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IMDbPro

Desperate Journey

  • 19421942
  • PassedPassed
  • 1h 47m
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
2.3K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
41,654
1,661
Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, and Nancy Coleman in Desperate Journey (1942)
When the crew of a downed British bomber escape from their Nazi captors with Top Secret intelligence, they make a desperate journey to get out of Germany alive.
Play trailer2:58
1 Video
20 Photos
DramaWar
When the crew of a downed British bomber escape from their Nazi captors with Top Secret intelligence, they make a desperate journey to get out of Germany alive.When the crew of a downed British bomber escape from their Nazi captors with Top Secret intelligence, they make a desperate journey to get out of Germany alive.When the crew of a downed British bomber escape from their Nazi captors with Top Secret intelligence, they make a desperate journey to get out of Germany alive.
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
2.3K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
41,654
1,661
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Raoul Walsh
    • Writer
      • Arthur T. Horman(original screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Errol Flynn
      • Ronald Reagan
      • Nancy Coleman
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Raoul Walsh
    • Writer
      • Arthur T. Horman(original screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Errol Flynn
      • Ronald Reagan
      • Nancy Coleman
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 47User reviews
    • 14Critic reviews
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 1 nomination total

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:58
    Official Trailer

    Photos20

    Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale and Errol Flynn in "Desperate Journey" 1942 Warner Bros.
    "Desperate Journey" Errol Flynn, Alan Hale, Ronald Reagan 1942 Warner Bros.
    Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan in Desperate Journey (1942)
    Desperate Journey (1942)
    Errol Flynn in Desperate Journey (1942)
    Raymond Massey in Desperate Journey (1942)
    Elsa Bassermann in Desperate Journey (1942)
    Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale, and Arthur Kennedy in Desperate Journey (1942)
    Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan in Desperate Journey (1942)
    Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan in Desperate Journey (1942)
    Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan in Desperate Journey (1942)
    Errol Flynn, Rudolph Anders, Albert Bassermann, Nancy Coleman, Ronald Sinclair, and Henry Victor in Desperate Journey (1942)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Errol Flynn
    Errol Flynn
    • Flight Lt. Terrence Forbes
    Ronald Reagan
    Ronald Reagan
    • Flying Officer Johnny Hammond
    Nancy Coleman
    Nancy Coleman
    • Kaethe Brahms
    Raymond Massey
    Raymond Massey
    • Major Otto Baumeister
    Alan Hale
    Alan Hale
    • Flight Sergeant Kirk Edwards
    Arthur Kennedy
    Arthur Kennedy
    • Flying Officer Jed Forrest
    Ronald Sinclair
    Ronald Sinclair
    • Flight Sergeant Lloyd Hollis
    Albert Bassermann
    Albert Bassermann
    • Dr. Ludwig Mather
    • (as Albert Basserman)
    Sig Ruman
    Sig Ruman
    • Preuss
    Patrick O'Moore
    Patrick O'Moore
    • Squadron Leader Lane-Ferris
    Felix Basch
    • Hermann Brahms
    Ilka Grüning
    Ilka Grüning
    • Frau Brahms
    • (as Ilka Gruning)
    Elsa Bassermann
    Elsa Bassermann
    • Frau Raeder
    • (as Else Basserman)
    Charles Irwin
    Charles Irwin
    • Captain Coswick
    Richard Fraser
    Richard Fraser
    • Squadron Leader Clark
    Rudolph Anders
    Rudolph Anders
    • Kruse
    • (as Robert O. Davis)
    Henry Victor
    Henry Victor
    • Heinrich Schwarzmueller
    Bruce Lester
    Bruce Lester
    • English Officer
    • Director
      • Raoul Walsh
    • Writer
      • Arthur T. Horman(original screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      When Ronald Reagan's character is awakened, he complains that in his dream he had a date with Ann Sheridan. Reagan had played opposite Sheridan three times including his two previous features, "Juke Girl" and "Kings Row."
    • Goofs
      The same shot of a railroad area being blown up is used twice, once to depict the site blown up by the saboteur at the beginning, and soon after as the area being bombed by the RAF bomber plane.
    • Quotes

      Flight Lieutenant Terrence Forbes: [Last lines] Now for Australia and a crack at those Japs!

    • Connections
      Featured in Raoul Walsh and Errol Flynn (2002)
    • Soundtracks
      Waltzing Matilda
      (1895) (uncredited)

      Original music by Christina Macpherson (1895)

      (Based on the Scottish tune "Craigielee", music by James Barr, with words by Robert Tannahill)

      Revised music by Marie Cowan (1903)

      Lyrics by A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson (1895)

      Partially sung a cappella by Errol Flynn

    User reviews47

    Review
    Top review
    Lighthearted war action on the Warners lot.
    Flynn's last line in the movie sums up the tenor of the entire piece, "Now for Australia and a crack at those Japs." A bomber crew on a heroic mission is shot down and make their way from Poland, through Germany and Holland, to England, losing a few of their members enroute, but nothing compared to the slaughter and destruction the wisecracking warriors wreak on the Germans.

    Let's see. Dispensing with the crew members who die early on, there is a British flight sergeant whose role is to be the plucky but inexperienced youngster who is wounded and holds the others back, although he urges them to leave him behind and save themselves. Then there is Alan Hale as the comic old cook, more or less transposed from the USS Copperfin in "Destination Tokyo." Then there is Arthur Kennedy as the serious Canadian accountant who objects to the playful way the others make war on the Nazis. He mistakenly thinks war is a serious business, but he comes around in the end. There is Errol Flynn, the only officer, and an Australian, who organizes one adventure after another and speaks German. (Somebody has to speak German.) Ronald Reagan is the American from Jersey City. He is Flynn's sidekick.

    The Germans aren't so well differentiated but they're just as stereotyped. Raymond Massy is the monocled Herr Major who pursues them for personal reasons across half of Europe. Sig Rumann provides the best comic interlude. As a railroad policeman he discovers our gang making themselves at home in Gorings private car. He sarcastically tells them in German that he's happy to see that they've made themselves at home in the Reichsmarshall's quarters and asks them if there is anything he can do for them -- "Do you think the cigarettes are good enough for you?" Alan Hale completely mistakes Rumann's sarcasm and comes back with a jolly, "Oh, ja, ja," until Rumann spits on Hale's outstretched hand and throws them all off the train.

    Boy, this movie is packed with action. Badabing, badaboom! Trains, planes, and automobiles -- one chase after another. Flynn setting his cap firmly on his head before diving through a window. Most of the movie was shot on Warner's lot, but there is some nice location shooting too at what I take to be the flats around South San Francisco Bay. Prop up a few fake windmills on the horizon and you have Holland. (You can see the same flats substituting for the Japanese coast in "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," or nearby ones on the Sacramento River posing as a ships' graveyard in "Blood Alley.")

    The story isn't really worth going into. It isn't quite as focused as some other war movies in that there is no single mission to which the group must devote themselves. Instead they improvise a lot. But you can hardly notice it because the pace is so fast. Good old Raoul Walsh. Flynn got along a lot better with Walsh than he did with Michael Curtiz. Both were demanding directors but Walsh was more nearly human, stipulating only that Flynn's drinking wouldn't begin until five in the afternoon.

    And Max Steiner, the composer, should get a medal. How can he possibly have ground out so many scores for so many different movies in so short a time? Did he ever sleep? He doesn't give this one a memorable theme as he did with "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," but still there's hardly a moment that the orchestra is not banging away behind the action. One thing you do when you're pressed for time is to incorporate traditional tunes into the score, substituting them for original music. I was able to catch snatches of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" (or, I guess, "God Save the King," in this context), "Du, Du, Liegst mir Im Herzen," "Deutschland Uber Alles" (or the hymn it comes from), "British Grenadiers," "Rule Brittania," and "Ich Hatt Einen Kameraden."

    No comments on acting are required. If you're in the mood for being diverted, "Desperate Journey" ought to get the job done. It's unpretentious propagandistic fun.
    helpful•40
    2
    • rmax304823
    • Jun 10, 2004

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 26, 1942 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • German
    • Also known as
      • Forced Landing
    • Filming locations
      • Metropolitan Airport - 6590 Hayvenhurst Avenue, Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Warner Bros.
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $1,209,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 47 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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