Title: Aerial Gunner
Year: 1943
Genres: Action; War; Drama
Director: William A. Berke

Cast:

• Chester Morris as Major “Buster” Barnes
• Preston Foster as Captain Bob Brandon
• Robert Mitchum as Lieutenant Jack Dolby
• Marshall Thompson as Private Bill Thorne
• Dorothy Lovett as Ellen Wayland
• Arthur Loft as Colonel Clifford Bowman
• Jimmy Lydon as Sergeant Benson

Synopsis:

When WWII intensifies, hardened ace Major Barnes is assigned to train fresh recruits as aerial gunners for B-17 bombers. Among his students are the cocky Jack Dolby and the inexperienced Bill Thorne. As they undergo grueling instruction—ball-turret drills, gunnery simulations, live-fire exercises—Barnes remains a tough taskmaster, determined to whip them into a cohesive crew. Personal rivalries and fears flare, but a sudden combat mission forces Dolby and Thorne to rely on Barnes’s lessons. Under intense enemy fire at 25,000 feet, they demonstrate courage and teamwork, earning Barnes’s respect and proving the value of rigorous training.

Trivia:

• Features one of Robert Mitchum’s earliest substantial screen roles, filmed just before his breakout in Undertow (1943).
• Produced by Pine-Thomas Productions in cooperation with the U.S. Army Air Forces, using genuine training footage and equipment.
• Most aerial sequences were shot on a decommissioned B-17 Flying Fortress fitted with camera mounts.
• The film was reissued post-war to honor returning air crews and boost war-bond drives.