In 1942, eight United States Army Air Forces fighter pilots flying P-40 fighter aircraft and a support crew defend a remote airfield under construction in New Guinea. Waves of Japanese attacks threaten the air base, and ultimately will lead to attacks on Australia. Spirits are raised when Jean Gillis (Kristine Miller), an attractive United Service Organizations entertainer flies in on a supply aircraft from Brisbane, the first of a group of five entertainers coming to do a show for the troops.
Jean gets to know the pilots and some of them tell her about their wives and sweethearts and their hopes for postwar life. Each day as they fly out, the pilots seem to be cheating death. The group has scored 100 victories without losing a man. One of the group recalls the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday, where Death takes a few days off from extinguishing lives in order to explore human nature, and wonders if it is happening to them.
During an attack on Japanese aircraft, as Jean listens to a radio monitoring their conversations , one pilot's aircraft catches fire but the flames mysteriously extinguish. Later, Jean finds a "scoreboard" detailing their missions, but when she displays it prominently, the men are uneasy. Maj. Wright (Ross Ford ), known affectionately as "Skipper," then receives a message that the rest of Jean's troupe is grounded, so she volunteers to do a solo show, after which she dances with several of the pilots.
Lt. "Mace" Willard (Arthur Franz) tells Jean that he has seen her before in an anti-war play in New York. She reveals that her husband was killed at Dunkirk. After the eight fliers host a meager dinner for Jean, the skipper and Jean go to her tent are attracted to each other. The next morning there is a "scramble" and most of the pilots take off, leaving Mace on ground control.
After Jean learns that an aircraft is coming for her that afternoon, the skipper leaves to join his pilots. They all come under heavy attack and two of them are killed. Mace joins the others in the air, but all are shot down, including the skipper, who manages to land safely. Mace is trapped by Japanese fighters and is killed as they inflict great damage on the island. The skipper and Jean reunite to face whatever the future may bring.
Several Curtiss P-40N Warhawk fighters were hired for Jungle Patrol. Other aerial sequences utilized stock footage and scale model work.[6] The film's working title was "West of Tomorrow".[4]
Reception
Jungle Patrol had its world premiere on September 24, 1948 at a national convention of the Air Force Association, held at the Hotel Commodore in New York. Reviewers commented on the film's "unusual, and economical, use of offscreen voices, heard on a radio intercom, to depict all of the battle sequences."[5]
References
Notes
^Jungle Patrol marked the film debut of actor Arthur Franz.[5]
Citations
^Hopper, Hedda. "Andrews and Wright likely for 'King's Men'." Los Angeles Times, October 21, 1948, p. B8.
