Evening star., 1943-11-24


be machines with hearts that are
brave and capable Of breaking.
Winged Victory" is professional
show in quality, its professionals and
weu-directed amateurs recruited
from the ranks of the AAF dnclud-
ing wives). 1t is a thing of great
dimensions, as it would have to be,
dealing with an air force globally big.
There are $50 members of its cast
and its orchestra, virtually all of
them, along with the technicians,
straight from the ranks of Gen.
H.H. Arnolds AAF. Their high and
varied skills, manipulated by Mr..
Hart. who also directed the show
into a shining composite, reflect one
of the points Winged Victory" is
trying to make, namely, that the
Air Force is the sum total OF
America.
AS reporter -dramatist responsible
for Winged Victory" Mr.. Hart has
avoided the heroic. He has got down
to the very heart of Army aviation,
the American boy who grew up low
Ing airplanes and will die in kind
of lyrical loyalty to them. He thinks
In neither heroic nor cowardly terms.
He wants to fly and to fight and he
is not very articulate. He only
knows that at the end of the flying
and fighting he wants world IN
which his children will not have to
do the same thing. He has no
exalted speeches to make about it
and is as likely to express himself
f1ippantly on the subject as ne Is
to speak seriously.
Mr.. Hart has written with an In
fectious enthusiasm for the Amerl-
can young who provide the real
power OF the projectile which the
modern military plane really is. He
has kept the faith with them. In
gathering his picture OF them for
"Winged Victory" he lived among
them. ate with them, slept with
them, learned how they talked and
what they felt, admired their girls
pictures. understood their exalta-
tions and knew why they wept. He
has set it all down with the ring
of truth in every simple word, and
his play is thing with which you
will laugh and cry and leave with
a feeling that you have been privi-
legged to share something wonderful
going on in wartime America.
winged Victory" is at its best
when its mood is light, as if perhaps
In their more poignant moments his
flying cadets and their wives took
on the elusiveness of embarrassment
and let the playwright fend for
himself. This is not criticism OF
the play, for even in it's solemn pas
sages it remains nearly always safe
ly this side of the merely theatrical,
which Is a tribute, too, to those who
play it.
winged Victory tells the story
Of that most vibrant lot of youthful
warriors, the air cadets who go on
to become the pilots, bombardiers,
navigators In Flying Fortresses and
Liberators.
He takes six lads, three from one
small town in Ohio, one farm
OOy lIOIIl OICSOAl, dAAOtAACA CAAC oSAoAi
of a modest Texas oil family, and
one from Brooklyn (tfe inevitable,
but excellent, comic character), and
he follows them through the whole
adventure of becoming air warriors.
The basic theme is broader than
that, however, for the playwright
shows how many others these six
boys represent, mothers, fathers,
wives, sweethearts, and, in the case
of the Brooklyn buffoon. a baby
son. They are all involved and
share in every joy. Illustration. fear,
loneliness, triumph and failure
which the cadet meets along the
way to the far-away battle front.
There are II scenes in the two
acts Of Winged Victory" They
show the six in every aspect of their
aviation life. There is the waiting,
ever so impatiently, for the order to
report. Comes the disillusionment