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"Hollywood and the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan"

The Bread Guy

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Via the RCAF Info-machine:
Although focused on the commercial realities of film-making, Hollywood is, at its most basic level, concerned with the telling of stories and, unfortunately, it seems that war has been fertile ground from which to draw material. Being no exception, the Second World War has spawned countless films covering a myriad of subjects. However, there seems to have been only three films that either dealt with or touched upon the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP).

(...)

In the meantime, if you are aware of any other commercial films (not documentaries) that look at the BCATP, please let me know at william.march@forces.gc.ca.
From IMDB (in chronological order of when they were made):
 
Strictly speaking, For the Moment, is not a "Hollywood" film.  It was a Canadian production (won Most Popular Canadian Film Award at the 1993 Vancouver International Film Festival).
 
Pusser said:
Strictly speaking, For the Moment, is not a "Hollywood" film.  It was a Canadian production (won Most Popular Canadian Film Award at the 1993 Vancouver International Film Festival).

Parts of that film was staged on my Grandparents farm near Rivers Manitoba.
 
FSTO said:
Parts of that film was staged on my Grandparents farm near Rivers Manitoba.
Small world, indeed!
 
Much of "Captains of the Clouds" was shot in North Bay. My Dad's family had a farm at the end of the runway and he still tells the story.
 
"Captains of the Clouds" is the only Hollywood movie I can think of that featured Ottawa with scenes shot there.

Mark
Ottawa
 
milnews.ca said:

While discussing movies that have a RCAF connection would be an amusing pastime on these means, I'm left wondering "what is the purpose of this official news article from the RCAF" ?  There is no mention in the article connecting it to any current or upcoming event or commemoration, nor linking it to something peripherally stupid as the historical basis of making the CAF air element uniform ranks silver.  Is the RCAF (or at least the senior editor of its Journal) so lacking in real work that they have time (wrapped in the perks of "duty") to whine about Hollywood ignoring their forefathers of seven decades ago.


MarkOttawa said:
"Captains of the Clouds" is the only Hollywood movie I can think of that featured Ottawa with scenes shot there.

Here's another.
The Iron Curtain (1948)
 
Blackadder1916 said:
While discussing movies that have a RCAF connection would be an amusing pastime on these means, I'm left wondering "what is the purpose of this official news article from the RCAF" ? ...
Part of sharing the history of the RCAF, I suppose - other similar bits (notice other Commonwealth flight training pieces):
 
If you re mentioning Hollywood movies filmed in Canada during the Second World War:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033627/synopsis?ref_=ttpl_pl_syn

49 Parallel (1941)
U-37, the first German submarine to reach Canada, sinks a merchant ship in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, then runs for cover in Hudson Bay. Captain Bernsdorff sends men ashore to capture a trading post - just before U-37 is destroyed by an RCAF bomber. Lieutenant Ernst Hirth, eager but inexperienced leader of the shore party, (comprising his resentful deputy Lieutenant Kuhnecke and the sailors Vogel, Kranz, Lohrmann and Jahner), follows his orders regardless. In the trading post, the Factor is updating French-Canadian trapper Johnnie Barras (just back from eleven months in the wild) on the outbreak of war when Hirth and his men burst in, injuring the Eskimo servant, Nick. After an edgy night, a radio ham from Grand Rapids, Michigan, calls up for his regular chess game with the Factor and Johnnie shouts an alarm into the microphone. Jahner shoots him, and he later dies. Knowing that a seaplane will come to the post to investigate, the Nazis plan to hijack it and fly to the neutral U.S.A. They take the plane (with much loss of life), but Jahner is shot by an Eskimo marksman as it takes off. Kuhnecke misjudges the plane's fuel reserves and dies when it crashes into a lake, still well north of the 49th parallel. The four survivors come upon a Hutterite community of émigré Germans, led by Peter. The gentle Vogel befriends the fifteen-year-old Anna and, impressed by the community's spirit, volunteers to bake its bread. Hirth takes the Hutterites for secret Nazi sympathisers and openly appeals for their help at a general meeting, where Peter angrily refuses him. While Hirth, Kranz and Lohrmann prepare to move on, Peter persuades Vogel to stay on as the baker. But Hirth returns and summarily executes him for desertion. The three Nazis reach Winnipeg, and learn that the Mounties are on their trail. They set off for Vancouver, intending to take a Japanese boat to Russia. Mounties suspect their presence at the Indian Day celebrations in Banff, and Kranz is arrested when he panics and reveals his identity. Hirth and Lohrmann proceed on foot across the Rockies and stumble into the camp of Philip Armstrong Scott, an English aesthete and academic researching the history and culture of the Blackfoot Sioux. They respond to his hospitality by burning his paintings, books and research notes and tying him up, but he breaks free and captures Lohrmann. The wounded Hirth hops the freight car of a train heading for the U.S. border and overpowers fellow stowaway Andy Brock, an AWOL Canadian soldier. The train halts at Niagara Falls and Hirth identifies himself to the U.S. customs officers, demanding to be taken to the German embassy. But Brock persuades them to classify himself and Hirth as "improperly manifested freight" and to return his carriage to Canada. Now disarmed, Hirth is no match for Brock's fists...

Great movie. I was fascinated with the scenes of war time Canada especially Winnipeg (with the famous Wagon Wheel restaurant, that just closed a few years ago), the Hutterites around Steinback, and all the other locals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commandos_Strike_at_Dawn

Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942)

Erik Toresen (Paul Muni), a widower and peaceful man, is stirred to violence after the Nazis occupy his quiet Norwegian fishing village. German abuses lead Erik to form a Resistance group. He kills the head of the Nazis occupying his village, and then escapes to Britain, and guides some British Commandos to a raid on a secret airstrip the Germans are building on the Norwegian coast.

The film was shot in the Greater Victoria, Canada, area. Saanich Inlet stands in for Norwegian fjords. The airstrip is what would become the Victoria International Airport. Hall's Boat House (now Goldstream Marina) is where the wharf scenes are shot. Aircraft shown include two Bristol Bolingbrokes and two Westland Lysanders.

A wartime feel good movie. a bit corny now but great shots of serving Cdn soldiers. Apparently you can still see the steps the actors used to get up the hill for the final attack.

The One That Got Away (1957), after the war, a true story. He got back to Germany and was later shot down and killed. The only successful German escape.

http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2010/02/british-cinema-one-that-got-away-1957/

During the Battle of Britain a Luftwaffe plane is hit and plunges down into the British countryside. Although the pilot is captured, he is extremely confident and focussed on his plan: to escape and return home against all odds.

The One That Got Away Hardy Kruger

Directed by Roy Ward Baker (A Night to Remember) and based upon the book of the same name by Kendal Burt and James Leasor, The One That Got Away is a dramatic retelling of the exploits of Oberleutnant Franz Von Werra, the only German prisoner-of-war in Britain to escape capture and return to his homeland.

Shot down during the Battle of Britain, Von Werra (Krüger) is sent to a POW camp in Northern England where he sets about plotting to break free of his captors and return home to warn the Reich of Britain’s interrogation methods. Embarking on a number of audacious escape attempts which are ultimately foiled (including an attempt to pass himself off as a Dutch pilot and steal a Hurricane in one of the film’s most suspenseful sections), Von Werra is eventually transported to Canada where he leaps from a train and manages to cross the frozen St. Lawrence River to seek asylum in the neutral United States.

Made just twelve years after the end of World War II, the greatest success of The One That Got Away is the way in which the film defies convention and inverts the typical notion of the Nazi as an evil monster. Credit must be given to Hardy Krüger (himself a former German soldier who experienced life as a POW when captured by the Americans near the conclusion of the war), who delivers a charming and charismatic performance as the cocky and resourceful Von Werra in his first international role.

Situated firmly as the hero of the piece, Von Werra comes across as a sympathetic character with the audience rooting for him to succeed in his efforts to escape. This is no doubt aided by a lack of references towards the Nazi regime while Von Werra’s own background and wartime successes are largely ignored, although the character remains fiercely loyal to his country and devoted to his duty as an officer. This could be considered manipulative, but it certainly makes for refreshing storytelling and allows the film to stand out from other popular POW movies such as The Wooden Horse (1950) and The Colditz Story (1955).

A fast-paced, tense and original thriller, The One That Got Away is a fine example of its genre and one that manages – for the most part, at least – to avoid the “stiff-upper-lip” Britishness common to many films of the period.
 
Rifleman62 said:
If you re mentioning Hollywood movies filmed in Canada during the Second World War:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033627/synopsis?ref_=ttpl_pl_syn

49 Parallel (1941)
Great movie. I was fascinated with the scenes of war time Canada especially Winnipeg (with the famous Wagon Wheel restaurant, that just closed a few years ago), the Hutterites around Steinback, and all the other locals.
AND Lawrence Olivier to boot!  Neat film, indeed.
 
More on "Captains of the Clouds", Hollywood propaganda movie about RCAF shot--much in Canada--before Pearl Harbour with James Cagney. Good fun:

1) Good read:

Captains of the Clouds - the making of a BCATP Classic Movie
http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/203/Captains-of-the-Clouds--the-making-of-a-BCATP-Classic-Movie.aspx

captains03.jpg


captains15.jpg

2) Turner Classic Movies shows from time-to-time:
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/78131%7C0/Captains-of-the-Clouds.html

3) Plus:

'The RCAF and WW II: “Captains of the Clouds”'
How odd that the only feature movie about the RCAF in World War II was made by Hollywood in 1941.  Scenes in Ottawa!  In colour!  As part of Hollywood’s dastardly plot to get the US into the war...
https://cgai3ds.wordpress.com/2013/09/05/mark-collins-the-rcaf-and-ww-ii-captains-of-the-clouds/

Mark
Ottawa
 
Movie posters back then had a ton of print.
 
Dimsum said:
Movie posters back then had a ton of print.

You're just jealous that the handle 'Hell Rider of the Heavens' was already taken, right? ;)
 
daftandbarmy said:
You're just jealous that the handle 'Hell Rider of the Heavens' was already taken, right? ;)

While it doesn't roll easily off the tongue, the mental image is pretty nice.
 
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