Thirty Seconds over Tokyo 06/30/26

One of the best combat films of World War II is this MGM ode to the 1942 Dolittle Raid, the strike at the mainland of Japan conducted as a needed morale booster in the early months of hostilities. Some Hollywood films were an outlet for public outrage against the enemy; Dalton Trumbo’s screenplay records honest sentiments and attitudes on what was essentially a suicide mission. Arnold Gillespie’s special effects deliver realistic visual illusions, some so good that audiences wondered if they could be real. It’s possibly Van Johnson’s best movie, with Spencer Tracy offering a moral argument for ‘symbolic’ revenge. Cast members Phyllis Thaxter and Robert Mitchum deliver Dalton Trumbo’s secondary message of hopes and dreams for a better future. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
06/30/26