Search - Flying Tigers on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1942 DVD Release: 05/16/2000 Format: DVD - Black and White - Closed Captioned Edition: Special Collection Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 41 mins Studio: Republic Pictures Members Wishing: 0 Genres: War, War Drama, Combat Films

The Flying Tigers were a group of American volunteer aviators, flying against the Japanese on behalf of General Claire Chennault and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek in the months just prior to World War II. John Wayne is the most responsible of the bunch, and John Carroll the least. It's bad enough that Carroll tries to beat Wayne's time with pretty Red Cross nurse Anna Lee; but when Carroll's negligence results in the death of veteran-flyer Paul Kelly, the man becomes a pariah to the rest of the pilots. Unable to serve in World War II due to health reasons, John Wayne spent the duration licking the Japanese and the Germans in front of a Republic Studios process screen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Wayne - Jim Gordon
John Carroll - Woody Jason
Anna Lee - Brooke Elliott
Paul Kelly - Hap Davis
Mae Clarke - Verna Bales
Gordon Jones - Alabama Smith

Flying Tigers was John Wayne's first World War II movie, and his and Republic Pictures' most successful movie of the first half of the 1940s -- it comes to DVD in a decent if unexceptional edition, comparable to the laserdisc version and benefiting from the superiority of the DVD format. Actually, for those who have never owned the movie in a home viewing format, the DVD may prove an enlightening experience on several counts, as the film was only available to television for most of the '80s and early '90s in a colorized version that also had some slight cuts in it. And even before that, the movie was usually cut in broadcast to slide its 101 minutes into a 120-minute commercial time slot. The movie shows its age, in terms of the condition of the source print, which is clean but hardly immaculate. There are the usual small blemishes, not enough to distract, and the contrast is good, though the focus is a little soft in many shots. There are some minor digital anomalies as well, but none of this is grounds for not recommending the disc; people should just not expect something that looks as good as, say, Warner Bros.' DVD of Bataan. The volume is a little low but the audio is very clean, sufficient enough to make this a good disc to play over a speaker system (for a film of its age). Victor Young's score, a heavily Oriental-flavored creation (sort of faux Miklos Rozsa), comes through with good fidelity as well. The movie is encoded in a very generous 31 chapters, and there is also a surprisingly in-depth supplementary section, containing biographies of more than half a dozen cast and crew members, complete with filmographies. The biography on director David Miller does fail to mention what is probably his most well-remembered movie, Lonely Are the Brave, but otherwise this is a very solid effort through and through, despite the limitations of the source material and the transfer. The menu opens automatically on start-up after a short plug for Artisan Entertainment and is easy to maneuver around at each selection level. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide