Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

Next to SPARTACUS, THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO is probably Dalton Trumbo's finest script. Incredible that the HUAC could have blacklisted such a gifted patriot. And Van Johnson's Ted Lawson is probably the finest performance of Johnson's career. His role as lover and warrior is certainly among Johnson's most challenging and best achieved. The movie is simply superb in every way. The dialogue plays like that of an opera--melodic and passionate. The cinematography of low-altitude flying is rare and beautiful. And the agon that the American pilots endure in China is handled sublimely by an ensemble of magnificent Chinese American actors. Like CASABLANCA, THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO is a contribution to World War II American film propaganda that transcends its genre. It is a film about cavalier ideals, about love and duty, that belongs to the ages.

One of my favorite movies. The amazing story of the courageous airmen who made the first post-Pearl Harbor strike at Japan. We are able to see these men as ordinary guys thrust into extraordinary circumstances and bravely doing their jobs. Highly recommended.

Heart warming, realistic, bravery, hopeful, dedication, patriotic. As a true story it is riveting to watch and think about what these men went through. Only one or two men are still living today. We owe them a lot of respect.

The story of Jimmy Doolittle's B-25 bomber raid on the middle of Japan 5 months after he was given the task via President Franklin D. Roosevelt, General George C. Marshell, and then General Hap Arnold of the then Army Air Corps Army Air Corps is a thrilling story as powerful as any story in American Military History. On December 7, 1941 Japanese light aircraft(fighters and torpedo bombers conducted a sneak and dastardly attack from Japanese aircraft carriers which caught practically all US airplanes on the ground and the Navy's Pacific fleet completely unready and suprise lined up like ducks in Pearl Harbour and several military airfields in Hawaii. Pratically all US airdraft were destroyed on the ground and the powerful US Navy Fleet was decimated by torpedo bomers, dive bombers, and fighter aircraft. Fivethousand Americans, military and civilians were killed.Within hours after the Sunday, December 7th, 1941 sneak attack, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered Chief of Staff of the US Army,who commanded thethen US Army Air Force to bomb Japan to include the capital of Japan, Tokyo, and other manufacturing cities on the island of Japan, as soon as possible. The mission was designated TOP SECRET.. Gweneral Hap Arnold, commander of the Army Air Corps identified the man who General Arnold was confident then Major Jimmy Doolittle, a member of the Army Air Corps and the MOST knowledgeable aeronautical engineer, pilot, and civilian air racing champion was up to the task. Najor Jimmy Doolittle determined, with the help of the US Navy, that the new US two engine bomber named the "Billy Mitchell" B-25, named after the most famous US Army Air Corps flier of World War I, could take off within the very restricted deck of the newest US aircraft carrier "Hornet" Refitting of the New B-25 started immediately, since more gasoline tanks would have to be placed in the new bombers. All the members of the bomber crews were volunteers and were told the mission was a clandestine and dangerous mission, perhaps a suicide mission.Assembly of the crews was a relatively easy task since most men who were rated on B-25s volunteered. The aircraft and crews were assembled at Eglin Army Air Corps field in the panhandle of Florida, about 60 aircraft , each with six man crews. The number of planes and crews would be wittled down to about 25 manned aircraft for the actual mission. Training started immediately. Pilots were directed to the many small airfields in Florida which lay along the gulf of Mexico along the beaches in Florida. Crews were directed to spread out on the many available airfields surrounding the Gulf of Mexico acattering the aircraft in small groups to avoid detection. At Paige Field, the current private airfield in Fort Myers, Florida Doolittle had painted the dimensions of the Aircraft Carrier Hornet's deck. Doolittle then personally took the first B-25 off within the length of the simulated Carrier deck. Wheels were up in time with the engines purring at maximum speed. It was proven there that a B-25 could actually take off a carrier with a bomb and gasoline load needed for the long flight to the island of Japan after leaving the carrier. All planes were then flown to Oakland Army Terminal in California, loaded on board the Carrier Hornet by huge cargo lifting cranes. Secrecy was a paramount issue. When the 25 B-25 bombers were loaded the Carrier joined an escort of Navy destroyers and headed out into the Pacific Ocean. once at sea, Jimmy Doolittle announced to the aircraft crews on board that their bombing mission was headed for JAPAN. The war would be taken to the Japanese homeland which was thought to be impenetrable. SUPRISE! SUPRISE!.The rest of the story is history. Tokyo and several other Japanese cities were bombed. Some bombers with their crews were killed and or wounded. I'll leave the rest of the story to your imagination about how many survived this most important mission. Every B-25 and crew had different stories. Fear was put in the minds of the Japanese people. A huge boost of morale was gained by the American public, which was vitally concerned with the Japanese attacking US and Allied locations in the Pacific and Germany and Hitler's Army , Navy and Air Force bombing London and sending submarines to the us Atlantic coast. One of the greatest victories had been produced the the US favor by the combined ARNY, NAVY, and soon to be renamed the US AIR FORCE. The Sleeping giant had been awakened and the US Military Juggernaut had been released.on its enemies across the world. When Jimmy Doolittle got home from this mission he was promoted to General and awarded the United States highest military award, The MEDAL OF HONOR. Jimmy Doolittle is among the greatest of US Military Heros of all time. Five men of the entire Jimmy Doolittle Raiders are all left still living in the year 2012. May they always be remembered.. (James E. Shelton, Brigadier General, US Army(Retired)

Just a fan of this type of movie. A great telling of what these real heros did for us.

A must see classic for WWII movie buffs. A 1940's style movie presentation, as they introduced a romance angle to the story for the ladies. Nevertheless, actual B-25s and WWII era aircraft carrier is used in the film. The flight sequences are just fine and the special effects are very good for the era. Black and white.

This is a classic World War IIfilm that spends the first hour introducing the representative array of airmen chosen shortly after Pearl Harbor for special training to bomb Tokyo as much for a psychological victory as a minor military triumph. The cast of MGM regulars includes Van Johnson, who made a career of playing the all-American boy with zesty innocence and Midwestern virtue, and Phyllis Thaxter as his wife. The table is well set for the main meal of the movie, an account of the rigorous training of the flyers to learn to take their lumbering bombers airborne from the restricted footage of an aircraft carrier flight deck. The movie's second half payoff comes with the exciting, pre- digital effects, documentary-like low level bombing mission over the Japanese homeland and the follow-up landings of the bombers in China where the flyers are rescued, cared for, and eventually repatriated to the United States. The film is invested with much needed heft by Spencer Tracy's masterfully restrained portrayal of Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, the mastermind of the raid, framing this classic wartime, part-propaganda, part celebration of American know-how and bravery, with a subtle strength that invests even its cliches with credibility and makes the movie, of its kind and of its time, thrilling and enjoyable.
Eugene Cullen Kennedy, emeritus professor of psychology, Loyola University of Chicago

This movie expressed an attitude seen in but a couple of dozen movies, American had been kicked in the you know where, was not prepared yet to enter the global conflict that had been raging in Europe since 1939, in Asia since the invasion of Manchuria In I believe in the late 1930's. This air strike was so implausible, bombers taking off from and aircraft carriers our president Roosevelt explained to the worlds press after the attack they had come from our hidden base in Shanghai La, of Lost Horizon fame. Spencer Tracy, and the list of actors brought home Americas desperation and dedication to even up the odds after Peal Harbor, payback in their capital city in Asia, caught them off guard, some gritty stuff as well, excellent movie.