Air Force (film)

Air Force
Theatrical release half-sheet display poster
Directed by	Howard Hawks
Written by	Dudley Nichols
Produced by	Hal B. Wallis Jack L. Warner (executive producer)
Starring	John Garfield John Ridgely Gig Young Arthur Kennedy Harry Carey
Cinematography	James Wong Howe Elmer Dyer (Aerial) Charles A. Marshall (Aerial)
Edited by	George Amy
Music by	Franz Waxman
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	February 3, 1943 (1943-02-03)
Running time	124 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2,646,000[1][2]
Box office	$2.7 million (US rentals)[3] $4,129,000 (total)[1]

Air Force is a 1943 American World War II aviation film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Garfield, John Ridgely, Gig Young, Arthur Kennedy, and Harry Carey. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. and produced by Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner. It contains incidents of supposed fifth-column activities by Japanese Americans that never happened. (See Historical inaccuracies below.) Conceived by then - Lieutenant General “Hap” Arnold (Commanding General of US Army Air Forces) in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack, it was originally scheduled for release on December 7, 1942, on the first anniversary. It became impossible to meet that deadline, and it premiered in New York City on February 3, 1943 and was released on March 20.^[4] The film's storyline revolves around an actual event that occurred on December 7, 1941. An aircrew ferries an unarmed 1940 series Boeing B-17D Flying Fortress heavy bomber, named the Mary-Ann, across the Pacific to the United States Army Air Forces base at Hickam Field. They fly right into the middle of the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor and the beginning of America's major involvement in the Second World War. An uncredited William Faulkner wrote the emotional deathbed scene for Ridgely, who played the commander and pilot of the Mary-Ann.