy agreed to. His superiors are outraged. Demoted to colonel and posted to a ground unit in Texas, he is outraged in turn when a dirigible crashes and six aircraft are lost on a flight from the California coast to Fort Huachuca. He calls a press conference and charges the Army and Navy with criminal negligence. The remarks bring a court martial in Washington, D.C., where his friend, Illinois Congressman Frank R. Reid, takes up his defense.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Producer and screenwriter Milton Sperling began work on Billy Mitchell's story in 1938, two years after the general's death, and spent 17 years seeking help from Mitchell's family before production finally began in 1955.
- The first 10 days of shooting under director Otto Preminger were done on location in Washington, D.C., at the real sites of the 1925 court-martial, including the old War Department Building, the Army-Navy Club and State Department buildings.
