Victory Through Air Power

After the opening credits of this film, a series of written titles, some presented as newspaper headlines, describe the career and predictions of General William Lendrum "Billy" Mitchell (1879-1936), an early advocate of a strong, unified American air force. Mitchell is also seen in newsreel footage, during which he discusses the potentials of air power. The last written title in the sequence reads: "So to the memory of Billy Mitchell, pioneer and prophet of air power, and to the gallant airmen of America, this picture is dedicated." Alexander de Seversky (1894-1974) was born in Russia and served in the imperial air service during World War I. After immigrating to the United States in 1918, he worked for the American government as a test pilot, became an American citizen and a major in the Army Air Corps Reserve and founded his own aircraft company, which produced several innovative airplanes. In his controversial, nonfiction bestseller, Victory Through Air Power, Seversky promoted the formation of a unified air force in the United States, and a wartime strategy that relied on air power instead of land or sea forces.

       According to a "joint statement" issued by Seversky and producer Walt Disney, printed in the July 29, 1943 issue of New York Herald Tribune, Disney had been interested in aviation for some time and had decided "to make a picture on the history of aviation." Disney's staff did a good deal of research on the subject, but the producer felt that something was lacking, and became very intrigued by Seversky's book upon its publication in 1942. Believing that Seversky's theories should be presented to the general public in a clear, entertaining way, Disney purchased the rights to the book in June 1942, according to Hollywood Reporter news items, and began production immediately. A August 5, 1942 Hollywood Citizen-News article, announcing that Disney was adapting the book for the screen, reported that he had assigned to the project the artists who had just finished Bambi, and who were scheduled to begin work on Peter Pan. The latter film, which was not released by the Disney studio until 1953, was "shelved" while the studio worked on films for the government and production on it was not resumed until the late 1940s. The studio produced a large number of animated short and feature-length films specifically for military use, but Victory Through Air Power was its only feature-length, theatrically released picture to deal with World War II. According to a October 20, 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item, due to the increased efficiency of the Disney workers, the animation required for the picture was "scheduled to be wrapped up in less than four months on the drawing boards."

       In the July 29, 1943 New York Herald Tribune article, Disney disclosed that work had been done on "a beautiful sequence illustrating the folly of island-to-island 'stepping-stone' strategy in the Pacific." The sequence was deleted, however, when President Roosevelt, in a February 1943 speech, stated that the U.S. would not take the time necessary to defeat Japan by working its way forward one island at a time. A September 21, 1942 work assignment, contained in the Walt Disney Archives, reveals that a sequence, entitled "Aircraft Carrier" and depicting the Battle of Midway, had also been planned but was not included in the released picture. According to a October 15, 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item, the opening sequence of the live-action footage was to show "Seversky being interviewed by a group of newspaper correspondents played by Gloria Holden, Roy Gordon, Damian O'Flynn and Edward Fielding. A February 24, 1943 Hollywood Reporter news item announced that O'Flynn had been given a military deferment in order to finish additional scenes in the picture, as well as to work on a Monogram production. A modern source states that the sequence, in which Seversky was to be asked questions that most interested the public, were filmed. They do not appear in the released picture, however. The picture's pressbook states that sounds of planes in flight were reproduced by a six-piece orchestra, because the actual airplane noises had "tinny overtones." A modern source notes that the picture was originally scheduled to include footage of Donald Duck.

       An January 11, 1944 Hollywood Reporter news item noted that, due to the studio's work for the government, Victory Through Air Power was its only feature film release in 1943. According to a review of the film in the September 1943 issue of Modern Screen, "all during production, the studio was under the guard of the Navy, as it was part of the 11th Naval Command." A modern source reports that Commander Frank W. Wead was the technical advisor assigned by the Navy to work with the studio. The film was the only feature-length Disney production to be released through United Artists. All other feature-length Disney films were released through RKO, until the formation of Disney's own distribution branch, Buena Vista, in 1953.

       A April 12, 1943 Hollywood Reporter news item stated that U.S. Army and Navy officials were "pleading" with Disney to "withhold the release of the picture for a while because they do not agree with the theory that is the basis" of Seversky's proposals. The news item suggested that the picture might not be approved for exportation, but other contemporary information indicates that the studio did not encounter any difficulties with foreign distribution. In a June 3, 1944 letter, contained in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, PCA head Joseph I. Breen expressed his concern over the project to Disney. Breen worried that "it would be a mistake if the over-all effect of the picture would be to run down...the value...of the other branches of military and naval endeavor." He also felt that it "would be most regrettable if, out of your picture would come a disturbing feeling to families who have boys in the service, and who would get the impression from the film that these lads were being sacrified in combat because of utterly futile tools." The PCA did not formally object to the film, however.

       A November 1943 American Cinematographer article on the film reported that "high military circles throughout the globe" had expressed a great deal of interest in the film, and that the Technicolor plant was rushing 16mm prints of it to the U.S. Army Pictorial Service for distribution overseas. British Air Ministry and Naval officials also wanted copies of the film "for its historical records and to show it at the Royal Air Force Staff College," according to the American Cinematographer article. Modern sources assert that Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt viewed the film during an August 1943 conference in Quebec. According to a March 31, 1944 Hollywood Reporter news item, the Argentine government twice rejected the film for exhibition in Argentina, but finally relented and passed it for distribution "without a single cut." On April 19, 1944, Hollywood Reporter announced that the Brazilian censor had approved the picture, but only on the condition that a short about Santos-Dumont be exhibited with it.

       The controversy surrounding Seversky's theories was reflected in reviewers' discussions of the film, which some praised and others considered outlandish. Most critics complimented the studio's depiction of the technical aspects of Seversky's views, and its mastery of the documentary form. In the July 12, 1943 issue, a Time critic commented on the film's "prophetic sequence showing the mining and destruction of an enemy power dam, made six months before the R.A.F. wrecked the Mohne and Eder dams." A August 24, 1945 Christian Science Monitor article also praised the bomb sequence, reporting that the War Deparment had "recently given full credit to Col. Cass S. Hough for the development of what has come to be known as the Disney Bomb-a dam-breaking bomb shown in Victory Through Air Power a full nine months before it was actually developed and used on the Western front in breaking up German fortifications."

       The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Score (Dramatic or Comedy Picture). Unlike the majority of feature-length Disney animated films, which are re-issued periodically, Victory Through Air Power has been theatrically re-released only once, in December 1947. The film has never been released on home video [as of 1998], although it has occasionally been exhibited at retrospectives, including the 1989 Annecy Animation Film Festival in France. The film's opening sequence depicting aviation history has been issued separately as a short.