''Canal Zone'' is a 1942 American

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

adventure film An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, an ...

starring

Chester Morris John Chester Brooks Morris (February 16, 1901 – September 11, 1970) was an American stage, film, television, and radio actor. He had some prestigious film roles early in his career, and received an Academy Award nomination for ''Alibi'' ( ...

and

Forrest Tucker Forrest Meredith Tucker (February 12, 1919 – October 25, 1986) was an American actor in both movies and television who appeared in nearly a hundred films. Tucker worked as a vaudeville straight man at the age of fifteen. A mentor provided fund ...

. The action takes place in the

Panama Canal Zone The Panama Canal Zone ( es, Zona del Canal de Panamá), also simply known as the Canal Zone, was an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the Isthmus of Panama, that existed from 1903 to 1979. It was located within the terr ...

and revolves around aviators in an out-of-the-way air base flying U.S. Army bombers.

Plot

Ginger Bar, a former banana-shipping station on the outskirts of the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...

, had been converted to a training-and-relay station for the

U. S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. The Commander Merrill (

Stanley Andrews Stanley Andrews (born Stanley Martin Andrzejewski; August 28, 1891 – June 23, 1969) was an American actor perhaps best known as the voice of Daddy Warbucks on the radio program ''Little Orphan Annie'' and later as "The Old Ranger", the first ...

), an ex-service flier, is in charge of the station It is his job to train civilian airmen to handle bombers, transforming them into pilots of the "flying fortresses. They will fly bombers to Africa and back for further training. As one of a new group of pilot, the conceited, reckless society playboy, Harley Ames ( John Hubbard), arrives at Ginger Bar. The others include Kincaid (

Larry Parks Samuel Lawrence Klausman Parks (December 13, 1914 – April 13, 1975) was an American stage and film actor. His career arced from bit player and supporting roles to top billing, before it was virtually ended when he admitted to having once been ...

), from Alabama, Madigan (

), an ex- marine; Hughes, a former player with the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

and Baldwin (

Lloyd Bridges Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr. (January 15, 1913 – March 10, 1998) was an American film, stage and television actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. He was the father of four children, includi ...

), a former insurance agent who trained with the

Civil Aeronautics Board The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) was an agency of the federal government of the United States, formed in 1938 and abolished in 1985, that regulated aviation services including scheduled passenger airline serviceStringer, David H."Non-Skeds: Th ...

. Although he is a capable pilot, Ames immediately incurs the animosity of the training-officer, "Hardtack" Hamilton (

). Not only is Ames reckless, he is also making a play for Susan Merril ( Harriet Hilliard), the Commanding Officer's daughter with whom "Tack" is in love. Because of a broken date by Susan, Ames gets drunk and, the next day, crashes his aircraft on combat training crashing his aircraft into Kincaid's, killing his friend. Now, he must redeem himself. He will get a chance when "Tack" and another pilot have a crash in the jungle. Ames, knowing that Susan is in love with Tack, takes off without orders He locates Tack in the jungle and brings him safely home to Susan. When the squadron takes off again, Ames leaves for Africa, declaring that he intends to find a little excitement there.

Cast

as "Hardtack" Hamilton * Harriet Hilliard as Susan Merrill * John Hubbard as Harley Ames *

as Kincaid *

as Madigan *

Eddie Laughton Eddie Laughton (20 June 190321 March 1952) was an American film actor. Laughton appeared in more than 200 films between 1935 and 1952, and is best known for his work with The Three Stooges. Career Laughton's family immigrated to the United State ...

as Hughes *

as Baldwin * George McKay as MacNamara *

as Commander Merrill * John Tyrrell as "Red" Connors * Stanley Brown as Jones * John Shay as Henshaw * Paul Phillips as Bailey *

Arthur O'Connell Arthur Joseph O'Connell (March 29, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an American stage, film and television actor, who achieved prominence in character roles in the 1950s. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for both ''Pic ...

as Fledgling *

Hugh Beaumont Eugene Hugh Beaumont (February 16, 1909 – May 14, 1982) was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Ward Cleaver on the television series '' Leave It to Beaver'', originally broadcast from 1957 to 1963; and as private detec ...

as Radio operator * Betty Roadman as Pearl *

Louis Jean Heydt Louis Jean Heydt (April 17, 1903 – January 29, 1960) was an American character actor in film, television and theatre, most frequently seen in hapless, ineffectual, or fall guy roles. Early life Heydt was born in 1903 (not 1905, as many sour ...

as Ralph Merrill *

James Kahn James Kahn (born December 30, 1947) is an American medical specialist and writer, best known for his novelization of ''Return of the Jedi''. Born in Chicago, Kahn received a degree in medical studies from the University of Chicago. His post-gra ...

as Monkey vendor

Production

''Canal Zone'' was based on the short story "Heroes Come High" by Blaine Miller and Jean Dupont Miller in American Magazine (February 1937).

Reception

Theodore Stauss, film reviewer for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', thought ''Canal Zone'' "silly", writing: "The characters of their Central American relay and training station are too silly to find their bearings in a third-rate drama, much less in the air. Though there is some highfalutin' talk about destiny and 'kicking the sky around,' the story of "Canal Zone" never gets its wheels off the ground." Aviation film historian James H. Farmer, dismissed the film as "(a) fourth-rate B film." In ''Aviation in the Cinema'', aviation film historian Stephen Pendo considered ''Canal Zone'', "... a cliché ridden effort."Pendo 1985, p. 21.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Farmer, James H. ''Celluloid Wings: The Impact of Movies on Aviation''. Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: Tab Books Inc., 1984. . * Pendo, Stephen. ''Aviation in the Cinema''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. .

External links

*
''Canal Zone''
at

TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...

{{Lew Landers 1942 films American aviation films American adventure drama films Columbia Pictures films Films directed by Lew Landers 1940s adventure drama films American black-and-white films 1942 drama films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films