A Guy Named Joe (1943)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Victor Fleming

Writers:

Chandler Sprague (story) and
David Boehm (story) ...

Release Date:

March 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | War | Fantasy

Tagline:

A GUY - A GAL - A PAL - It's Swell!

Plot:

A sentimental, patriotic (if not propagandistic) Hollywood fantasy about a dead World War II bomber pilot...

Plot Keywords:

Pilot | Self Sacrifice | Training | Heaven | Aviation

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Spencer Tracy	...	Pete Sandidge
Irene Dunne	...	Dorinda Durston
Van Johnson	...	Ted Randall
Ward Bond	...	Al Yackey
James Gleason	...	'Nails' Kilpatrick
Lionel Barrymore	...	The General
Barry Nelson	...	Dick Rumney
Esther Williams	...	Ellen Bright
Henry O'Neill	...	Colonel Sykes
Don DeFore	...	James J. Rourke (as Don De Fore)
Charles Smith	...	Sanderson
Addison Richards	...	Major Corbett

Runtime:

120 min | USA:122 min (copyright length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #9727) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Columbia Army Air Base, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

Company:

Loew's

Trivia:

The War Department initially did not approve the script, fearing psychological damage to new and experienced pilots and their parents. It relented after 2 revisions and promised full cooperation.

Goofs:

Continuity: When "Nails" confronts Pete with a combat photo of Pete's bomber flying much too low during a raid, the aircraft seen in the picture is a Lockheed Hudson. Pete piloted a North American B-25 Mitchell.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Heavenly Kid (1985)

Soundtrack:

I'll See You in My Dreams

This is a touching story about love which knows no end.

This is one of the best love stories ever. It isn't a war story, war simply happens to be the setting. And I don't see how a movie can prevent nations from winning a war. The whole fact that Spencer Tracy's character loves Irene Dunne's so much that he will watch her marry another man is the most amazing testimony of love. I don't know how you can watch one of the final scenes; in which Tracy and Dunne are in the plane and he says that their love is too good to make her unhappy; and still call "A Guy Named Joe," a silly movie. Again, the war was simply a setting, because war in itself isn't very interesting, it is the human experience in war which creates a story.

The Fact that Spielberg enjoyed and admired it so much that he remade it also says a little for the film.