Task Force (1949)

Told by way of a retrospective on the career of "Adm. Scott" (Gary Cooper) this is quite an interesting story of the evolution of the aircraft carrier and the training and development of naval piloting skills dating back to the 1920s - when the ships looked little more stable than upturned irons, and a fair degree of the pilots were injured or worse as they tried to land amidst a pitching sea with crosswinds galore. The aerial photography is superb, giving us quite an insight into the perils of trying to land a flimsily built aircraft on a 65 foot long object, in the middle of the sea. That's the interesting bit. The acting is really neither here nor there. Cooper has a glint in his eye at the start but becomes way too earnest as he rises through the ranks and has to strive to establish his vision of carrier-based naval air squadrons. He has a few helpers en route - an oddly wooden Walter Brennan in a much straighter role that we are used to seeing him in, and to be honest - he isn't a natural. Wayne Morris and Jane Wyatt make up the numbers but this film is really about the history of maritime aviation. The drama is very much secondary and aside from the last fifteen minutes, it might as well be a (good) documentary with some familiar faces presenting it