''The Fighting Lady'' is a 1944

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

(billed as a "newsdrama") directed by

Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (; March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter and curator and a pioneer of fashion photography. His gown images for the magazine ''Art et Décoration'' in 1911 were the first modern ...

, produced by the U.S. Navy and narrated by Lt. Robert Taylor USNR. It is not to be confused with the 1954 war drama '' Men of the Fighting Lady'', starring Van Johnson.

Plot

The plot of the film revolves around the life of seamen on board an anonymous aircraft carrier. Because of war time restrictions, the name of the aircraft carrier was disguised as "the Fighting Lady", although she was later identified as . ("Fighting Lady" was the known moniker of the Yorktown, just as "Lady Lex" was for Lexington, "The Big E" for Enterprise, etc...) A few shots of aircraft landing were filmed aboard the ''Yorktowns sister ship . During the filming of the movie, ''Yorktown'' was commanded by Captain (later Admiral) Joseph J. "Jocko" Clark. An uncredited

Harry Morgan Harry Morgan (born Harry Bratsberg; April 10, 1915 – December 7, 2011) was an American actor whose television and film career spanned six decades. Morgan's major roles included Pete Porter in both '' December Bride'' (1954–1959) and '' Pet ...

provides the voiceover for Clark. Frequently mentioned is the adage that war is 99% waiting. The first half or so of the film is taken up with examining the mundane details of life on board the aircraft carrier as she sails through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific Ocean, finally seeing action at Marcus Island (attacked for three days from August 31, 1943). The film provides aerial views of a series of airstrikes at Japanese bases in the Pacific theatre. Following an attack on Kwajalein in early 1944, intelligence reports that an armada of Japanese ships is massing near Truk, a major Japanese logistical base in the Carolines. The Fighting Lady and some of her task force are sent on a "hit and run" mission to neutralize it and return to Marcus, but not to attempt a landing. Once the ship returns from the massive, two-day Truk raid, it is then sent to the waters off the

Marianas The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly Volcano#Dormant and reactivated, dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean ...

and participates in the famous " Marianas Turkey Shoot". At the very end some of the servicemen who appeared in the film are reintroduced to us, and the narrator informs us that they have died in battle.

Production

The film uses

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

footage shot by "

gun camera Gun cameras are cameras mounted on a gun, used to photograph or record from its perspective. They are typically used on the weapons of military aircraft and operate either when the gun is fired or at the operator's will. Gun cameras are used for ...

s" mounted directly on aircraft guns during combat. This gives a very realistic edge to the film, while the chronological following of the ship and crew mirror the experiences of the seamen who went from green recruits through the rigours of military life, battle, and, for some, death. In his autobiography ''Baa Baa Black Sheep'', U.S. Marine Corps ace pilot Gregory "Pappy" Boyington claims that the film briefly shows the small pit in which he and five other prisoners of war took cover during the Truk raid. Boyington had been captured by the Japanese and was being transported to a prison camp on the Truk islands when the raid began. Boyington writes that the prisoners, tied and blindfolded, were thrown from their transport plane during a hurried landing, and that one of their Japanese captors saved their lives by throwing them into the pit, where they survived without harm. According to Boyington, the film also shows a crater from a two-thousand pound bomb that landed just fifteen feet from the pit. Due to her fighting heritage, and to honor all carrier sailors and airmen, the ''Yorktown'' is on permanent display at Patriots Point in Charleston, SC. Alfred Newman's musical theme originally appeared in '' Vigil in the Night'' and was reused in '' Hell and High Water'' and in many 20th Century Fox

film trailer A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

Reception and legacy

''The Fighting Lady'' won the

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Academy Honorary Award, Special Awards to ''Kukan'' and ''Target for Tonight''. The ...

at the

17th Academy Awards The 17th Academy Awards were held on March 15, 1945, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, honoring the films of 1944. This was the first time the complete awards ceremony was broadcast nationally, on the Blue Network (later ABC Radio). Bob Hope host ...

. The film was preserved by the

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of mot ...

in 2018.

References

External links

* *
''The Fighting Lady''
at the

National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fighting Lady 1944 films Edward Steichen American World War II propaganda films Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners Documentary films about military aviation Documentary films about the United States Navy Documentary films about World War II Films about the United States Navy in World War II Films scored by Alfred Newman 1940s war films American documentary films 1944 documentary films 20th Century Fox films 1940s English-language films English-language documentary films English-language war films

Plot

Production

Reception and legacy

See also

References

External links