“AERIAL GUNNER”

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 36, 6 November 1943, Page 6

“AERIAL GUNNER”

Hollywood lias done honour to almost every -person .who has fought in the war, and has now come round to that indispensable and little-mentioned fellow, the aerial gunner. In the film of the same name (De (Luxe) we are treated to scenes of the man hard at work swatting Stukas and Zeros —no mean task. In "Aerial Gunner” two old favourites, Chester Morris and Richard Arlen, are gunners with "chips on their shoulders.” To complicate matters, they’-re also pitted against each other in a contest for the beautiful heroine—in this case a newcomer by the name of Lita Ward. Much of the action of the film takes places in a gunnery school where Morris, as Arlen’s instructor, makes tilings 'hot for him. In t a scene that strikes near home, Richard Arlen s ■bomber, wounded in an air combat with Zeros, makes a forced landing near a Japanese scouting party on one of the myriad' South Pacific islands. Chester Morris, with the aid of the übiquitous tommy-gun, holds off a 'band of Japanese and permits 'the plane to 'be got off tne ground. The gunnery roles suit Morris and Arlen to perfection. A name it -was pleasing to see in “Secrets of the Underground.” the second film—a name that always moans a piece of good acting—was that of Miles Marnier, who once lived in New Zealand. This time : lie is cast as a famous French painter who is forced to carry out some. dlntv work for the usual gang of fifth columnists. Others in the cast include John -Hubbard, Virginia Grey and Lloyd Corrigan'.