Spencer Tracy gets top billing in this World War II epic, but this is really Van Johnson’s film. He plays a fighter pilot who volunteers for a secret mission to bomb Japan just weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The title is apt as the actual bombing raid takes hardly any time at all. The film therefore focuses on the time before, when the men are training for the mission, and the time after, when Van Johnson’s plane is shot down on the Chinese shoreline, and they must find a way to escape to safety.

I wanted to love this film more than I did. Honestly, it is a bit of a drag as the training exercises are dull and the romantic engagements even more so. Things pick up once they crash, but by then I was just ready for the film to be over. You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.