Thunderbolt | Full War Movie | James Stewart | William Wyler | John K. Cannon

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 15:33:33 +0000

Featuring actual aerial combat footage. A WW2 documentary on the P-47 Thunderbolt fighter/bomber pilots in missions (Operation Strangle) from their base in Corsica to Northern Italy in 1944, destroying railroads, bridges, trains, vehicles, German supplies, and hard targets on the Italian mainland, far behind the front-line. Operation Strangle, the idea of which was to weaken the German front-line forces by depriving them of supplies, thus helping the Allied offensive. The iconic Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is considered one of the greatest fighter-bombers of the war.

James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality he portrayed both on and off the screen, he epitomized the "American ideal" in the mid-twentieth century. In 1999, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked him third on its list of the greatest American male actors. He received numerous honors including the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1968, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1980, the Kennedy Center Honor in 1983, as well as the Academy Honorary Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, both in 1985. He received the Academy Award for Best Actor, the only competitive Oscar of his career, for his performance in the George Cukor romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story (1940). Stewart's first postwar role was as George Bailey in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946). He also starred in Winchester '73 (1950), The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and The Naked Spur (1953), and by Alfred Hitchcock in Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and Vertigo (1958). During this time he received Academy Award nominations for his roles in the comedy Harvey (1950) and the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder (1959). Stewart also starred in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) as well as the Western films How the West Was Won (1962), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).

Director William Wyler was considered by his peers as second only to John Ford as a master craftsman of cinema. The winner of three Best Director Academy Awards for Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Ben-Hur (1959), second again only to Ford's four. His directorial career spanned 45 years, from silent pictures to the cultural revolution of the 1970s. Nominated a record 12 times for an Academy Award as Best Director, he won three and in 1966, was honored with the Irving Thalberg Award, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' ultimate accolade for a producer. So high was his reputation during his life that he was the fourth recipient of the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, after Ford, James Cagney and Welles. He ranks with the best and most influential American directors, including Griffith, DeMille, Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Steven Spielberg.

Wyler helped propel a number of actors to stardom, including finding and directing Audrey Hepburn in her debut starring role, Roman Holiday (1953), and directing Barbra Streisand in her debut film, Funny Girl (1968), both winning Academy Awards. Olivia de Havilland and Bette Davis both won their second Oscar in Wyler films, de Havilland for The Heiress (1949) and Davis for Jezebel (1938). Davis said Wyler made her a "far, far better actress" than she had ever been, while Laurence Olivier, who received his first Oscar nomination for Wyler's Wuthering Heights (1939), credited Wyler with teaching him how to act for the screen. Wyler's three Best Picture-winning films each featured a Best Actress or Actor Oscar winner - Greer Garson in Mrs Miniver, Fredric March in The Best Years of Our Lives, and Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur. Other popular Wyler films include: The Westerner (1940) with Gary Cooper, The Letter (1940) again with Davis, Detective Story (1951) with Kirk Douglas, Friendly Persuasion (1956) with Cooper and Dorothy McGuire, The Big Country (1958) with Gregory Peck and Heston, The Children's Hour (1961) with Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine and James Garner, and How to Steal a Million (1966) with Hepburn and Peter O'Toole.

Directors: William Wyler, John Sturges
Stars: James Stewart, John K. Cannon, Ira C. Eaker

Trivia:
Filmed in 1944, not released until 1947.
Director William Wyler lost his hearing during the production of this film when he flew in a noisy, unpressurized transport plane. He was subsequently medically discharged from the Army, but eventually got some hearing back in one ear. Hence, the delay in the release of this film.

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