Bombardier Reviews

Chick Davis (Pat O'Brien) and Buck Oliver (Randolph Scott) are officers at a bombardier training school, each arguing his own methods of hitting targets. Buck believes that dive-bombing with skilled pilots is the best means; Chick argues for precision bombing and the use of a new bombsight, the "Golden Goose." Chick and Buck agree to a bombing showdown for the top brass, and when Chick's methods prove most effective, a group of cadets are trained in precision bombing. Complicating matters is Burt Hughes (Anne Shirley), who has turned over her father's bombing school to the government as a training grounds. Naturally, neither Chick nor Buck can keep his eyes off of the comely Burt. Oddly, the action is kept mostly on the ground, with the movie proceeding like a training film for a bombardier school, building up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Interesting mostly as an artifact of a nation at war, the blatantly propagandistic BOMBADIER was begun before Pearl Harbor and underwent several revisions over the next couple of years, finally appearing three years after production commenced. O'Brien's Chick Davis reminds us that "the three greatest things in a bombardier's existence are: hit the target, hit the target, hit the target." The film earned an Oscar nomination for its special effects.