A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

"Wing and a Prayer" is one of the Hollywood films made about WW II during the war. It was unusual in that it was the first time the U.S. Navy allowed a civilian film crew to shoot aboard a vessel during wartime. Most of the good action stuff we see in war movies was shot by military cameramen and crews. The shipboard filming for the movie was done during the shakedown cruise of the new USS Yorktown carrier out of San Diego. It had been launched Jan. 21, 1943, at Newport News, VA, and was commissioned in April of that year. This was after the former Yorktown had been sunk on June 7, 1942, in the Battle of Midway.The best thing about this film to me is that it shows some of the work that the carrier crews had to do – not just the more thrilling jobs of the Navy pilots. And, it shows some of the insides and routine of the pilots as they prepare for missions. I enjoy this because I served in the Army during the Cold War years leading up to Vietnam, and I appreciate seeing and learning what service in the other branches was like. The studio mixed some real action film into the picture. This was stuff shot during the Battle of Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway. However, it's not nearly as impressive as the use of actual combat footage in later films about the war.The plot moves along rather slowly, and it follows an unnamed carrier, "Carrier X," on a fictitious mission in the South Pacific to fool the Japanese into thinking the U.S. fleet was scattered around the Pacific. That was so that Japan would be tricked into attacking Midway on the way to its final conquest of Hawaii. In reality, the U.S. had broken the Japanese code and knew that Japan planned attack at Midway and then go on to Hawaii.The acting in this film is so-so, with no standouts. I agree with another reviewer who found it a strange casting decision to have British actor Cedric Hardwicke play the unnamed admiral in this film. The character most likely was supposed to be the Chief of Naval Operations at the time whose manner and language was anything but like the proper, well-mannered English of Sir Hardwicke. Otherwise, the film is OK.The Yorktown was not one of the three American carriers in the Pacific when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. It had been in the Pacific after it was commission in 1937, but was moved to the Atlantic through the Panama Canal at the outbreak of WWII in Europe. She was in Norfolk, VA when Pearl Harbor was bombed, but she then sailed for San Diego and arrived there Dec. 30, 1941.The Battle of Coral Sea took place May 4-8, 1942, and the Battle of Midway was June 3-7, 1942. The new Yorktown (CV-10) joined the Pacific Fleet by mid-1943 for the duration of the war. It was decommission in 1975 and is now a museum ship and national historic landmark at Patriot's Point in South Carolina. On May 19, 1998, marine explorer Dr. Robert Ballard led a National Geographic research team that discovered the wreck of the Yorktown. It was more than three miles down on the ocean floor."Wing and a Prayer" was released in America after its July 28, 1944, premier in Providence RI. The 1970 movie, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" is a much more accurate, detailed and historic account of the Battle of Midway. It is done with excellent portrayals of the Japanese as well as American forces and units.

It's early 1942 and the US Pacific Fleet is on the ropes with most of it's warships sunk and destroyed at Pearl Harbor after the devastating Japanese sneak attack on December 7, 1941. Now with the Japanese moving westward towards the Hawaiian islands and possibly California Washington and Oregon the US Navy under the command of British Admerial, how the hell did he get into the movie?, Cedric Hardwicke plans a strategy to lure the Japanese Pacific Fleet into a trap set for it at Midway Island.With one lone US aircraft carrier zig-zagging all throughout the South Pacific Admerial Hardwrick plans to confuse the Japs into thinking that the US Navy is on the run thus letting its guard down and head for Midway Island thinking that taking the island would would be nothing but a a cake walk. With the overconfident Japs not knowing that the entire US Pacific Fleet is waiting for it and ready to spring a bear, or shark, trap on it! The only problem is that the men of the carrier task force, especially the navy pilots, are to be kept in the dark about the operation making them feel,in avoiding contact with the enemy at all costs, like a bunch of gutless cowards!The flight commander of the carrier task force Cmdr. Bingo Harper,Don Ameche, knows what's going on in his orders to avoid contact with Japanese Navy but has a lot of trouble trying to get his pilots to follow his orders. The Navy fly-boys are itching for a chance to mix it with the Japs but are now almost on the brink of mutiny in them being kept at arms lengths even if their attacked by Jap Zero fighter in being ordered by Harper to turn tail and run. It takes a whole lot of patience and following orders by the head of the carrier flight crew Lt. Cmdr. Edward Moulton, Dana Andrews, to keep both his cool and sanity in having a number of his airmen shot down and killed by the Japanese Air Force without as much as fairing back at them! We also have in the movie Academy Award winning actor and now carrier fighter pilot Hallam "Oscar" Scott, William Eythe, ready to rough it with the Japs more then, what a jerk, being safely back in Hollywood making films with him kissing GI pin-up girls like actresses Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth! This is obviously to show the audience that even Hollywood, the land of make believe, is pulling its weight in the war by having top male stars like Clark Gable & Tyrone Power on he front lines risking their lives fighting Fascism!Finally after sailing around in circles for almost the entire film the carrier task force gave its pilots the order to go into action as the Japanese fleet was within sight of Midway island as the trap was strung on it! Lot of great action, mixed in with a number high emotional, scenes as the US Navy took it to the Japs and put an end to their dreams of conquering the entire Pacific; Up until or even past the US West Coast! As it turned out it was British Admiral, again how the hell did he ever get into the movie?, Hardwicke's brilliant plan to give the Japanese the false feeling on invincibility that lead to their disastrous defeat, losing almost all their combat aircraft carriers, at Midway which turned out to be the turning point in their grand and expansionist plans in the Pacific.

If you want to see the actual story of the battle of Midway than definitely see the film that came out in the Seventies. If you can fast forward through the fictional plot involving Charlton Heston and his family problems you will see a very good documentary about the battle and how close run it was.Wing and a Prayer came out two years after and there were restrictions placed on the details, probably due to the fact that one of the reasons we won it was because we had broken the Japanese naval code. Still some of the restrictions were a bit ridiculous.Whose idea was it to cast Sir Cedric Hardwicke as an American Admiral, presumably the Chief of Naval Operations who gave us an overview of the film we were about to see in a prologue. The Chief of Naval Operations at that time was one Ernest J. King who was a rather profane man given to using universally understood words in his normal conversations. He must have had one good laugh at the very prim and proper Cedric Hardwicke playing him, in on a pass from the Royal Navy.The aircraft carrier where the story takes place is unnamed, but I think we can assume it's the Enterprise. In charge is Admiral Charles Bickford playing most probably Raymond Spruance who had tactical command of the task force at Midway.The plot of Wing and a Prayer centers around a conflict between Dana Andrews head of a torpedo squadron assigned to the carrier and Don Ameche, a stern by the book Naval commander in charge of the airplanes and their crews. Ameche and Andrews have conflicts similar to what Ameche had with Tyrone Power in films like In Old Chicago. If Power hadn't been in the Marines at the time serving in the real war in the Pacific, I'm sure he would have had Andrews's part.The usual wartime clichés and characters abound in Wing and a Prayer. One unusual part is that played by William Eythe, a Hollywood actor enlisted in the service and who's one of Andrews's pilots. This might have been Darryl F. Zanuck's idea of a tribute to his main star who as I said was actually serving.Wing and a Prayer is not a bad film, but with Midway out there it's just not the best film on the subject.

Picked this up as a cheap DVD recently.Part (small) documentary, part film, part propaganda. Various readers have commented on the accuracy of the aircraft etc, but as WW2 was still going on when this was filmed I guess they made use of what was available.Follows a familiar theme of other WW2 films made whilst the war was in progress - Wake Island, Air Force etc in that historical accuracy is sometimes lacking, but as a flag-waver at the time it probably had the desired effect.Although born some time after WW2 ended, as a story of life aboard a carrier it looked quite realistic to me. It was only the battle scenes where it seemed to lose its way, but this was nothing to do with the quality of special effects. Probably a bit too jingoistic.Some good performances, particularly Don Ameche. It stands the test of time well, and a film that should not be forgotten and that I will certainly watch several times more.