Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Tags: historical

Plot synopsis:
In February 1942, just two months after the Pearl Harbor attack, the United States Army Air Forces plan to retaliate by bombing Tokyo and four other Japanese cities—taking advantage of the fact that US aircraft carriers can approach near enough to the Japanese mainland to make such an attack feasible.
Lt.Col. James Doolittle (Spencer Tracy), the leader of the mission, assembles a volunteer force of aircrews, who begin their top-secret training by learning a new technique to make their North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers airborne in the short distance of 500 feet or less, to simulate taking off from the deck of an aircraft carrier.
After depicting the raiders' weeks of hazardous training at Eglin Field, Florida and Naval Air Station Alameda, the story goes on to describe the raid and its aftermath.
While en route to Japan, the Hornet's task force is discovered by a Japanese picket boat, which has radioed their position. It is sunk, and the bombers are forced to take off 12 hours early at the extreme limit of their range. However, the bombers do make it to Japan and drop their bombs.
After the attack, all but one of the B-25s run out of fuel before reaching their recovery airfields in China. As a result, their crews are forced to either bail out over China or crash-land along the coast.
Lawson's B-25 unfortunately crashes in the surf just off the Chinese coast while trying to land on a beach in darkness and heavy rain. He and his crew survive, badly injured, but then face more hardships and danger while being escorted to American lines by friendly Chinese. While he is en route, Lawson's injuries require the mission's flight surgeon to amputate one of his legs.
The story ends with Lawson being reunited with his wife Ellen in a Washington, D.C., hospital.

Review: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is the most accurate portrayal of the Doolittle Raid on Japan during World War II.
All of the characters in the movie were real life people from the Doolittle Raid and from accounts in the book and other sources, they are accurately portrayed by the actors in the movie.
The movie "Pearl Harbor" also has an account of the Doolittle Raid, but it is very, very inaccurate.
It is the classic MGM treatment with a skilled cast including Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson.If you do see PEARL HARBOR, rent this one too so you can see how to tell a real romance set against a historical event.
And if you want the full picture of how the Doolittle raid was made possible, see DESTINATION TOKYO, the film telling the story of the submarine that snuck into Tokyo bay to help guide the bombers over the city..
In fact, just as the Doolittle Raid was carried out to bolster flagging US morale after Pearl Harbor (Dec 7, 1941)and a series of US and allied losses in the Pacific war in early 1942, this movie of the raid again plays the role of morale booster for the home front in 1944.
The flying scenes, as well as the special effects, are pretty good for the 1940's movie making era and perfect for most WWII aviation buffs.
This Hollywood movie version of the book of the same name written by Lt. Ted Lawson and edited by Robert Considine is fairly true to the book, with very minor changes for story continuity and some levity.
The story of the early part of their marriage adds the right tone to this movie and sort of personifies all of these types of marriages and relationships that were "put on hold" because of a war.
The Best War Film of World War TWo. This is the true story of Jimmy Doolittle's raid over Tokyo in April of 1942, which lead directly to the battle of Midway, the turning point of the war in the Pacific.
One of those made-during-the-war war movies that comes with the customary Frank Capra-like homeland security flag-waving and all of that but this is a good flick that stands the test of time.Oh, it's cornball and the soldiers make like scouts at jamboree but there's an edge here--perhaps because the outcome of the WWII encounter was still in doubt at the time.As a movie, though, "30 Seconds" has a lot going for it: romance (Van Johnson-Phyllis Thaxter), buddies (Johnson and a young Robert Mitchum), strong Army-Navy relations, strong American-Chinese relations--and plenty of great character parts played by people like Robert Walker, Spencer Tracy and Don DeFore, later to become George Baxter in TV's "Hazel."There's nothing dated about the cinematography employed here.
When the Ruptured Duck flies over Tokyo, you feel like you're right there in the cockpit and the crew's low-altitude escape to China is nothing less than harrowing.It may not be a 20-20 account of the Doolittle mission to ramp up U.S. spirits after Pearl Harbor but it's a entertaining film with a lot of heavy hitters along for the ride, people like Dalton Trumbo (screenplay)and director Mervyn LeRoy.Yes, it's one-part propaganda, one part-chin uplifter but there's a lot more to it and it makes my all-time top 10 war movie list..
The fact is that the Doolittle Raid DID happen, that in early 1942 the outcome of the war against Japan was at best uncertain, and that Japanese aggression post Pearl Harbor posed a clear and imminent threat to the United States.
The Doolittle Raid marked the beginning of the end for Japan, because it blew away the myth of Japanese invincibility and proved to the world that it was just a matter of time before a fleet of sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers would be followed by huge air armadas of B-29s that would crush Japanese militarism for all time and eventually convert Japan from an implacable enemy to an allie and a friend..
Having read "I Could Never Be So Lucky Again" by Jimmy Doolittle, I am happy to report that the film's storyline is very much like the events actually unfolded.
Van Johnson, Spencer Tracy and a supporting cast make this movie one of the special few war films that show a naturalistic view of men in combat.
In World War II, several B25 pilots and their crew volunteers for a secret mission, including the recently married Lt. Ted Lawson (Van Johnson), under the command of Gen. James Doolittle (Spencer Tracy).
After successfully accomplishing the bombing and returning to the base in China, the airplane of Lawson crashes on the Chinese coast, and his men and he are rescued by the Chinese soldiers."Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" is a good war movie, but also a clear American propaganda in times of war.
There is a shallow and corny romance in the lead story; the pilots and crew are great friends like a brotherhood and their wives and girl-friends are silly and naive; when Lawson loses his leg, Doolittle says that the army can not lose an experienced man like him; all the allied Chinese are cooperative, submissive and friends; there are lots of nationalism, like for example, the Chinese scouts singing the American hymn.
Van Johnson does his all-American boy bit (has he ever done otherwise) and it emerges as an appealing portrait of an ordinary guy, rather than the slavering war monger Ted Lawson could have been turned into.
Not "Kill More Japs," but, "Gee, I wish this war was over." Phyllis Thaxter does an adequate job of hiding her anxiety beneath her love for her "fella."The film is long and in many ways more detailed than the book and, hold on, in some ways an improvement.
I can't imagine this story conveying the absolute truth of the famous "Doolittle Raid" without some filler; this is a great movie period and amazing it is based on truth.
For the most part, it was historically accurate, although some things were changed by MGM, which isn't unusual for Hollywood.Sadly, one point the movie didn't mention, was the terrible price the Chinese paid for their help in getting our fliers out of China and back home.General Chang Kai-Shek didn't want to support this operation as he knew what the Japanese would do in retaliation and he was right.
This film has legs: six decades later it still holds up as a romance and as a "docu-drama."  Based on Ted Lawson's book of the same title, the movie features a solid cast, engagingly sympathetic plot line, and some FX that also hold up extremely well.
Based on Ted Lawson's (played by Van Johnson) autobiographical accounting of the raid in the book of the same name.
Excellent acting by Van Johnson and Spencer Tracy as General Doolittle..
this movie is a great and very precise account of the actual doolittle raid.
Made during the dark days of WWII, this movie is outstanding because it continued the whole purpose of the raid, that is, to boost American moral by striking back at Japan for the Pearl Harbor attack.
It truly is a flight "into the wild blue yonder." Even knowing the historical success of the mission, one still wonders what will go wrong with this incredible plan to launch B-25's from an aircraft carrier and bomb  targets in Japan.
Robert Mitchum seems to have solidified his "tough guy" role in this movie, and develops a character much like the one he played two years later in "Till the End of Time." And Scott McKay "shur 'nuff" does a pretty fair job as the popular Texan.
This is a great movie, and true to Lawson's book and Jimmy Doolittle's book.
I bet Doolittle, a real American hero, is turning in his grave when a yellow bastard like Alec Baldwin is allowed to portray him in the 2001 movie, Pearl Harbor.
The movie does not portray the fate of two of the downed Doolittle raiders that were tried and executed by the Japanese before the end of the war.
Classic WWII movie about the Doolittle raid..
Another Van Johnson movie about WWII which I enjoy watching is Battleground.
Doolittle (Spencer Tracy) plans a daring bombing attack launched from aircraft carriers.
Bob Gray (Robert Mitchum) is among the many volunteer flyboys gathered to secretly train for the dangerous mission.This is a classic patriotic war drama based on the real legendary Doolittle raid.
It's a movie of its time and this is very much a patriotic war effort..
"Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" is one of the best movies made during the war years.
While the typical war film made during WWII avoided realism in favor of jingoism and propaganda, this one excels because it tried to get the facts right and plays almost like a documentary merged with a typical Hollywood drama.
When you read about the efforts that MGM went to make the film, you realize it was a real labor of love and the movie holds up remarkably well today.
This film is about the famous Doolittle Raid on Japan which occurred in 1942.
While the actual physical impact of the bombing raid was not especially great, it was a bit public relations victory-- bolstering American morale and reducing the Japanese sense of invulnerability which had been prevalent.
Incidentally, all the planes were lost in the raid...it was intended as a one-way mission.What makes the film strong is not just the emphasis on realism but the acting and direction.
Stunning.By the way, an excellent but over-the-top film about crew captured by the Japanese following the Doolittle Raid is also portrayed in Twentieth Century Fox's "The Purple Heart".
It's an excellent film but occasionally lapses into propaganda mode a few times too often to be taken as seriously as "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"..
A more respectable (though fictional) wartime effort is Bogart's 'Across the Pacific', which manages to not utterly demonize the Japanese even though it was made less than a year after Pearl Harbor.Basically it's a wartime flag-waving movie which has little to recommend it today.
A young Spencer Tracy (as General Doolittle) looks good in his uniform and gives a decent performance, while the effectively shot sequence of the actual bombing run is the saving grace of this turkey.
James Doolittle(played by Spencer Tracy) to launch 16 fully-loaded B-25s from an aircraft carrier into the heart of Japan, for a "hedge hopping" mission which will see a low-level bombing sweep, in order to take the Pacific war to them for a change, and also as a morale booster for an American public sick of defeats.
Long but engrossing film with good script and acting, and a detailed account of this important part of WWII history..
THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO has men training for a dangerous mission, led by Col. Doolittle (Spencer Tracy) who leads them into an adventure that begins with fully loaded bombers making their ascent into the wild blue yonder aboard Naval aircraft carriers.
The cooperative team efforts between the Navy and the Air Force is demonstrated throughout and the result is a film that looks almost documentary in its approach to the subject matter.But you have to get beyond some sentimental interludes for romance and that's where the story weakens somewhat, despite the sincerity of the moments depicted between VAN JOHNSON (as Lt. Dawson) and his loving wife (PHYLLIS THAXTER).
Nevertheless, by the time the story reaches its powerful conclusion, you'll be rooting for the reunion of the husband (a wounded war hero who has lost one leg) and his wife who is expecting a baby.Sterling performances help put the movie over.
Never for a moment is the acting less than exceptional--and that includes VAN JOHNSON in the leading role, ably supported by SPENCER TRACY, ROBERT WALKER, ROBERT MITCHUM, DON DeFORE, SCOTT McKAY, STEPHEN McNALLY (billed as Horace McNally) and, in an unbilled small role, BILL WILLIAMS.
Relationships between Americans and the Chinese make for the most touching elements in the crash scene and the hospitalization.A fine tribute to the war effort, it's among the best of the service films produced by any of the major studios during WWII..
He sent a telegram back telling his buddy something like: "we have to leave the war to the younger generation." Shortly after the Doolittle raid, he got another telegram from his buddy.
Great WW2 movie, the true story of the Doolittle Raid.
If you watched Michael Bay's romantic threesome flick 'Pearl Harbor', than you've already got the premise of the film.Now, you just need to watch the better version of it.'Thirty Seconds' is easily one of the best WWII films of the 40's, released just prior to the surrender of the Japanese Empire.
It remains true to the original story, based upon the memoirs of the man who flew the mission.In 'Pearl Harbor', we see Alec Baldwin, here we upgrade slightly to Spencer Tracy.
Both play the Colonel Doolittle role well, but Tracy is the original and the best.Though the pacing isn't brisk, the film is worth it and can qualify as WWII epic.Bring popcorn and no bathroom breaks..
To me, "Pearl Harbor" is not a bowdlerization of the kind of WWI romance/action film that "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo" represents but instead is an homage to it.
Complaints that "Pearl Harbor" and "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" are historically inaccurate in some details or fail to tell the whole story of the war are pointless.
Sturdy, determined Spencer Tracy (as James "Jimmy" Doolittle) organizes the US response to the World War II attack on Pearl Harbor.
Despite Tracy's presence, the film stars Van Johnson (as Ted Lawson).
Her biggest memory of the homefront during World War II was the news of the Doolittle raid over Tokyo.
The film is based on the real life experience of one of the B-25 crews that Lt. Colonel James Doolittle commanded.
Major Ted Lawson and the survivors of his B-25 crashed on the China shore and with the help of Chinese guerillas, managed to escape the occupying Japanese army.These aren't World War II movie heroics, this was in fact the real deal.
Van Johnson who probably typified the American Armed Service man in World War II more than any other actor, including John Wayne, gives one of his best performances as Major Lawson.
The movie is pretty faithful to the story, making Thirty Second Over Tokyo one of the best if not the best war combat film made in Hollywood during the conflict.Doing the guest star shot as Doolittle himself is Spencer Tracy.
Too bad also that Spencer Tracy didn't reprise the part in such a film after World War II..
This is one of those rare movies.First, it's a good story...based on the historical first raid on Tokyo during WWII.More important to the movie are strong performances.
But after the plane crash is this film, they allowed the terrible scars on his forehead show very clearly Spencer Tracy plays Jimmy Doolittle, although he is in a supporting role here...supporting also in the sense of bringing one really big name to the production, thereby increasing box office.
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, Army Major Ted Lawson's autobiographical book (of the same name, co-written with Bob Considine) was turned into this above average World War II drama, which details the James Doolittle- led first bombing of Japan after Pearl Harbor, by screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.
The movie won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects; its B&W Cinematography was also nominated.Van Johnson plays Lawson; Spencer Tracy plays the eventual Medal of Honor recipient Doolittle, who's not really central to this story's telling about the men who volunteered for this mission that was executed just 131 days after December 7, 1941.
Some did, though they are only mentioned in the film.In this MGM produced movie, a brief reference is made to some valuable intelligence information which Doolittle's men received from a submarine that had infiltrated Tokyo bay prior to their bombing mission.
This is a rather enjoyable WW II about the Doolittle-raid on Japan, made during WW II itself, that however is given more credit for than it really deserves.Just like basically with every '40's movie is the case, the first halve is formulaic and drags on for too long.
The movie features Van Johnson in the main lead and Spencer Tracy as general Doolittle.
It is unlikely the bombing had any real effect on Japanese industrial capacity but at home, as a morale booster, it was a great success, the air crews and everyone associated with the raid rightfully hailed as heroes.
Van Johnson's Ted Lawson comes across as apple pie ala mode with nary a discouraging word, Spencer Tracy breezes through his unchallenging turn as Doolittle with little to do beyond stern and resolute and Robert Mitchum hits just the right note as a buddy pilot.
Read on, where we will attempt to explain.TO START WITH, this film makes great use of a great number of actors; from the well known "star" type, to the less famous and even those yet to be "discovered." This is all well and good, even necessary; for the number of personnel in a military operation.THE MAIN CHARACTERS are, generally, portrayed by better known players; with Van Johnson and Spencer Tracy (as Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle) being the most obvious examples.
This fine film offers viewers about everything: a uniformly excellent cast, great action, human drama, a touching love story, exciting special effects, and a deep sense of patriotism.
The story is the 1942 raid on Tokyo led by James Doolittle.
The event came at a time when things were very dark for the U.S.A.: the Pearl Harbor attack had just occurred, and American forces were on the precarious defensive all over the Pacific.Van Johnson is the focus of the movie as a bomber pilot, but is surrounded by great co-stars: Phyllis Thaxter (his pregnant wife), Spencer Tracy (Doolittle), Robert Mitchum (pilot), Don DeFore (Johnson's navigator), Robert Walker (Johnson's gunner), and many others.
The action follows the preparation, execution, and eventual escape from the Doolittle raid.Good photography and a very intelligent script round out this rousing war film.