The Dawn Patrol
Encyclopedia
The Dawn Patrol is a 1930 World War I film starring Richard Barthelmess
and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. It was directed by Howard Hawks
and won the Academy Award for Best Story
for John Monk Saunders
.
airbase, who deal with the stress of combat primarily through nightly bouts of heavy drinking.
The two aces of the group, Courtney (Richard Barthelmess
) and Scott (Douglas Fairbanks Jr), have come to hate the commanding officer, Brand (Neil Hamilton), blaming him for sending fresh pilots directly into combat. Unknown to them, Brand has been arguing continually with his commanders to allow him practice time with the new pilots, but command is desperate to maintain air superiority and orders them into combat as soon as they arrive. Brand is so disliked by the two he cannot even easily join the men for the nightly partying, drinking alone and clearly breaking under the strain.
The tension grows worse when an elite German
squadron, implied to be the Red Baron
's, takes up position on the line across from them. After losing several of the squadron's veteran pilots, the ranks become increasingly made up of new recruits, who have absolutely no chance against the Germans. In the midst of this, Brand is recalled to headquarters and Courtney is promoted to commander.
It is not long before he also learns of the impossibility of the job, and his relationship with Scott quickly sours. Things grow considerably worse when Scott's brother appears as one of the new replacements. He then does his own pleading with headquarters, only to be refused, and his brother is killed on his first mission. When Scott volunteers for what amounts to a suicide mission far behind enemy lines, Courtney steals his airplane and flies off in his stead.
assembled a variety of planes in a film squadron to shoot the flying scenes for 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. Several Thomas-Morse S-4
aircraft were used in the 1930 film. The S-4 was an American built fighter plane that did not see combat in World War I. Plentiful in 1930, the S-4s were becoming rare by the time the 1938 film was produced, hence the re-use of aircraft sequences from the original film.
with Errol Flynn
replacing Barthelmess in the lead, David Niven
playing Fairbanks, Jr.'s role, and Basil Rathbone
in Neil Hamilton's part.
Much of the flying sequences from the 1930 film, with several of the close-ups of the fighter planes, were re-edited verbatim into the 1938 movie, so as to save expense without having to search for or build new World War I era aircraft.
cartoons parodying this movie. Bosko
starred in "The Dumb Patrol" in 1931 and thirty-three years later, in 1964, Bugs Bunny
and Yosemite Sam
appeared in a second cartoon spoof also called "Dumb Patrol
".
Richard Barthelmess
Richard Semler "Dick" Barthelmess was an Oscar-nominated silent film star.-Early life:Barthelmess was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut...
and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. It was directed by Howard Hawks
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
and won the Academy Award for Best Story
Academy Award for Best Story
The Academy Award for Best Story was an Academy Award given from the beginning of the Academy Awards until 1957, when it was eliminated in favor of the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay, which had been introduced in 1940.-1920s:...
for John Monk Saunders
John Monk Saunders
John Monk Saunders was an American novelist, screenwriter and film director.-Early life and career:...
.
Plot
The story revolves around the pilots and crew of an RFCRoyal 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...
airbase, who deal with the stress of combat primarily through nightly bouts of heavy drinking.
The two aces of the group, Courtney (Richard Barthelmess
Richard Barthelmess
Richard Semler "Dick" Barthelmess was an Oscar-nominated silent film star.-Early life:Barthelmess was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut...
) and Scott (Douglas Fairbanks Jr), have come to hate the commanding officer, Brand (Neil Hamilton), blaming him for sending fresh pilots directly into combat. Unknown to them, Brand has been arguing continually with his commanders to allow him practice time with the new pilots, but command is desperate to maintain air superiority and orders them into combat as soon as they arrive. Brand is so disliked by the two he cannot even easily join the men for the nightly partying, drinking alone and clearly breaking under the strain.
The tension grows worse when an elite German
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
squadron, implied to be 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...
's, takes up position on the line across from them. After losing several of the squadron's veteran pilots, the ranks become increasingly made up of new recruits, who have absolutely no chance against the Germans. In the midst of this, Brand is recalled to headquarters and Courtney is promoted to commander.
It is not long before he also learns of the impossibility of the job, and his relationship with Scott quickly sours. Things grow considerably worse when Scott's brother appears as one of the new replacements. He then does his own pleading with headquarters, only to be refused, and his brother is killed on his first mission. When Scott volunteers for what amounts to a suicide mission far behind enemy lines, Courtney steals his airplane and flies off in his stead.
Cast
- Richard BarthelmessRichard BarthelmessRichard Semler "Dick" Barthelmess was an Oscar-nominated silent film star.-Early life:Barthelmess was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut...
as Captain Dick Courtney - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. KBE was an American actor and a highly decorated naval officer of World War II.-Early life:...
as Lt. Doug Scott - Neil Hamilton as Major Drake Brand
- Frank McHughFrank McHughFrancis Curray "Frank" McHugh was an American film and television actor.Born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, McHugh came from a theatrical family. His parents ran a stock theatre company and as a young child he performed on stage...
as Flaherty - Clyde Cook as Bott
- James FinlaysonJimmy FinlaysonJames Henderson "Jimmy" Finlayson was a Scottish actor who worked in both silent and sound comedies. Bald, with a fake moustache, Finlayson had many trademark comic mannerisms and is famous for his squinting, outraged, "double take and fade away" head reaction, and characteristic expression...
as Field Sergeant - Gardner James as Ralph Hollister
- William Janney as Donny Scott
- Edmund Breon as Lieutenant Phipps
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 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 engine to resemble the Nieuports. Stunt pilots included Leo Nomis, Rupert Symes Macalister, Frank Tomick and Roy Wilson. Several Thomas-Morse S-4
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....
aircraft were used in the 1930 film. The S-4 was an American built fighter plane that did not see combat in World War I. Plentiful in 1930, the S-4s were becoming rare by the time the 1938 film was produced, hence the re-use of aircraft sequences from the original film.
Preservation
The film was retitled Flight Commander for television when it finally became legal for it to be viewed once again. The original titles seemed to have become lost and these redrawn titles are on all known prints of the film.Remake
The movie was remade in 1938The Dawn Patrol (1938 film)
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...
with 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:...
replacing Barthelmess in the lead, 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...
playing Fairbanks, Jr.'s role, and 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...
in Neil Hamilton's part.
Much of the flying sequences from the 1930 film, with several of the close-ups of the fighter planes, were re-edited verbatim into the 1938 movie, so as to save expense without having to search for or build new World War I era aircraft.
Popular culture
Warner Brothers released two Looney TunesLooney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
cartoons parodying this movie. Bosko
Bosko
Bosko is an animated cartoon character created by animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. Bosko is the first recurring character in Leon Schlesinger's cartoon series, and is the star of over three dozen Looney Tunes shorts released by Warner Bros...
starred in "The Dumb Patrol" in 1931 and thirty-three years later, in 1964, Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
and Yosemite Sam
Yosemite Sam
Yosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park...
appeared in a second cartoon spoof also called "Dumb Patrol
Dumb Patrol
"Dumb Patrol" is a Looney Tunes cartoon short released 18 January 1964 starring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam with a cameo appearance by Porky Pig. This cartoon short was directed by Gerry Chiniquy, a longtime animator in Friz Freleng's unit...
".