A GUY NAMED JOE
US, 1943, 123 minutes, Black and white.
Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson, Barry Nelson, Lionel Barrymore, James Gleason, Don De Fore, Esther Williams.
Directed by Victor Fleming.
A Guy Named Joe was a prominent war propaganda film from MGM. It is set in England as well as Papua New Guinea. It is the story of pilots, the involvement in aerial combat with the Germans and with the Japanese. The bombing of explosives dumps and of ships.
The film is a star vehicle for Spencer Tracy, very genial in his early forties in the role of the crack pilot who doesn’t bow to discipline, clashes with his authorities, goes on a daring raid – and dies.
This is a ghost story. This kind of fantasy was popular in the early 1940s with Heaven Can Wait and Here Comes Mr Jordan. This time the dead act as guardian angels, the pilot coaching and directing the young recruits. The main recruit is Van Johnson, self-confident, rich, influenced by the ghost whom he does not see, becoming more daring, proposing the Dorinda (Irene Dunne), Spencer Tracy’s girlfriend. (At this stage, Irene Dunne was eighteen years older than Van Johnson.)
There is a good supporting cast including Lionel Barrymore as the God figure in the afterlife, a successful general, who gets some good speeches, especially at the end about patriotism, working as a community not as mere individuals with individualism. James Gleason is the crusty officer. Barry Nelson appears as the accompanying guardian angel, Don De Fore as Van Johnson’s buddy. There is a strong cameo by Esther Williams early in her career.
The film shows the cantankerous ghost, criticising his protégé, finally coming to realise that he needed to be selfless. Irene Dunne is charming as the officer who is in love with Spencer Tracy, grieves with his death, is urged by Ward Bond as Spencer Tracy’s buddy to go out and fall in love.
There is a final sequence, the exploding of an ammunitions dump – by Irene Dunne as a pilot, guided by Spencer Tracy.
This wartime fantasy and romance was a favourite film of Steven Spielberg. He adapted it to Firefighters in the 1970s and remade it as Always with Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter and Audrey Hepburn as an angel called Hap.
The film was directed by Victor Fleming, who directed many films in the 1930s including Red Dust, The Wizard of Oz and gaining an Oscar for Gone With the Wind. He also directed the Ingrid Bergman Joan of Arc.
1. Satisfying war propaganda, romance? The perspective of the 1940s? The experience of World War Two by the US? Later decades?
2. The re-creation of war, Americans in Europe, the United Kingdom, England and Scotland, New Guinea? The scenes of aerial combat? Danger, explosions, death?
3. The musical score, I’ll Get By, The Wide Blue Yonder…? Dorinda and her song?
4. The supernatural aspects, the popularity of these themes in the 1940s, angels, Heaven, God? The activity of the angels and their guiding those on Earth? Influencing their minds for good or evil? Training?
5. Peter and Al, good friends, Americans and their background, in the UK, their flights? Nails and his critique, cantankerous, interactions with Pete? Buddies, Dorinda and her relationship with the two men? In love with Pete? Pete, the edge to his conversation, the touch of cynicism? The daredevil? Their being transferred to Scotland, Dorinda coming, intervening, the dress and her trying it on, Pete and Dorinda dancing together?
6. Scotland, Dorinda’s visit, her sense that Pete’s number was up, the mission, the aerial bombardment, his decision to bomb the ship, his crash? His death? Dorinda and Al and their grief?
7. A military Heaven, Pete and his meeting the other dead soldier? The audience with the General? The ethos of the work, travelling with the recruits, watching them? The scenes with Spencer Tracy in the middle of the cast but their not seeing him? Persuasive ghost? His listening to Ted, urging the sister line, the reactions? Ted, transformation, chatting, dancing? Pete observing?
8. Ted and his pal, the training, flights, going to New Guinea? Ted and his being a daredevil and Pete urging him on?
9. Ted meeting Dorinda, with the other women in the bar, the kind woman dancing with him? His good deed in getting the mother to call her lonely son? Dorinda going out, Al urging her on, change of dress, attractive, Pete and his reaction to what she was doing? Disbelief?
10. Ted, the daring flight, Pete’s comment, Dorinda’s reaction, Nails praising him and giving him a new mission?
11. The proposal, Dorinda saying yes, her changing her mind, the reasons, the effect on Ted? The mission, its danger, Dorinda intervening, going on the flight, Pete with her, the bombardment, his guiding her, the success?
12. Pete going in to see the General, their talk, patriotism, working with the group, not self-centred and individualist, Pete and his relenting? Wishing Ted and Dorinda well?
13. The happy ending, the acceptance of death, the guardians, missions, doing good? Themes of grief, life going on, hopes? In the context of World War Two and 1943?
