Showing posts with label Alan Hale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alan Hale. Show all posts

10/06/2015

Desperate Journey (1942)

The TCM channel aired this adventure a few months ago during a tribute to Raymond Massey. The movie is about a group of bomber pilots stranded in WWII Germany when their plane gets shot down. Among the airmen are Errol Flynn and a comical Ronald Reagan who declares he's "half American, half Jersey City". He has a few other funny lines in the movie such as "How come every time you wake me up I'm on a date with Ann Sheridan?"

I liked Alan Hale's character, a man in his 50s who dyed his hair to look younger and lied about his age so he could serve. The others tease him about being the oldest in the group and call him "grandpa".

There's a good interrogation scene with Reagan and Massey who plays a Nazi general.

Interestingly, Massey was in another movie with some similarities to this one: The 49th Parallel/The Invaders (1941) in which Nazis are stranded in Canada and Massey plays a good guy.

 Directed by Raoul Walsh. Music by Max Steiner. Also with Arthur Kennedy and Nancy Coleman as a member of the German resistance. Available on DVD.