Dive Bomber

Dive Bomber is a 1941 American aviation film from Warner Bros. Pictures, directed by Michael Curtiz, and starring Errol Flynn and Fred MacMurray. The film is notable for both its Technicolor photography of pre-World War II United States Navy aircraft and as a historical document of the U.S. in 1941. This includes the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, one of the best-known U.S. warships of World War II. The film was the last of a collaboration between director Curtiz and actor Errol Flynn, which began in 1935 and spanned 12 films. The cast also includes Fred MacMurray, on loan from Paramount Studios and Alexis Smith in her first credited screen performance. Flynn portrays a Harvard-educated doctor who is involved in heroic medical research on pilots, with MacMurray as the skeptical veteran aviator who gets swept up in the project. The plot is not historically accurate, but depicted in a near-documentary style, the film contains elements of true events that were involved in period aeromedical research, as well as real contemporary medical equipment. The vivid cinematography prompted the tagline: "The stunning spectacle of color rides with you into the heavens!" Bert Glennon was nominated for an Oscar for Best Color Cinematography at the 14th Academy Awards in 1942. The film is dedicated to the flight surgeons of the U.S. armed forces "in recognition of their heroic efforts to solve the immensely difficult problems of aviation medicine".The film was a big hit at the box office, rounding out as the 19th-highest grossing film of 1941. Plot During a bombing squadron's prewar operations from an aircraft carrier off Hawaii, one of the fliers, Lt. "Swede" Larson, blacks out during a high-speed dive and crashes. At the Honolulu base hospital, Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake (Fred MacMurray) is concerned that Larson (Louis Jean Heydt) will not survive. U.S. Navy doctor Lieutenant Doug Lee (Errol Flynn) convinces his senior surgeon (Addison Richards) to operate, but the pilot dies on the operating table. After Blake blames Lee for rushing the surgery, the doctor decides to become a naval flight surgeon and winds up being trained at the U.S. Naval Air Station in San Diego by a number of instructors, including Blake. A subplot introduces divorcee Linda Fisher (Alexis Smith) as a love interest for the two rivals, Blake and Lee. On completion of his flight training, Lee is posted as assistant to senior flight surgeon, Commander Lance Rogers (Ralph Bellamy).