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The Dawn Patrol (1938 film)
Encyclopedia
The Dawn Patrol is a 1938 American war film, a remake of the pre-Code
1930
film of the same name. Both were based on the short story "The Flight Commander" by John Monk Saunders
, an American writer said to have been haunted by his inability to get into combat as a flyer with the U.S. Air Service
.
The film, directed by Edmund Goulding
, stars Errol Flynn
, Basil Rathbone
, and David Niven
as Royal Flying Corps
fighter pilots in World War I
. Of the several films that Flynn and Rathbone appeared in together, it is the only one in which their characters are on the same side. Although sparring as in their other roles, their characters are fast friends and comrades in danger.
The Dawn Patrols story romanticizes many aspects of the World War I aviation experience that have since become cliché
s: white scarves, hard-drinking fatalism by doomed pilots, chivalry in the air between combatants, the short life expectancy of new pilots, and the legend of the "Red Baron
." However The Dawn Patrol also has a deeper and more timeless theme in the severe emotional scarring on a military commander who must constantly order men to their deaths. This theme underlies every scene in The Dawn Patrol.
of the Royal Flying Corps
' 59th Squadron, Major Brand (Basil Rathbone
), the squadron commander, and his adjutant Phipps (Donald Crisp
) anxiously await the return of the dawn patrol. Brant is near his breaking point. He has lost 16 pilots in the previous two weeks, nearly all of them young replacements with little training and no combat experience. Brand is ordered to send up tomorrow what amounts to a suicide mission. Captain Courtney (Errol Flynn
), leader of A Flight, and his good friend "Scotty" Scott (David Niven
) return, but two of the replacements are not so lucky, and another, Hollister, is severely depressed by having witnessed the death of his best friend. The survivors repair to the bar in their mess
for drinks and fatalistic revelry. Courtney does his best to console Hollister, but the youngster breaks down in grief.
When Brand announces the next day's dawn patrol, Courtney tells Brand he does not have enough men. Brand retorts that more replacements are on their way. From the four green pilots, Courtney picks the two with the most flying hours to go on the mission. Only four return this time; Scott has been lost along with the two new men. Courtney tells a sympathetic Brand that Scott went down saving Hollister. Just then, British troops bring in the German who downed Scott, Hauptmann
Von Mueller (Carl Esmond
). Courtney overcomes his initial rage when Brand informs Von Mueller that it was Courtney who shot him down, and the German graciously acknowledges him. Courtney then offers the German a drink. The guilt-ridden Hollister tries to attack the prisoner, but is restrained. Then, a grimy Scott appears. His plane crashed, but he survived.
B Flight is mauled next. Just after its wounded leader, Captain Squires (Michael Brooke
), informs the squadron that the dreaded Von Richter is now their foe, an enemy aircraft flies low over their airdrome and drops a pair of trench boot
s. Attached is a taunting note telling the British pilots that they will be safer on the ground. Brand warns his men that the boots are intended to incite inexperienced pilots into trying to retaliate. He forbids any takeoffs without his express orders. Courtney and Scott disregard the prohibition, taking off in the dawn mist after stealing the boots from Brand's room. They fly to Von Richter's airfield, where the black-painted fighters are being readied for the day. Courtney and Scott bomb and strafe the field, destroying most of the German planes, and shoot down two which try to take to the air. Courtney then drops the boots. Von Richter retrieves them and shakes his fist at the departing British. Courtney is shot down recrossing the lines, then rescued by Scott, whose plane is also hit by anti-aircraft fire
. When leaking oil blinds Scott, Courtney talks him down to a crash landing behind their own trenches.
Brand's outrage at their disobedience dissipates when headquarters congratulates him for the success of the attack and appoints him "up to Wing
." Brand takes cruel pleasure in naming Courtney to take command of the 59th. Soon, Courtney is forced to acquire all the qualities he hated in Brand. When Scott's younger brother Donnie is posted as a replacement, Scott begs Courtney to give him a few days so that he can teach his brother the ropes. Courtney tells him there can be no exceptions. Unbeknownst to Scott, Courtney calls headquarters to plead for a few days of training for his replacements, but is turned down. Von Richter shoots down Donnie in flames the next morning, for which Scott blames Courtney.
Brand personally gives Courtney orders for a very important mission. A single plane must fly low and bomb a huge munitions dump 60 kilometers behind the lines. Brand bans Courtney from flying the mission, so Scott disdainfully volunteers. They reconcile and Courtney gets his friend too drunk to fly, then blows up the dump himself. Von Richter intercepts Courtney afterwards. Although Courtney outduels and shoots down two of the enemy, including Von Richter, he is killed by a third. Command of the squadron devolves on Scott. He lines up the decimated squadron for orders just as five replacements arrive. He stoically tells A Flight to be ready for the dawn patrol.
, primarily rewrote dialogue to fit Flynn, Rathbone, and Niven, although following the original closely and crediting original co-writer Dan Totheroh. With the another World War threatening, the remake's pacifistic script was well-received by audiences and critics, and it succeeded at the box office.
The proposal for the remake came from producer Hal Wallis to Jack Warner
in a memo dated April 30, 1938, to financially exploit public awareness of impending war brought on by the German annexation of Austria
the month before. Goulding was available to direct after being taken off the filming of Jezebel in favor of William Wyler
. Warner had hired Goulding in 1937 on a per-film basis after Louis B. Mayer
had fired him from MGM Studios in a sex scandal, and offered him the Dawn Patrol assignment to keep him interested while he completed preparations for filming Dark Victory
, which he also wanted Goulding to direct. Although Goulding detested remakes, he had successfully filmed a remake of one of his own films as his first Warner Brothers project and agreed.
The film featured an entirely male cast, and all 12 credited roles of characters in the 59th Squadron were filled by actors with British backgrounds. One of the many fellow-Englishman actors cast by Goulding was his house-mate, Michael Brooke (the 7th Earl of Warwick), while Rathbone and Flynn were selected because of their recent appearance together in The Adventures of Robin Hood
. Goulding's biographer Matthew Kennedy wrote:
Filming began on August 6, 1938, and ended six weeks later on September 15. Airfield exteriors were shot at the Warner Brothers Ranch near Calabasas, California
.
assembled a variety of planes in a film squadron to shoot the flying scenes for the original version of The Dawn Patrol. Hawks used rebuilt Nieuport 28
s as the primary airplane for the British squadron, and Travel Air 4000
s (reconfigured for films and popularly known as "Wichita
Fokker
s") for German fighters, but other aircraft in his small fleet included Standard J-1s for shots of entire squadrons, some of which were blown up in explosions, and Waterman
-Boeing
C biplanes for German aircraft destroyed in crashes. The scene in which Scott takes off with Courtney clinging to the wing switches to a shot of a Travel Air 4U Speedwing
fitted with a round cowl
over its Comet
engine to resemble the Nieuports. Stunt pilots included Leo Nomis, Rupert Symes Macalister, Frank Tomick, and Roy Wilson.
1938 director Goulding used much of this footage in the remake to save production costs. For new closeups of airplanes with his own actors, he acquired three Nieuport 28 replicas from Garland Lincoln, a Van Nuys, California
, stunt pilot who also recreated World War I aircraft for Hollywood films. Built by Claude Flagg, these "LF-1"s were constructed from Nieuport plans and had many characteristics of the actual aircraft, including upper wing fabric that ripped during dives. In Goulding's production these aircraft also appear in a few scenes of Nieuports taking off, landing, and taxiing. Additional Nieuport 28s were simulated by Thomas-Morse S-4C Scouts
, and two were used in the flying scene in which Courtney and Scott attack the German airdrome. 59th Squadron's airplanes were marked in standard RFC camouflage and national insignia
, had the marking "NIEU 24" painted on their tail fins, and displayed a cartoon Hornet
painted on each side of the fuselage just behind the cockpit.
For scenes at the German airdrome in which aircraft were moved or had engines turning, Goulding used Wichita Fokkers painted black with German markings. His "Pfalzes" had their wings painted in a large and striking red and white checkerboard pattern. Goulding also acquired two genuine Pfalz D.XII
fighters for static closeup shots of parked fighters, with at least one re-painted white in a later scene to "expand" their numbers. Actual Nieuport 28s and Pfalz D.XIIs were used much later in the war than the 1915 setting of The Dawn Patrol, and the model 28 Nieuport was not used by the RFC at all, but their familiarity of appearance to American audiences gave a verisimilitude to both films.
, but uses several songs to set moods. Although not published until 1916 and therefore an anachronism, the melancholy "Poor Butterfly
" is played on a gramophone
in scenes in which the pilots drink to drown their sorrows. Tellingly, "Poor Butterfly" begins in the background just as Scotty greets the arrival of his younger brother. The pilots themselves frequently sing "Hurrah for the Next Man That Dies"—and teach it to their German guest—as a grimly sardonic defiance of death.
The song was a popular World War I drinking song, and an adaptation of the poem The Revel, written by Bartholomew Dowling
about British soldiers struck down by the Plague
in India
. Finally, each arrival of new replacements is announced by their cheerful singing of "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag
", demonstrating their callow eagerness.
In addition, the flyers' carousing nature is emphasized in one scene with music. After Scott's return, he and Courtney drive off in a motorcycle
sidecar
boisterously singing "Plum and Apple" with their enlisted driver. This was an enlisted men's/other ranks' ditty about the class distinctions of rations at the front.
Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become rigorously...
1930
1930 in film
-Events:* November 1: The Big Trail featuring a young John Wayne in his first starring role is released in both 35mm, and a very early form of 70mm film and was the first large scale big-budget film of the sound era costing over $2 million. The film was praised for its aesthetic quality and realism...
film of the same name. Both were based on the short story "The Flight Commander" by John Monk Saunders
John Monk Saunders
John Monk Saunders was an American novelist, screenwriter and film director.-Early life and career:...
, an American writer said to have been haunted by his inability to get into combat as a flyer with the U.S. Air Service
United States Army Air Service
The Air Service, United States Army was a forerunner of the United States Air Force during and after World War I. It was established as an independent but temporary wartime branch of the War Department by two executive orders of President Woodrow Wilson: on May 24, 1918, replacing the Aviation...
.
The film, directed by Edmund Goulding
Edmund Goulding
Edmund Goulding was a British film writer and director. As an actor early in his career he was one of the 'Ghosts' in the 1922 British made Paramount silent Three Live Ghosts alongside Norman Kerry and Cyril Chadwick. Also in the early 20s he wrote several screenplays for star Mae Murray and...
, stars Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
, Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
, and David Niven
David Niven
James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
as Royal Flying Corps
Royal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...
fighter pilots in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Of the several films that Flynn and Rathbone appeared in together, it is the only one in which their characters are on the same side. Although sparring as in their other roles, their characters are fast friends and comrades in danger.
The Dawn Patrols story romanticizes many aspects of the World War I aviation experience that have since become cliché
Cliché
A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
s: white scarves, hard-drinking fatalism by doomed pilots, chivalry in the air between combatants, the short life expectancy of new pilots, and the legend of the "Red Baron
Manfred von Richthofen
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen , also widely known as the Red Baron, was a German fighter pilot with the Imperial German Army Air Service during World War I...
." However The Dawn Patrol also has a deeper and more timeless theme in the severe emotional scarring on a military commander who must constantly order men to their deaths. This theme underlies every scene in The Dawn Patrol.
Plot
In 1915, at the airdrome in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
of the Royal Flying Corps
Royal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...
' 59th Squadron, Major Brand (Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
), the squadron commander, and his adjutant Phipps (Donald Crisp
Donald Crisp
Donald Crisp was an English film actor. He was also an early motion picture producer, director and screenwriter...
) anxiously await the return of the dawn patrol. Brant is near his breaking point. He has lost 16 pilots in the previous two weeks, nearly all of them young replacements with little training and no combat experience. Brand is ordered to send up tomorrow what amounts to a suicide mission. Captain Courtney (Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
), leader of A Flight, and his good friend "Scotty" Scott (David Niven
David Niven
James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
) return, but two of the replacements are not so lucky, and another, Hollister, is severely depressed by having witnessed the death of his best friend. The survivors repair to the bar in their mess
Mess
A mess is the place where military personnel socialise, eat, and live. In some societies this military usage has extended to other disciplined services eateries such as civilian fire fighting and police forces. The root of mess is the Old French mes, "portion of food" A mess (also called a...
for drinks and fatalistic revelry. Courtney does his best to console Hollister, but the youngster breaks down in grief.
When Brand announces the next day's dawn patrol, Courtney tells Brand he does not have enough men. Brand retorts that more replacements are on their way. From the four green pilots, Courtney picks the two with the most flying hours to go on the mission. Only four return this time; Scott has been lost along with the two new men. Courtney tells a sympathetic Brand that Scott went down saving Hollister. Just then, British troops bring in the German who downed Scott, Hauptmann
Hauptmann
Hauptmann is a German word usually translated as captain when it is used as an officer's rank in the German, Austrian and Swiss armies. While "haupt" in contemporary German means "main", it also has the dated meaning of "head", i.e...
Von Mueller (Carl Esmond
Carl Esmond
Carl Esmond was an Austrian stage actor, born in Vienna, Austria. His birth name was Willy Eichberger which he later changed to Charles Esmond and finally to Carl Esmond. Like many of his fellow actors, Esmond fled Nazi Germany to England during World War II. Esmond continued to appear on the...
). Courtney overcomes his initial rage when Brand informs Von Mueller that it was Courtney who shot him down, and the German graciously acknowledges him. Courtney then offers the German a drink. The guilt-ridden Hollister tries to attack the prisoner, but is restrained. Then, a grimy Scott appears. His plane crashed, but he survived.
B Flight is mauled next. Just after its wounded leader, Captain Squires (Michael Brooke
Charles Greville, 7th Earl of Warwick
Charles Guy Fulke Greville, 7th Earl of Warwick, 7th Earl Brooke was born on March 4, 1911 and died on January 20, 1984.On January 31, 1928, he succeeded to the title of 7th Earl Brooke of Warwick Castle [Great Britain, 1746]; and he also succeeded to the title of 7th Earl of Warwick [Great...
), informs the squadron that the dreaded Von Richter is now their foe, an enemy aircraft flies low over their airdrome and drops a pair of trench boot
Trench boot
The trench boot sometimes known as the Pershing boot was a combat boot used in World War I by British, American, French and Belgian forces, made for the cold mud of trench warfare.-Introduction:...
s. Attached is a taunting note telling the British pilots that they will be safer on the ground. Brand warns his men that the boots are intended to incite inexperienced pilots into trying to retaliate. He forbids any takeoffs without his express orders. Courtney and Scott disregard the prohibition, taking off in the dawn mist after stealing the boots from Brand's room. They fly to Von Richter's airfield, where the black-painted fighters are being readied for the day. Courtney and Scott bomb and strafe the field, destroying most of the German planes, and shoot down two which try to take to the air. Courtney then drops the boots. Von Richter retrieves them and shakes his fist at the departing British. Courtney is shot down recrossing the lines, then rescued by Scott, whose plane is also hit by anti-aircraft fire
Anti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
. When leaking oil blinds Scott, Courtney talks him down to a crash landing behind their own trenches.
Brand's outrage at their disobedience dissipates when headquarters congratulates him for the success of the attack and appoints him "up to Wing
Wing (air force unit)
Wing is a term used by different military aviation forces for a unit of command. The terms wing, group or Staffel are used for different-sized units from one country or service to another....
." Brand takes cruel pleasure in naming Courtney to take command of the 59th. Soon, Courtney is forced to acquire all the qualities he hated in Brand. When Scott's younger brother Donnie is posted as a replacement, Scott begs Courtney to give him a few days so that he can teach his brother the ropes. Courtney tells him there can be no exceptions. Unbeknownst to Scott, Courtney calls headquarters to plead for a few days of training for his replacements, but is turned down. Von Richter shoots down Donnie in flames the next morning, for which Scott blames Courtney.
Brand personally gives Courtney orders for a very important mission. A single plane must fly low and bomb a huge munitions dump 60 kilometers behind the lines. Brand bans Courtney from flying the mission, so Scott disdainfully volunteers. They reconcile and Courtney gets his friend too drunk to fly, then blows up the dump himself. Von Richter intercepts Courtney afterwards. Although Courtney outduels and shoots down two of the enemy, including Von Richter, he is killed by a third. Command of the squadron devolves on Scott. He lines up the decimated squadron for orders just as five replacements arrive. He stoically tells A Flight to be ready for the dawn patrol.
Cast
- Errol FlynnErrol FlynnErrol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
as Captain (later Major) 'Court' Courtney - Basil RathboneBasil RathboneSir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
as Major Brand - David NivenDavid NivenJames David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
as Lieutenant (later Captain) 'Scotty' Scott - Donald CrispDonald CrispDonald Crisp was an English film actor. He was also an early motion picture producer, director and screenwriter...
as Phipps - Melville CooperMelville CooperGeorge Melville Cooper , best known as Melville Cooper, was a British stage, film and television actor. Among his roles are the cowardly Sheriff of Nottingham in The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn, and Mr...
as Sergeant Watkins - Barry FitzgeraldBarry FitzgeraldBarry Fitzgerald was an Irish stage, film and television actor.-Life:He was born William Joseph Shields in Walworth Road, Portobello, Dublin, Ireland. He is the older brother of Irish actor Arthur Shields. He went to Skerry's College, Dublin, before going on to work in the civil service, while...
as Bott - Carl EsmondCarl EsmondCarl Esmond was an Austrian stage actor, born in Vienna, Austria. His birth name was Willy Eichberger which he later changed to Charles Esmond and finally to Carl Esmond. Like many of his fellow actors, Esmond fled Nazi Germany to England during World War II. Esmond continued to appear on the...
as Hauptmann Von Mueller - Peter Willes as Hollister
- Morton Lowry as Donnie Scott
- Michael BrookeCharles Greville, 7th Earl of WarwickCharles Guy Fulke Greville, 7th Earl of Warwick, 7th Earl Brooke was born on March 4, 1911 and died on January 20, 1984.On January 31, 1928, he succeeded to the title of 7th Earl Brooke of Warwick Castle [Great Britain, 1746]; and he also succeeded to the title of 7th Earl of Warwick [Great...
as Captain Squires - James BurkeJames Burke (actor)James Burke was an American actor born in New York City. He made his stage debut in New York around 1912 and went to Hollywood in 1933. He made over 200 film appearances during his career, which ranged from 1932 to 1964...
as Flaherty (motorcycle driver) - Stuart HallStuart Hall-People:*Stuart Hall , British radio and television presenter*Stuart Hall , British cultural theorist and first editor of the New Left Review...
as Bentham - Herbert EvansHerbert EvansHerbert Evans may refer to:* Herbert McLean Evans , American anatomist and embryologist* Herbert Evans , British Labour Party Member of Parliament for Gateshead 1931...
as Scott's mechanic - Sidney BraceySidney BraceySidney Bracey was an Australian-born American film actor. After a stage career in Australia, on Broadway and in Britain, he appeared in 321 films between 1909 and 1942.-Life and career:...
as Maj. Brand's orderly (as Sidney Bracy) - Leo Nomis as Aeronautic supervisor
- John Rodion as Lieutenant Russell
Production
The screenplay from the first Dawn Patrol was reprised by original screenwriter Seton Miller, even though its dialogue had been limited because it had been one of the first sound pictures. Miller, in conjunction with director Edmund GouldingEdmund Goulding
Edmund Goulding was a British film writer and director. As an actor early in his career he was one of the 'Ghosts' in the 1922 British made Paramount silent Three Live Ghosts alongside Norman Kerry and Cyril Chadwick. Also in the early 20s he wrote several screenplays for star Mae Murray and...
, primarily rewrote dialogue to fit Flynn, Rathbone, and Niven, although following the original closely and crediting original co-writer Dan Totheroh. With the another World War threatening, the remake's pacifistic script was well-received by audiences and critics, and it succeeded at the box office.
The proposal for the remake came from producer Hal Wallis to Jack Warner
Jack Warner
Jack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
in a memo dated April 30, 1938, to financially exploit public awareness of impending war brought on by the German annexation of Austria
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
the month before. Goulding was available to direct after being taken off the filming of Jezebel in favor of William Wyler
William Wyler
William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...
. Warner had hired Goulding in 1937 on a per-film basis after Louis B. Mayer
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
had fired him from MGM Studios in a sex scandal, and offered him the Dawn Patrol assignment to keep him interested while he completed preparations for filming Dark Victory
Dark Victory
Dark Victory is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan...
, which he also wanted Goulding to direct. Although Goulding detested remakes, he had successfully filmed a remake of one of his own films as his first Warner Brothers project and agreed.
The film featured an entirely male cast, and all 12 credited roles of characters in the 59th Squadron were filled by actors with British backgrounds. One of the many fellow-Englishman actors cast by Goulding was his house-mate, Michael Brooke (the 7th Earl of Warwick), while Rathbone and Flynn were selected because of their recent appearance together in The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood (film)
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a 1938 American swashbuckler film directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley. Filmed in Technicolor, the picture stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and Claude Rains.-Plot:...
. Goulding's biographer Matthew Kennedy wrote:
Everyone remembered a set filled with fraternal good cheer...The filming of Dawn Patrol was an unusual experience for everyone connected with it, and dissipated for all time the legend that Britishers are lacking in a sense of humor...The picture was made to the accompaniment of more ribbing than Hollywood has ever witnessed. The setting for all this horseplay was the beautiful English manners of the cutterups. The expressions of polite and pained shock on the faces of Niven, Flynn, Rathbone, et.al., when (women) visitors were embarrassed was the best part of the nonsense.
Filming began on August 6, 1938, and ended six weeks later on September 15. Airfield exteriors were shot at the Warner Brothers Ranch near Calabasas, California
Calabasas, California
Calabasas is an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California in the western United States. It is located in the hills in the southwestern San Fernando Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains between Woodland Hills, Agoura Hills, West Hills, and Malibu, California. As of the 2010 census, the city...
.
Aircraft
Howard HawksHoward Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
assembled a variety of planes in a film squadron to shoot the flying scenes for the original version of The Dawn Patrol. Hawks used rebuilt Nieuport 28
Nieuport 28
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Cheesman E.F. Fighter Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War. Letchworth, UK: Harleyford Publications, 1960, pp. 98–99....
s as the primary airplane for the British squadron, and Travel Air 4000
Travel Air 4000
|-References:NotesBibliography* * * -See also:*Aerial operations in the Chaco War...
s (reconfigured for films and popularly known as "Wichita
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
Fokker
Fokker
Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names, starting out in 1912 in Schwerin, Germany, moving to the Netherlands in 1919....
s") for German fighters, but other aircraft in his small fleet included Standard J-1s for shots of entire squadrons, some of which were blown up in explosions, and Waterman
Waldo Waterman
thumb|200px|Waldo Waterman in 1920Waldo Dean Waterman was an inventor and aviation pioneer from San Diego, California...
-Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
C biplanes for German aircraft destroyed in crashes. The scene in which Scott takes off with Courtney clinging to the wing switches to a shot of a Travel Air 4U Speedwing
Travel Air
The Travel Air Manufacturing Company was an aircraft manufacturer established in Wichita, Kansas in the United States in January 1925 by Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, and Lloyd Stearman.-Company history:...
fitted with a round cowl
Cowl
This article is about the garment used by monks and nuns. For other uses, see Cowl or Cowling .The cowl is an item of clothing consisting of a long, hooded garment with wide sleeves. Originally it may have referred simply to the hooded portion of a cloak...
over its Comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
engine to resemble the Nieuports. Stunt pilots included Leo Nomis, Rupert Symes Macalister, Frank Tomick, and Roy Wilson.
1938 director Goulding used much of this footage in the remake to save production costs. For new closeups of airplanes with his own actors, he acquired three Nieuport 28 replicas from Garland Lincoln, a Van Nuys, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, stunt pilot who also recreated World War I aircraft for Hollywood films. Built by Claude Flagg, these "LF-1"s were constructed from Nieuport plans and had many characteristics of the actual aircraft, including upper wing fabric that ripped during dives. In Goulding's production these aircraft also appear in a few scenes of Nieuports taking off, landing, and taxiing. Additional Nieuport 28s were simulated by Thomas-Morse S-4C Scouts
Thomas-Morse S-4
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Donald, David, ed. Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, p. 875, "Thomas Brothers and Thomas-Morse aircraft". Etobicoke, Ontario: Prospero Books, 1997....
, and two were used in the flying scene in which Courtney and Scott attack the German airdrome. 59th Squadron's airplanes were marked in standard RFC camouflage and national insignia
Military aircraft insignia
Military aircraft insignia are insignia applied to military aircraft to identify the nation or branch of military service to which the aircraft belongs...
, had the marking "NIEU 24" painted on their tail fins, and displayed a cartoon Hornet
Hornet
Hornets are the largest eusocial wasps; some species can reach up to in length. The true hornets make up the genus Vespa and are distinguished from other vespines by the width of the vertex , which is proportionally larger in Vespa and by the anteriorly rounded gasters .- Life cycle :In...
painted on each side of the fuselage just behind the cockpit.
For scenes at the German airdrome in which aircraft were moved or had engines turning, Goulding used Wichita Fokkers painted black with German markings. His "Pfalzes" had their wings painted in a large and striking red and white checkerboard pattern. Goulding also acquired two genuine Pfalz D.XII
Pfalz D.XII
The Pfalz D.XII was a German fighter aircraft built by Pfalz Flugzeugwerke. Designed by Rudolph Gehringer as a successor to the Pfalz D.III, the D.XII entered service in significant numbers near the end of the First World War. It was the last Pfalz aircraft to see widespread service...
fighters for static closeup shots of parked fighters, with at least one re-painted white in a later scene to "expand" their numbers. Actual Nieuport 28s and Pfalz D.XIIs were used much later in the war than the 1915 setting of The Dawn Patrol, and the model 28 Nieuport was not used by the RFC at all, but their familiarity of appearance to American audiences gave a verisimilitude to both films.
Theme
The original script developed for Howard Hawks, which Edmund Goulding followed closely, stressed thematic elements that came to be associated with the "Hawksian world" of "pressure cooker" situations: a professional group of men who live by a code and face death with bravado and camaraderie; the responsibility of leadership in perilous situations; a preference for individual initiative over orders; suicidal missions; and the gandeur of aerial flight.Visual motifs
The Dawn Patrol uses four scene elements as visual motifs to describe a cyclical nature to war and a nightmarish quality in being in command. Each scene places the viewer in the commander's place, waiting with dread for the inevitable consequences. Nearly all action scenes in The Dawn Patrol cut away before the conclusion is played out to heighten the sense of dread. Each scene's recurrence has differences that accentuate those consequences:- Counting the sounds of the motors of the returning planes to determine how many have died. In the final scenario, when Scott waits to hear Courtney's motor in the dark, his initial joy that Courtney has returned is crushed by the dropping of his dead comrade's goggles and helmet.
- Receiving orders for the next mission by telephone, with the general's voice barely audible but impatient in tone. The apparent insanity of the orders is emphasized by the callous implacability of the distant, detached headquarters.
- Arrival of replacements in time to enable the next mission but never with time to train them to protect themselves. The poignancy of their eager youthfulness is symbolized by their arrival in an open touring car in a seemingly endless parade.
- Assembling the pilots to issue the orders, with new men ushered into line just after their arrival. Brand, Courtney, and Scott, all of whom would rather be flying the mission than ordering it, assume an identical stoicism as they undergo the ordeal.
Music
The 1930 version of The Dawn Patrol is notable for its lack of background music. The 1938 remake not only added a score by Max SteinerMax Steiner
Max Steiner was an Austrian composer of music for theatre productions and films. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Trained by the great classical music composers Brahms and Mahler, he was one of the first composers who primarily wrote music for motion pictures, and as...
, but uses several songs to set moods. Although not published until 1916 and therefore an anachronism, the melancholy "Poor Butterfly
Poor Butterfly
"Poor Butterfly" is a popular song. It was inspired by Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly and contains a brief musical quote from the act 2 duet Tutti i fior in the verse....
" is played on a gramophone
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
in scenes in which the pilots drink to drown their sorrows. Tellingly, "Poor Butterfly" begins in the background just as Scotty greets the arrival of his younger brother. The pilots themselves frequently sing "Hurrah for the Next Man That Dies"—and teach it to their German guest—as a grimly sardonic defiance of death.
The song was a popular World War I drinking song, and an adaptation of the poem The Revel, written by Bartholomew Dowling
Bartholomew Dowling
-Biography:Dowling was born in Listowel, County Kerry. While he was still a child, his parents emigrated to Canada, where they remained for some years, and where Dowling received a part of his education...
about British soldiers struck down by the Plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Finally, each arrival of new replacements is announced by their cheerful singing of "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag
Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag
"Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag, and Smile, Smile, Smile" is the full name of a World War I marching song, published in 1915 in London. It was written by George Henry Powell under the pseudonym of "George Asaf", and set to music by his brother Felix Powell...
", demonstrating their callow eagerness.
In addition, the flyers' carousing nature is emphasized in one scene with music. After Scott's return, he and Courtney drive off in a motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
sidecar
Sidecar
A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle, producing a three-wheeled vehicle.-History:A sidecar appeared in a cartoon by George Moore in the January 7, 1903, issue of the British newspaper Motor Cycling. Three weeks later, a provisional patent was...
boisterously singing "Plum and Apple" with their enlisted driver. This was an enlisted men's/other ranks' ditty about the class distinctions of rations at the front.
External links
- Aerofiles Aviation in Film and Television This aviation site section has a publicity photo on its front page of Niven, Flynn, and Rathbone as their characters in The Dawn Patrol.