Flight For Freedom (1943)

In the 1930s, an aviatrix (Rosalind Russell) fights discrimination against women pilots including a famous male pilot (Fred MacMurray). Yet they find themselves attracted to each other. But he doesn't seem to be interested in marriage. Directed by Lothar Mendes (THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES). The movie is an obvious roman a clef on the legendary Amelia Earhart. The romance at the movie's core is lame (the real Earhart was a married woman) and the film's ending is an insult to her memory (it suggests suicide). The cast is not be faulted, they do as well as can be expected considering the material and Mendes' direction is adequate. But when you have material as poor as this, there's nowhere to go. Most of the movie concentrates on the romantic triangle between Russell, MacMurray and Herbert Marshall before moving into the theorizing that (like Earhart), Russell's last flight was a secret mission for the U.S. government. And while I understand that the film was made in the midst of WWII, the film's depiction of the Japanese characters as sneaky and deceitful is offensive. With Herbert Marshall, Eduardo Ciannelli and Richard Loo.