DESPERATE JOURNEY
US, 1942, 108 minutes, Black and white.
Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Nancy Coleman, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Sig Ruman.
Directed by Raoul Walsh.
Desperate Journey is one of several films about World War Two which featured Errol Flynn – and the comment at the time that it was Errol Flynn winning the war (later used about John Wayne). Desperate Journey goes along with Edge of Darkness, Northern Pursuit and Objective, Burma as Errol Flynn’s war films. He is his usual self, the touch of the debonair, actually playing an Australian pilot. His co-star is Ronald Reagan, giving a rather relaxed performance with comic touches. Nancy Coleman who also appeared in Edge of Darkness is a German woman who helps on the escape. In the party are Alan Hale, a regular in Warner Bros films at this period, Arthur Kennedy at the beginning of his career. Raymond Massey is the German officer who loses the group and pursues them across Germany.
The film was directed by Raoul Walsh, a veteran of all kinds of action films.
While the episodes may seem farfetched and comparatively easy for the group on their desperate journey, nevertheless the action is well paced, the incidents interesting and exciting, and it stands up rather better than many of the war propaganda films.
1. The Hollywood war effort? This film early in the war? Patriotism? Supporting the war effort?
2. Errol Flynn, his status at Warner Bros, his list of films to this point, his 40s films and participation in war action? A debonair hero? The comparison with Ronald Reagan, his career, starring roles, the American in the war?
3. The strong cast, Nancy Coleman as the German helper, Alan Hale and Arthur Kennedy as part of the group, Raymond Massey as the heavy?
4. The situation in Britain, the air force? The flights, the personnel, the difficulties? The authorities, the maps and plans? An authentic feel about the air bases in England? The missions to Germany?
5. Errol Flynn as Terry Forbes, the Australian background, his skills? Going out on the mission? His friendship with Johnny Hammond, Ronald Reagan’s relaxed style? The American tone? Kirk Edwards, his joking nature, his spitting at people? A support? Jed Forrest as the accountant, his letter-of-the-law approach? His having to concede to Terry’s leadership? Lloyd Hollis, the young man, the reputation of his father during World War One?
6. The mission, the length of the flight, the plans? The cloud cover? Terry and his going down steeply on the target? The dropping of the bombs? The crash landing in the forest? The escape?
7. The final arrest? Hollis being wounded? Their being taken to the authorities?
8. Raymond Massey as the major? The Germanic style? The interrogations? The defiance of the group? Johnny Hammond and the indication that he was collaborating, his gobbledygook in explaining engineering to the major? The relaxed atmosphere, Hammond turning the tables, attacking the major, the escape?
9. The desperate journey, going through Germany, by foot, by train? The bombs, the bridges? Hiding? The help along the way? The friends in Germany, the young woman, the doctor, his trying to help Hollis? Hollis’s death? The journey to Hamburg? Being welcomed – and then betrayed? The shootout? Kirk Edwards and his giving his life for the others? The stealing of the plane, the derring-do? Flying back to England, contact with headquarters, the return?
10. The major, his officials, the pursuit, getting closer, but missing the group all the time? His relentlessness?
11. An early picture of the war? In fact, an indication of many of the episodes that were to come, with America’s entry into the war? This film in 1942 – and the many films over the next fifteen years or more recreating war episodes?
