Flat Top

original title:
Flat Top
other titles:
(Sturmgeschwader Komet), Eagles of the Fleet
country / year of production:
USA / 1952
original length:
85 min. , color
premiere:
26 October 1952
genre:
action
based on:
director:
Lesley Selander
film script:
Steve Fisher
producer:
Walter Mirisch
cinematographer:
Harry Neumann
editor:
William Austin
composer:
Marlin Skiles
cast (role):
Sterling Hayden (Dan Collier) , Richard Carlson (Lieutenant (j.g.) Joe Rodgers) , William Phipps (Red Kelley) , John Bromfield (Ensign Snakehips McKay) , Keith Larsen (Ensign Barney Smith) , Sterling Hayden , Richard Carlson , William Phipps , John Bromfield , Keith Larsen
more:
plot synopsis:
Dan Collier is flight commander of a group of Navy pilots aboard the aircraft carrier USS Princeton, which is travalling through the Pacific in 1944 in order to join the main fleet and supports MacArthur`s return to the Philippines.
As the new pilots land, Collier observes one man bringing in his plane despite being flagged off. Colliers grounds this man indefinitely and therefore clashes with Joe Rodgers, the easy-going commander of a rival air group on board the carrier who believes in treating his men affectionately, never pushing them too far.
As both groups have to fight off Japanes air attacks it turns out that Collier`s method proves more sucessful. His men might hate him for stickling on rules and his perfectionalism but in the end they realize he was right. After several combat flights, Rodgers too realizes that Collier was right and admits this, whereupon he is told that he has been promoted to flight commander.
keywords:
aircraft carrier , navy , pilot , air raid
war:
Second World War (1939-1945)
literature:
remarks:
Producer Mirisch decided to use old combat footage instead of re-enacting the battle sequences with miniatures.

"Flat Top" has plenty of actual combat scenes intercut with the fiction, and many of the carrier's real personnel appear in the film. Oscar nominated for Best Editing.
The film was made with generous support by the Navy which at the time was trying to gain some ground in the interservice debate over whether air craft carriers or intercontinental bombers were more appropriate to the defense of the US.
availability:
VHS NTSC, DVD