The Dawn Patrol (1938 film)

Not to be confused with The Dawn Patrol (1930 film) or Dawn Patrol (2014 film).
The Dawn Patrol
1938 US Theatrical Poster
Directed byEdmund Goulding
Written byJohn Monk Saunders (story)
Seton I. Miller
Dan Totheroh
Produced byJack L. Warner (executive producer)
Hal B. Wallis (executive producer)
Robert Lord (associate producer)
StarringErrol Flynn
Basil Rathbone
David Niven
CinematographyTony Gaudio
Edited byRalph Dawson
Music byMax Steiner
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • December 24, 1938 (1938-12-24)
Running time
103 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$500,000[1][2]
Box office$2,185,000[2]

The Dawn Patrol is a 1938 American war film, a remake of the pre-Code 1930 film of the same title. Both were based on the short story "The Flight Commander" by John Monk Saunders,[3] an American writer said to have been haunted by his inability to get into combat as a flyer with the U.S. Air Service.[4]

The film, directed by Edmund Goulding, stars Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone and David Niven as Royal Flying Corps fighter pilots in World War I. Of the several films that Flynn and Rathbone appeared in together, it is the only one in which their characters are on the same side. Although sparring, as in their other roles, their characters are fast friends and comrades in danger.[5]

The Dawn Patrol's story romanticizes many aspects of the World War I aviation experience that have since become clichés: white scarves, hard-drinking fatalism by doomed pilots, chivalry in the air between combatants, the short life expectancy of new pilots, and the legend of the "Red Baron".[6] However, The Dawn Patrol also has a deeper and more timeless theme in the severe emotional scars suffered by military commander who must constantly order men to their deaths (not a single woman appears in the film).[7][8] This theme underlies every scene in The Dawn Patrol.[9]

  1. ^ Glancy, H. Mark. "Warner Bros film grosses, 1921–51." Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, March 1995.
  2. ^ a b Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 19 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  3. ^ "Notes: The Dawn Patrol (1938)." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: October 5, 2022
  4. ^ Finnie, Moira."John Monk Saunders: Something in the Air." Skeins of Thought, 2004. Retrieved: April 2, 2009.
  5. ^ Vagg, Stephen (November 10, 2019). "The Films of Errol Flynn: Part 2 The Golden Years". Filmink.
  6. ^ Twatio, Bill. "Gallantry, glory & waste: war movies of the 1930s." Esprit de Corps, Volume 12, June 2004. Retrieved: April 1, 2009.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kennedy p. 175 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Hammond, Michael (December 2019). The Great War in Hollywood Memory, 1918-1939. SUNY Press. ISBN 9781438476971.
  9. ^ Howard, Ed. "The Dawn Patrol." Only the Cinema, 2009. Retrieved: April 2, 2009.