I've now had to edit this review with the news of the death of Colonel Robert L. Scott, Jr. at the grand old age of 98. He was a genuine war hero and the leading citizen of his home town of Macon, Georgia.
The book on which this film was based was written in the flush of VJ Day after our Pacific victory. Moods and attitudes don't change so easily and when Warner Brothers made this film we were in our World War II mode.
I do wonder if Scott had waited a few years before selling the film rights would the picture have included all the racial cracks about the Japanese? Probably so because those were our attitudes and Japan was the enemy.
But I doubt the enemy would have been so personalized as Richard Loo's character with the buck teeth and the Charlie Chan dialog. Even 12 years later in The Bridge Over the River Kwai, the Japanese are cruel and despotic without being stereotyped. I doubt if Sessue Hayakawa would have played it the way Richard Loo did, who in fact was Chinese and his country was fighting the Japanese.
Because of the racial stuff, God Is My Co-Pilot is not as well regarded today as it could have been. That's a pity because Dennis Morgan does a grand job in portraying a genuine American hero. It and Chauncey Olcott in My Wild Irish Rose are probably the roles Morgan is best known for today. Also Raymond Massey as General Claire Chennault and Alan Hale as a Catholic missionary priest are memorable.
Of course if the film had come out years later, Jimmy Stewart would have insisted on playing Scott. But he was still busy in the real Army Air Corps at the time.
The book on which this film was based was written in the flush of VJ Day after our Pacific victory. Moods and attitudes don't change so easily and when Warner Brothers made this film we were in our World War II mode.
I do wonder if Scott had waited a few years before selling the film rights would the picture have included all the racial cracks about the Japanese? Probably so because those were our attitudes and Japan was the enemy.
But I doubt the enemy would have been so personalized as Richard Loo's character with the buck teeth and the Charlie Chan dialog. Even 12 years later in The Bridge Over the River Kwai, the Japanese are cruel and despotic without being stereotyped. I doubt if Sessue Hayakawa would have played it the way Richard Loo did, who in fact was Chinese and his country was fighting the Japanese.
Because of the racial stuff, God Is My Co-Pilot is not as well regarded today as it could have been. That's a pity because Dennis Morgan does a grand job in portraying a genuine American hero. It and Chauncey Olcott in My Wild Irish Rose are probably the roles Morgan is best known for today. Also Raymond Massey as General Claire Chennault and Alan Hale as a Catholic missionary priest are memorable.
Of course if the film had come out years later, Jimmy Stewart would have insisted on playing Scott. But he was still busy in the real Army Air Corps at the time.