AIR FORCE

"Air Force"'is one of the Howard Hawks movies that got away and that's despite having an original screenplay by the great Dudley Nichols and superb cinematography by the great James Wong Howe as well as a first-rate cast that includes Arthur Kennedy, John Garfield, Gig Young and Harry Carey. Maybe it's because it's a war movie dealing with Pearl Harbour and its aftermath and is chest-thumpingly patriotic that it is no longer fashionable to rate it despite it being one of Hawks finest films. Most of it takes place on board a Flying Fortress and like so many of Hawks best films it deals beautifully with the camaraderie between men in dangerous situations and the interplay between the almost entirely male cast is very well realised. The action scenes are also handled with typical Hawksian aplomb making this another essential film in the Hawks canon.