Wing and a Prayer (1944)

No Quote for this film.

Erskine Caldwell and Norman Reilly Raine were the screenwriters of the early period when it was known as "Torpedo Squadron 8" and was going to be an historically factual and biographical account of Torpedo Squadron 8 and Ensign George Gay. However, the studio changed the picture's direction to a more fictionalized account. As such, it is not known to what extent their work on this movie remained in the final shooting script.
During the Battle of Midway, all the flyboys of Torpedo Squadron 8 were killed except for Ensign George Gay. This film's original intention was to depict their lives, especially Gay's. The Twentieth Century-Fox studio bought the rights to a 'Life' magazine story by Sidney L. James on the Battle of Midway as well as obtaining permission from both Ensign Gay and the United States Navy to film the story. The 23 September 1942 edition of the 'Hollywood Reporter' stated that "The Navy has relented in its stand against the use of the names of war heroes in film dramatizing their deeds and will not stand in the way provided the permission of the hero is obtained and the story content is satisfactory." However, the studio decided to produce a fictionalized telling of the Battle of Midway. The 'New York Times' of 6 February 1944 reported that the film script about Ensign Gay and Torpedo Squadron 8 was "entirely discarded" after "the protest of a certain high Government official that the proposed picture would carry a defeatist implication."
This movie had two working titles: 'Queen of the Flat Tops' and 'Torpedo Squadron 8'. The film's complete title actually features a subtitle: 'The Story of Carrier X'.
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