I am a real sucker for some of the old Republic films--particularly the wartime films. Yes, I know they are NOT artistic masterpieces and the movies of course take advantage of many cinema clichés BUT they also deliver wonderful, if somewhat low-brow, entertainment.

Despite John Wayne being billed as the lead, he is in fact somewhat of a background figure during much of the movie. Instead, the main focus seems to be on the incredibly glib and cocky John Carrol. He's a jerk and he's terribly selfish but boy can he fly. And, Wayne, being an old pal of Carrol's knows that down deep Carrol will prove himself in the end.

Along the way, we are treated to a liberal dose of the nobility of our Chinese comrades in arms as well as the inherent decency of our volunteer pilots. While all basically true, it has all the expected touches of a WWII American propaganda film. For me, that's not really a bad thing, as this film and others like it succeed in being great entertainment. In fact, because of this, I have seen this film several times. It's not exactly deep or sophisticated, but sometimes we NEED a film we can just enjoy and not think too deeply about.

FLYING TIGERS is one of those American war movies that came out while WW2 was still in full swing. I always find such pictures have a little more dramatism to them, a little more urgency in depicting a battle against a nefarious and overwhelming enemy. This film's milieu is a little different, chronicling as it does the adventures of a group of voluntary American pilots battling the Japanese in the skies over China just before Pearl Harbor.

The film is low budget but effective and the lack of real plane interiors and the like is well disguised by the director's efforts. I suppose you could argue that all of these pilot films are quite similar and they are, but it's the human drama that makes them watchable. Most characters here play simply in support but John Wayne does his usual macho man stuff very well. The real star of the piece is John Carroll playing the brash young ace who undergoes an intriguing character arc and is far more complex than the trappings of the genre would have you assume. The ending is dramatic and thrilling in equal measure.

" . . . because Hap paid the check," Jim says to his girl and the guy who just paved the way for Japan's successful sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Surprisingly, some FLYING TIGERS viewers haven't put two and two together. They think they're watching a simple war flick, not realizing that this John Wayne vehicle actually is a film noir outing featuring Brooke, the deadliest Femme Fatale in recorded human history. It's clear that Jim's night patrol just before midnight, Dec. 6, 1941, was perfectly positioned to give the U.S. Pacific Fleet a heads up on TORA! TORA! TORA! But hot-to-trot Brooke lures key pilot Woody from his duty station for a night on the town, since Woody is much better looking than Wayne's Jim, her stodgy steady. As a result, visually impaired Hap dies in Woody's place, and Jim's assigned mission is cut short before it can blow the whistle on PEARL HARBOR. As John Wayne stares into the distance while socialist president FDR drones on from the radio about "Days of Infamy," you can tell that he's thinking "Some day my grandchild will drive a Lexus." FLYING TIGERS is a cynical look at war profiteering and mercenaries from beginning to end. Despite its opening on-screen tribute to "Chiang Kai-Shek," viewers soon see that Jim is musing "Just wait till my buddy Ronnie Reagan sells your world council seat to the Commies."