Flying Tiger Fred Atwell (Fred Astaire) is on leave and in a ticker tape parade with a pretty girl at his side. He jumps off the train and leaves the promotional tour with the other Flying Tigers. He finds his way back to New York City and encounters photographer Joan Manion (Joan Leslie) in a nightclub. She's frustrated taking celebrity shots instead of going into the war zone. He pretends to be a nobody by the name Fred Burton and intends to return to the military before the end of his leave.
I have a main problem with the basic premise. It's the war years. It's not appealing to have the lead character walk away from his war obligations, no matter how small or meaningless to him. Otherwise, this could be a fine devil-may-care character. It has fine song-and-dance routines. It's a little shocking to have him smashing up stuff in one dance. I wonder if the movie would be better if his motivation is simply that he doesn't want to profit from his war time kills. That may be a different problem for a wartime audience.
I have a main problem with the basic premise. It's the war years. It's not appealing to have the lead character walk away from his war obligations, no matter how small or meaningless to him. Otherwise, this could be a fine devil-may-care character. It has fine song-and-dance routines. It's a little shocking to have him smashing up stuff in one dance. I wonder if the movie would be better if his motivation is simply that he doesn't want to profit from his war time kills. That may be a different problem for a wartime audience.