Task Force (1949) is a war film filmed in black and white with some Technicolor sequences about the development of U.S. aircraft carriers from the USS Langley (CV-1) to the USS Franklin (CV-13). The film stars Gary Cooper, Jane Wyatt, Walter Brennan, Wayne Morris, Julie London, and Jack Holt.

Plot[link]

Depicted as a 1917 graduate of the Naval Academy, Naval Aviator Jonathan L. "Scotty" Scott (Gary Cooper) spends 27 years, from 1921 to 1948, promoting naval aviation and the power of the aircraft carrier, during which time he antagonizes powerful people in the Navy and Congress, and marries the widow (Jane Wyatt) of a fellow flier who died in a crash during a carrier take-off aboard USS Langley (CV 1). Throughout, he has the help and friendship of his mentor and superior officer Pete Richard (Walter Brennan).

Cast[link]

• Gary Cooper as Jonathan L. Scott
• Jane Wyatt as Mary Morgan
• Wayne Morris as McKinney
• Walter Brennan as Pete Richard
• Julie London as Barbara McKinney
• Bruce Bennett as McCluskey
• Jack Holt as Admiral Joseph M. Reeves
• Stanley Ridges as Senator Bentley
• John Ridgely as Dixie Rankin
• Richard Rober as Jack Southern
• Art Baker as Senator Vincent
• Moroni Olsen as Admiral Ames
• Ray Montgomery as Pilot
• Harlan Warde as Timmy Kissell

Cast notes:

• Task Force was the only film Gary Cooper and Jane Wyatt made together, and was the last of the eight films Cooper and Walter Brennan made together.^[1]
• Edmond O'Brien has a voice-only role as a radio announcer who gives the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Production notes[link]

• Robert Montgomery was originally considered for the leading role.^[2]
• During the filming of Task Force Gary Cooper was almost seriously injured on two occasions. The first was on the USS Antietam during gunnery practice, when an unmanned target plane caught fire and passed over the deck before crashing in the ocean. The second incident occurred when a naval barge Cooper was riding broke up on the rocks at the edge of Long Beach Harbor during a thick fog. Cooper was quickly rescued, but was hospitalized with a high fever.^[3]
• Near the end, the film changes from black and white to Technicolor in order to unobtrusively use actual combat film shot in color.^[4] Warner Bros. obtained Technicolor footage filmed during the war in the Pacific, including the Battle of Midway, the Japanese attack on USS Yorktown and a kamikaze attack on USS Franklin. The production also used original black-and-white footage of the USS Langley, the first American aircraft carrier, and the USS Saratoga.^[2]
• During the Battle of Midway scene, the "Japanese carrier" blowing up is actually HMS Barham exploding after being torpedoed by German submarine U-331.

Trivia[link]

• When Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan attend the mid-1920's reception in Washington, D.C. The Chief of Naval Operations is called "Admiral Ames" (Moroni Olsen); the real CNO was Admiral Edward Walter Eberle. The movie CNO is clean shaven, Eberle had a full beard.

• Seen listening to Scott (Gary Cooper) tell Sen. Bentley (Stanley Ridges) about the use of aircraft carriers over battleships in future naval warfare and that Japan is a threat to the United States. The real Japanese naval attaché who would have heard that conversation was Captain Isoroku Yamamoto. Later, Admiral Yamamoto would be the architect of Pearl Harbor.

• In the movie "White Heat", when Arthur "Cody" Jarrett played by James Cagney is chased by federal investigators, to lose them, he drives the car into San-Val Drive In, where "Taskforce" movie is showing. Later in the movie, when Cody's mother is interrogated by the cops, she says that she was with Verna (Virginia Mayo) watching "Taskforce" movie.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Task Force at the Internet Movie Database
• Task Force at the TCM Movie Database
• Task Force at AllRovi
• Task Force film review at Classic Film Guide
• Task Force film review