Beyond the Line of Duty (1942) User Reviews

Texas Goes To War

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 22 April 2008]

If you remember in the Clint Eastwood film Flags Of Our Fathers the three survivors from that famous Iwo Jima photograph were taken from combat and put on a bond tour to sell war bonds and to make various other morale boosting public appearance endeavors. This film is another of those endeavors and in this case about an Army Air Force pilot.

With Ronald Reagan narrating, recent war hero Captain Hewitt T. Wheless who before the war was a young kid working on a ranch during his summers in Texas to pay for school, signs up for the Army Air Corps. The film we see is a dramatization of his story with Wheless playing himself from his days on the ranch, through his training and a description of the mission when he tangled with a squadron of Japanese planes in a running dogfight and a crash landing. He got the Distinguished Service Cross for this action.

Besides Clint Eastwood's film another things came to my mind in watching the film. First the narration of the film was taken over by President Roosevelt himself in one of his fireside chats where he describes Wheless's action. FDR did another such broadcast and that night one of his listeners was Cecil B. DeMille who heard the story of a Navy doctor named Corydon Wassell and who then proceeded to do a film version of his story with Gary Cooper.

Wheless was admittedly no actor and was probably more nervous playing himself than in combat. He was a short man and he reminded of another short Texas hero from World War II, Audie Murphy.

The film while nothing great cinematically is still a reminder of times when America really looked up to its war heroes.

Trying to improve the morale of the folks at home with this short.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 15 June 2016]

In the early days of the US involvement in WWII, things were amazingly grim. Over a period of several weeks, they not only were attacked at Pearl Harbor but lost battle after battle throughout the Pacific. Because of this, the government wanted a hero...someone who they could believe in and convince them that the war was winnable. That hero was Captain Hewitt Wheless...a man who was given the Distinguished Service Cross after somehow landing his badly battered B-17 bomber after a bombing run gone awry. In this film, Warner Brothers studio increased the public's awareness of Hewitt by featuring him in this short film about his life and military career.

The film follows Hewitt from his joining the Army Air Corps just before WWII and shows him working his way towards winning his wings. Then the film re-creates the bombing run. Now here is where things go somewhat wonky for folks like me who know WWII aircraft....and are obsessive about it. The attack is somewhat sloppy as instead of using planes that looked like the Mitsubishi Zero fighter, they used a wide variety of planes---including quite a few German Stuka dive bombers. To the non-plane enthusiast, it would be like substituting a VW Bug for a Ford Mustang...very obvious and sloppy. Still, despite the technical problems, it IS an interesting and true story and is worth seeing.

By the way, Hewitt remained in the service and eventually became the head of the Strategic Air Command.

"You think you could learn to do that Cowboy"?

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 13 February 2011]

Probably the most amazing thing about this short subject is the idea that aviators during World War II were recruited simply by responding to a radio message to come and join the cause. That's how Captain Hewitt T. Wheless answered the call, leaving life on a cattle ranch for the wild blue yonder. By the way, the fellow Wheless made the bet with was portrayed by veteran character actor Glenn Strange, who's face you've probably seen more than any other if you're a Western movie and TV fan.

The picture gives you a quick glimpse of a pilot's training and eventual assignment as a combat pilot or instructor, both valued equally in terms of contribution to the war effort. In the case of Wheless, an assignment in the Foreign Service brought him first to Honolulu, and then the Phillipines in service to his country. The mission for which Wheless earned a Distinguished Service Cross is dramatized for the viewer, one in which he was temporarily separated from his flying unit and suddenly thrust into a dogfight with eighteen Japanes Zero's. I tried to imagine what must have been going through the minds of Wheless and his crew, and was left with a stunning admiration for his achievement.

The other interesting takeaway from the clip involved the training techniques used as far back as the 1940's. There in full view were an oxygen pressure tank unit to ready the pilots for high altitude flying, and a blind flight simulator demonstration to ready the men for their combat missions.

The best part of all this is that Captain Wheless portrays himself in the short, much as war hero Audie Murphy did in the film "To Hell and Back". These shorts were very much a part of the effort during World War II, with a call to support the troops via the purchase of War Stamps and Bonds.

One of the U.S. Presidents from the 1900s . . .

[cricket30 · 7/10 · 6 February 2020]

. . . was famous for excusing his close friends from his regular bomber crew, then bailing out on the replacement guys (who were never heard from again) over the Pacific, before alleging a flimsy justification for this whole debacle wasting taxpayer dollars and--more importantly--setting back the war effort against Japan. Since this escape artist's dad was a major war profiteer (raking in huge WWII profits from BOTH SIDES!), naturally Sonny was able to launch a political career based upon his controversial hero's button. BEYOND THE LINE OF DUTY drives home the point that ACTUAL heroes (in this case, one from the malingering miscreant's own state) do NOT look, sound or behave like Hollywood "stars." REAL Men of Valor tend to be short, boring, bland and wooden in their speech. They're as incapable of showing the verbal emotion of BEYOND THE LINE OF DUTY's armchair narrator as they would be unable to snitch and rat out all of their best buddies, comrades and band of brothers to HUAC Witch Hunters. With these TRUE Heroes, it's a case of "Just the facts," as in "My tail gunner got shot in the head, my ball turret guy got crippled and one of the side gunners got a hand blown off--but the OTHER side gunner was all that we needed to beat the Enemy." There's no malarkey here about scuttling a perfectly fine airship after telling your friends on the crew to sleep in, all for the sake of launching a bogus Family Political "Dynasty."

A surprise

[evening1 · 6/10 · 19 July 2022]

This 22-minute short stars its heroic protagonist, Hewitt T. Wheless (1913-1986).

This man actually existed (see his bio in Wikipedia). We observe his call to duty after hearing FDR on the radio, training to be an Army airman, fighting his way through air and sea battles , and crash-landing back into friendly territory.

This little film is both scary and inspiring, a paean to old-fashioned values of a military that saved the world from Nazi domination. Let's never forget that our troops and vets are the reason we're here today, and they deserve a whole lot better.

Narrated by Ronald Reagan.

Swapped His Horse For A Silver Bird

[boblipton · 5/10 · 29 August 2019]

You can tell the actual fliers in this move because they speak their lines in a dull tone: Major General Harmon, who reads his own speech given to the graduates of the the Army Air Corps training program as if he has bad eyes and can't see them clearly on a blackboard, and Captain Hewitt T. "Shorty" Wheless. Well, he says "Yes, sir" well enough. Perhaps he had been practicing it.

This Warner Brothers Oscar-winning short is about Captain Wheless, his training as an Army Air Corps pilot and the details of the mission for which he won the Distinguished Service Cross, as narrated by Ronald Reagan and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I suspect it was Roosevelt who won the Academy Award, even if he participated through a transcription of one of his Fire Chats.

Excellent example of the use of short subjects during WWII to drum up support from civilians at home

[llltdesq · 8/10 · 11 April 2001]

This short, winner of an Oscar, recreates the heroic actions of an Army Air Corp crew, focusing on the pilot, Hewitt T. "Shorty" Wheliss. This was used as a pitch for war bonds and stamps. It's very well done and deservedly won. Contemporary viewers will be interested in the narrator, one Ronald Reagan. A side note: playing a cowboy is an actor named Glenn Strange, who is best known to many as Sam the bartender of the Longbranch Saloon on "Gunsmoke" and also did a turn as Frankenstein's creation, one of many to follow Boris Karloff. Turner Classic Movies runs this as filler now and again and invariably runs it in March as part of its "31 Days of Oscar" setup. Recommended.

Fine Film Of True Heroism

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 9 March 2002]

A Warner Brothers Short Subject.

Hewitt T. Wheless, a young Army Air Corps pilot, acts BEYOND THE LINE OF DUTY in returning his badly damaged Flying Fortress safely to base during the Japanese attack upon the Philippines.

Wheless, a former Texas cowboy, plays himself in this excellent little film, which was awarded the Oscar for Best Two-Reel Short Subject of 1942. Without a wasted moment or unnecessary scene, it shows how he had all the ‘right stuff' to become one of the first of America's combat heroes of World War Two.

When this Short was released in November of 1942, Captain Wheless was 29 years old. When he retired in 1968, he was the Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Lieutenant General Wheless died on September 7, 1986, at the age of 72, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, who narrated BEYOND THE LINE OF DUTY 44 years earlier.

After Pearl Harbor, Hollywood went to war totally against the Axis. Not only did many of the stars join up or do home front service, but the output of the Studios was largely turned to the war effort. The newsreels, of course, brought the latest war news into the neighborhood theater every week. The features showcased battle stories or war related themes. Even the short subjects & cartoons were used as a quick means of spreading Allied propaganda, the boosting of morale or information dissemination. Together, Uncle Sam, the American People & Hollywood proved to be an unbeatable combination.

America always enjoyed a good Tom Thumb story . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 8/10 · 8 February 2018]

. . . and BEYOND THE LINE OF DUTY may be one of the best. The main character of this war-time tale is named "Shorty." Shorty is from Texas, where everything is supposed to be big, bigger, or biggest. An early flashback during BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY shows Shorty being bullied by his fellow ranch hands. Instead of running away to join a circus, Shorty hears a radio ad for 500 job openings in the U.S. Army Air Force (as it was then called). He signs up, but is soon shown having trouble sticking his landings. Too small to work the assembly lines building B-17 "Flying Fortress" bombers, Shorty is given the job of piloting one. On his first combat mission, his plane develops engine trouble, falling way behind all the other planes in its squadron. This allows 18 Japanese "Zero" fighter planes to gang up on Shorty, killing his radioman, crippling one gunner, shooting off another's hand, and wounding the third (not to mention blowing apart 7 of 11 control cables, two engines, and all the landing gear). However, Shorty manages to stick a crash landing, so President FDR gives him a new job selling War Bonds.

"I had a date with him once . . . "

[tadpole-596-918256 · 8/10 · 27 February 2014]

. . . says a chick listening to President Franklin Roosevelt himself extolling her high school classmate Hewitt Wheless on the soda counter's radio in this Warners Bros. recruiting short from 1942. "Shorty," as Wheless was aptly nicknamed, plays himself here, taking 22 minutes to "recreate" his career from schoolboy to war hero. Since his one-time date is uncredited, it is impossible to know if she also played herself, or what base he got to. Narrated by Ronald Reagan (back in the days when he was a loyal Democrat and had not defected to the Dark Side), this film is one of Hollywood's few collaborations in which two or more past, present, or future Commanders-in-Chief knowingly participated. (Though FDR's audio is from his April 28, 1942 "Fireside Chat," he gave permission for it to be reused for this Nov. 7 release later that year.) Wheless himself rose to the rank of a three-star general, and is buried in Section 30 of Arlington National Cemetry.

Nice WWII Short

[Michael_Elliott · 11 February 2010]

Beyond the Line of Duty (1942)

*** (out of 4)

Lewis Seiler Oscar-winning short about the career of Hewitt T. Wheless, a simple man working on a ranch who got the urge to join the Air Force and he soon found himself flying important missions during WW2. There's no doubt that this film was made to inspire other young men to join the forces and help fight WW2 so the preaching that happens throughout is understandable considering what the country was going through and what the goal of this short was. Wheless actually does a pretty good job at playing himself and he comes across as a very likable guy and someone whose story is interesting enough to make for a good film. Ronald Reagan narrates this short and an interesting twist is that he was President when Wheless would die in real life. In terms of technical achievement this film doesn't offer too much but it's still very entertaining and shows us a part of history. Look quickly for Glenn Strange playing a cowboy.