Ships in movies

[Cliffy B]

"Hell Diver" was filmed aboard the Saratoga in the early 30s. Most interesting was that they censored the arresting gear during the landing sequences.

Just saw that one on TCM; great film! It was shot in 1932 aboard CV-3 alright and has a ton of great footage of her. Air ops, a trip through the Panama Canal, and even re-fueling a USN Zeppelin. There is also some great footage of the BBs steaming in a nice battle line letting lose full broadsides at a target ship. The planes staring as members of VF-1 are Curtis F8C-4 Helldiver. There are also some shots of BG-1 Torpedo Bombers landing aboard CV-3 when the air wing is reporting aboard during the trip to Panama. Great movie all around

[Doug]

What was interesting was that in the early 30s, Hollywood used the names of real ships, i.e.., Saratoga in "Hell Diver" and Arizona in "Here Comes the Navy." In the latter part of the 30s, Hollywood began to use fictitious names of ships. Except that they slipped up in "Navy Blues." The movie takes place on the fictional cruiser Cleveland not knowing that a few months after it release, there would be a real USS Cleveland.

[Elvis965]

Just saw that one on TCM; great film!

Me too. DVR'd it and watched it yesterday.

If you were paying REALLY close attention to the Panama Canal transit scenes, a couple of the shots were of Lex, not Sara.

Bob

[robertmelvin]

I think I'll have to throw in a vote here for "P.T. 109". They did a pretty darned good job of making those Vosper MTB's look like Elco 80 footers.

Bob

[Dave Martin]

'Assault on a Queen' with Frank Sinatra - The Queen Mary liner is the object of an attempted hijack by a restored U boat post-war.