Hell Divers

B

burcham8

Charter Member
Sitting here enjoying the OLD movie "Hell Divers" with Gable and Beery. Super Cheesy, but meant to be the 1930s equivalent of a moving picture recruiting poster! The real star in the Curtiss
F8C-4.

:guinness::icon29::guinness:

Marc Burcham
 
Were you watching it on a cable channel, or do you have it on VHS or DVD? I love those vintage Nav Air flicks and I'd like to get my own copy of Hell Divers.
 
I got my copy a few years ago from Scooter Movie Shop.

It's not currently listed there, but if you e-mail Scooter's dad (Scooter, who the business is named for, is his cat) he probably has it, or he can probably get it for you. As he says on the home page, where he provides his e-mail address, he has many more movies than he can list on the site. (So many movies, so little time...) He has scads of old movies that aren't available commercially from their original producers or the usual sources, or that the copyrights have expired on, etc.

Also note, he says on the home page that if you send him an e-mail telling him how you heard of his site, he'll send you a promotional discount.

http://www.scootermoviesshop.com

I've found some other nifty old airplane flicks at Scooter's too, like Devil Dogs Of The Air and others.
 
Sometimes you can catch movies like this on the TCM Cable channel. I saw a really cool movie
three days ago, Gary Cooper was flying biplanes off aircraft carriers. and the fighters progressed from
there. when he retired it showed 3 Grumman Panthers fly over him.
 
SpitXIV said:
Sometimes you can catch movies like this on the TCM Cable channel. I saw a really cool movie
three days ago, Gary Cooper was flying biplanes off aircraft carriers. and the fighters progressed from
there. when he retired it showed 3 Grumman Panthers fly over him.
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The film is called "Task Force." Walter Brennan, a WWI Army veteran, is in it also.
 
About 2 years ago got to watch Divebomber with my dad, especially the yellow peril basic training sequences brought back many memories for him.

Though B&W it was apparent that the stearmans were an authentic plain yellow.

T
 
Dive Bomber was released on DVD a few years back and the color is beautiful. I grabbed it as soon as it came out. It's still available and is a must-have for anybody who likes the classic pre-war USN paint jobs.
 
The list of pre-war Navy planes that appear in Dive Bomber is amazing - almost every plane the Navy had made it into the film for at least a cameo. The stars of the film were the SB2U Vindicator and the Grumman F3F, but other planes that show up include the TBD Devastator, Curtiss SBC-3 and -4 Helldiver, Northrop BT-1, Brewster F2A Buffalo, Curtiss SOC Seagull, North American SNJ Texan, Naval Aircraft Factory N3N Yellow Peril, Lockheed JO Electra, Consolidated PBY Catalina, Consolidated PB2Y Coronado, a modified Ryan STA and a brief glimpse of the Curtiss XSB2C Helldiver. And those are just the ones I can remember! Scenes at sea were shot aboard CV-6 USS Enterprise. All in glorious original Technicolor! It's over two hours long and there's not a minute of filler in it. One of the greatest aviation movies of all time! We can only guess how many of the Navy's WW2 pilots were inspired to Fly Navy by Dive Bomber.
 
There's a pretty good chance most of the TBDs seen in the film were on the bottom of the Pacific less than two years later - possibly along with a fair number of the men flying them in the film. Makes you wonder when watching it.
 
Interesting that the film was colorized! I saw it in the original B&W.

Another film I have enjoyed on late night TV on layovers is Strategic Air Command with General Jimmy Stewart. Haven't seen that one on DVD yet.

T
 
Tom, the Strategic Air Command is one of my favorite also, remember seeing a lot of b-36s back way back when, and the sounds of those six 4360s is awsome. Side note, Jimmy Stewart did the picture without pay just to promote SAC.
 
Taco said:
Tom, the Strategic Air Command is one of my favorite also, remember seeing a lot of b-36s back way back when, and the sounds of those six 4360s is awsome. Side note, Jimmy Stewart did the picture without pay just to promote SAC.
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Back in the fifties when I was just a kid, I could immediately detect a B-36 by its very unique sound. I would scour the sky and eventually spot a white speck against the deep blue background. I'm guessing it was up over FL300. The memory of the buzzing(?) sound is fading, but I bet I would recognize it instantly if I heard it again!

- H52
 
Yes, it's available on CD through Amazon, at least that's where I got mine. I've also seen it periodically at WalMart in those big wire bins where they chuck movies for people to go through.
 
fliger747 said:
Interesting that the film was colorized! I saw it in the original B&W.

Another film I have enjoyed on late night TV on layovers is Strategic Air Command with General Jimmy Stewart. Haven't seen that one on DVD yet.

T
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Not Dive Bomber, if that's the one you meant. It says Technicolor on the original promo posters and on the screen.

I have Strategic Air Command on DVD, but I don't remember where I got it. I think it's generally available from most places that sell DVDs.

 
SSI01 said:
Yes, it's available on CD through Amazon, at least that's where I got mine. I've also seen it periodically at WalMart in those big wire bins where they chuck movies for people to go through.
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Get it quick. I've seen Flight of the Intruder listed as discontinued or no longer available at a couple sites. I had to search around to find a copy, and that was at least several months ago.
 
Flight of the Intruder is worth having just for the scenes of the unauthorized strike against the SAM storage facility in downtown Hanoi. :)
 
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