During WWII, when an allied bomber is shot down over Germany, the five surviving crew are captured but cleverly escape detention after learning German secret information and knocking out a Nazi major. With the angry major in hot pursuit, aided by military personnel, Gestapo agents and Hitler-loyal citizens, the five wend their way across perilous Germany, intent on reaching the UK with the secrets they have learned.
Sabotage à Berlin, Sabotageauftrag Berlin, L'avventura impossibile, Jornada desesperada, Ηρωική Εξόρμησις, Отчаянное путешествие, Osudová cesta, Aventuras de los comandos, Jornada Trágica, Un viatge temerari, 血路, Fugitivos do Inferno
USA
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
USA
New York City, New York
USANR
PortugalM/12
Portugal
USA
it's so bizarre to watch a young ronald reagan and realize that he was at one point considered a serious movie star. the arch-deco absurdism of the warners war film becomes national policy in the white house -- every american president after nixon has been either a performer or a tycoon, reality receding into the studio backlot. reagan went from fighting fictional nazis in the 1940s to placing floral wreathes on their real graves in the 1980s; i doubt he ever stopped acting.
”The iron fist has a glass jaw”
When an allied bomber is shot down over Germany the surviving crew, including Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan, start rampaging their way through occupied Europe trying to get back home while still taking the time to give the Nazi’s all kinds of hell along the way.
Leave it to Raoul Walsh to create a World War II film right in the midst of World War II that somehow manages to have all the energy and attitude of an 80’s action movie.
Viewer results may vary, but this was so tonally different than every other movie I’ve seen from this era that it totally sucked me in. And I was completely fascinated by the…
At a time when President Joe Biden is having to fight to prove he's fit enough to lead the most powerful nation on Earth, it was ironic that I'd stumble across this WWII film that starred another President in the prime of his acting career. Ronald Reagan may have played second fiddle here to the Tasmanian Devil Errol Flynn, but it had me reminiscing about an 80's television series here in the UK that properly took the piss out of Reagan's fitness to lead the US. Spitting Image portrayed Reagan as a bumbling, nuke obsessed, buffoon, and had him chasing Margaret Thatcher as some sort of upper-crust English totty. The satirical television puppet show didn't pull its punches, especially with…
Release date: September 26, 1942
Pure hokum , with scooby-doo action as those favorite good guys, Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan outsmart the stupid Nazis.
This story and the hackneyed dialogue could hypothetically be about four Yale students sneaking into Harvard , stealing the football playbook, escaping with the Deans car that they borrowed, then they outsmart the Harvard Sheriff and make it back before the big game.
Now swap in Nazis instead of Harvard, and that is this film…. But this was filmed in 1942, and the general public needed happy hokum with happy endings.
So lots of fun, as the good guys throw some punches and knockout a few Nazis and sneak back to jolly old England.
A non-stop men behind enemy lines film from the exact classic director you want helming this kind of picture: Raoul Walsh. Extremely solid core cast of Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale, Arthur Kennedy with Raymond Massey as the obsessed Nazi commander chasing them.
The tone is all over the place, feels more like a "the zany adventures of Errol Flynn behind enemy lines! watch as he kills and fools Nazis who may as well not have brains!" Maybe zany is a little too extreme, but it's very lighthearted in parts and plays for laughs in a lot of situations. As long as you can sync up with the strange tone and you like men on a mission films then it's a great time! Not a lost classic but definitely a hidden gem.
More Errol Flynn Adventure Time with this gung-ho, two-fisted WWII action film about a downed Allied bomber crew who fight their way out of Germany with guns, physical prowess, and sheer wit, to carry critical intelligence back to Blighty.
Raoul Walsh directs a not-yet totally debauched Flynn paired up with his evergreen onscreen pal, Alan Hale Sr., and young Ronnie Raygun. The pace never lets up for a second as they're chased across Hitlerland by an increasingly frustrated Nazi Major (Raymond Massey sporting an excellent command auf Deutsch). Walsh intersperses witty dialogue, especially with the scene of Reagan bamboozling the Major with rapid-fire retro-technobabble, and some humorous spitball action courtesy of Hale with the gritty action scenes, but never lets…
In a 1963 roundtable for "Cahiers," while reassessing AMerican cinema, Jacques Rivette observed "Generally speaking, it's the ambitious films you feel appallingly let down by, and the frankly commercial films you're very happily surprised by." Truffaut responds, "That's absolutely right. 'Desperate Jurney,' which was shown again on television, is tremendous." He's right.
Really enjoyed this 1942 war film directed by Raoul Walsh with performances by Errol Flynn, Arthur Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Alan Hale. Hale provides comedic relief, as a bomber crew goes on a solitary mission over Germany to knock out a strategic target. Misfortune ensues, and the team must find a way back home by crossing back through enemy territory. This film has everything, escapes, boat rides, train rides, car chases, intrigue, suspense, and action. Especially notable is Ronald Reagan double-talking a Nazi. The opening scene shows spy intelligence being shared via carrier pigeon, showing that every means was used to gather intelligence against the enemy. Fairly good pacing as the movie moves along in a spirited manner.
Me when I started up this movie: "Okay, fine, lesser-known probably middling Errol Flynn war movie, should be an okay diversion."
Me the whole time I was watching this movie: "THIS IS AWESOME WHY DOES NO ONE TALK ABOUT THIS MOVIE."
This movie has everything. Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale, Raymond Massey, Arthur Kennedy, and some others are on a one-bomber RAF mission to take out a railyard in eastern Germany, almost to the Polish border. They get shot down, and then have to make their across just about the whole of Germany (including the middle of Berlin) to get safely back to England, doing what damage they can along the way.
There's aerial battles, a plane crash, capture,…
A popcorn action-adventure war movie made early in the US entry into WWII. Warners let Errol be Errol, playing a jovial, risk-taking Aussie, this time in uniform(s)! He and his gang of flyers find themselves behind enemy lines, and make their way across Germany out-smarting those dumb Nazis. Much of it is far-fetched, but it’s good fun and ably directed by Raoul Walsh.
Entertaining WW2 film made during WW2 to be entertaining.
In this rollicking adjective action adventure the crew of an Allied bomber shot down in National Socialist Germany gets into precarious situations one after another. Is it realistic? No, it isn't and it wasn't written to be. It does have its merits, though:
Nancy Coleman plays is serious and is captivating in several scenes. Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan have their moments, too, but tack back and forth between being serious soldiers and adventurers.
There's a fine, very unexpected, twist in the middle to the 2nd half of this. Allan Hale puts in a respectable performance, too.
Adding the period atmosphere of this movie, most of the Germans only speak German…
