Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

My Review

Spencer Tracy heads an all-star cast in “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo,” the story of America’s first response to Japan’s Pearl Harbor bombing four months earlier in December, 1941. Director Mervyn LeRoy (“Madam Curie” 1943) ensured outstanding production values from an excellent screenplay by Dalton Trumbo. It was adapted from the 1943 novel of the same name by Ted W. Lawson and Robert Considine.

The cast includes Spencer Tracy, Van Johnson, Robert Walker, Don DeFore, Phyliss Thaxter, Stephen McNally, Robert Mitchum, Leon Ames, Benson Fong, Alan Napier, Steve Brodie, John Dehner, and Blake Edwards. “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” was the fourth highest grossing film of 1944 for producer Sam Zimbalist and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It won one Academy Award for Special Effects, and one other nomination for Best Cinematography (Robert Surtees, Harold Rosson).