ChikPapa Very disappointed :(

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

zardoz-13 "The Thief of Bagdad" director Raoul Walsh's "Desperate Journey" ranks as one of Errol Flynn's most entertaining but lightweight World War II propaganda war films. For the record, Flynn would make five wartime film for Warner Brothers: "Edge of Darkness," "Northern Pursuit," "Uncertain Glory," "Thank Your Luck Stars," and his best wartime epic "Objective, Burma," that made the world believe that Uncle Sam was winning the war single-handedly! Naturally, the British were not pleased with this ideology, and the film drew protests in the United Kingdom. In "Desperate Journey," Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Arthur Kennedy, Alan Hale, and Ronald Sinclair are cast as Allied fliers who survive the crash landing of their British bomber in enemy country. They have to bury their pilot, Squadron Leader Lane-Ferris (Patrick O'Moore) and then flee on foot through Nazi Germany. Our heroes do their best to dodge the Hun, but eventually they set out to commit sabotage in one of the most far-fetched, cliffhanger style plot. Quoting Forbes: "We're going to be the first invasion to hit Germany since Napoleon." Along the way, they lose two more of their own, and Flynn gets a moment or two of romance with pretty Nancy Coleman as a local who tries to help them. Of course, the Germans are ruthless in their pursuit. They manage to capture our heroes, but our guys don't loiter long before they escape them again. "Captains of the Clouds" scenarist Arthur T. Horman received screenplay credit, and Walsh and he keep our guys scrambling desperately with the Germans nipping at their heels the whole way. Indeed, the film lives up to its fast-paced title as Flynn and company make the Germans look like simple-minded goons. Their chief adversary, Major Otto Baumeister (Raymond Massey of "Santa Fe Trail") interrogates them, and one of the funniest scenes has Flying Officer Johnny Hammond (Ronald Reagan) telling them about the non-existent 'thermotrockle' on Allied planes. Hammond gleefully delivers enough double-talk to have your head spinning when he explains to Baumeister how a 'thermotrockle' works. "Thermotrockle amfilated through a daligonitor. Of course, this is made possible because the dernadyne has a franicoupling." Reportedly, Flynn wanted those lines for himself. The Government's Office of War Information didn't appreciate the way that Hollywood portrayed the enemy and made the war look like a lark. Ultimately, our guys steal a captured British bomber and fly back to England. In an appropriately heroic ending, Forbes vows next to take on the Japanese with the last line in the film: "Now for Australia and a crack at those Japs!" This Warner Brothers' nonsense painted an idealized picture of war when it wasn't slipping patriotic messages about the Allies down our collective throats. Naturally, Flynn is as gallant and foolhardy as ever as Flight Lieutenant Terrence Forbes who is tired of flying ice wagons (i.e. bombers) and wants to get into a Spitfire. Kennedy plays the level-head navigator who takes things seriously, while Alan Hale acts as their scrounger. "Desperate Journey" is a lot of rip-snorting fun.

blanche-2 Errol Flynn, Alan Hale, Ronald Reagan, Arthur Kennedy, and Ronald Sinclair are on a "Desperate Journey" in this 1942 wartime film directed by Raoul Walsh. The film also stars Raymond Massey as a German commandant and Nancy Coleman as a member of the underground.Flynn and his pals crash land in Germany and attempt to fulfill their mission plus destroy other enemy sites and enemies as they make their way to safety.For guys trapped in an enemy country, arrested at one point, and in constant danger, they're a pretty lighthearted bunch. They're also amazing at getting out of tight spots.While it's not particularly realistic, "Desperate Journey" is very entertaining with non-stop action all the way, a charming performance by that prince of charm, Errol Flynn, and good support. People are terrible about Ronald Reagan's acting - he didn't have much range, but he was pleasant enough and very good for a role in this kind of film.One interesting thing is that I didn't understand any of the German, which I usually do, so I wondered if it was a dialect. As usual, the actors used the formal instead of the familiar tense, which I doubt officers did when speaking to soldiers. In one part of the movie, a German is asked if he speaks English, and he answers, "I speak as if I was in London born," which is exactly the way the German language is spoken, with the verb at the end. So someone knew what they were doing.Recommended.

MartinHafer Okay, this script was obviously NOT written by great intellects and will never be known as one of Errol Flynn's best films. This much is very obvious very soon into the movie. Yet despite a pretty stupid script, stupid dialog and a jingoism that is practically unmatched by any other film, it IS worth seeing because of the almost non-stop action and suspense--almost like a movie serial condensed into full-length movie form. That's because the four escaped prisoners (Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale and Arthur Kennedy) make a monkey out of the entire German war machine and outwit millions of Nazis and they do it in a very fun and light-hearted way. Sure, it isn't deep and it's all a lot of twaddle, but you can't help but suspend disbelief and just enjoy the hokeyness of the whole thing. Plus, it's a good chance to see Reagan actually play in a watchable film! My advice is see it and don't think. Watch it and enjoy it on a totally brainless level or you're bound to be disappointed.

CaptainCheese An obvious, nearly nonsensical WW2 propaganda movie about a bunch of fliers fighting their way across Nazi Germany. It's wildly inaccurate and unrepresentative of the war, has very little redeeming artistic value as a piece of cinematic art and is basically a pointless piece of filler churned out by the studio system of the nineteen forties.I enjoyed it immensely when I saw it on TV, years ago.As has been pointed out in other comments, the 'german' in this movie is hilarious to anyone with even the slightest passing acquaintance with the language. As I say, it has been a long while since I saw this film, but if I recall correctly one character utters the amazing line "Schnell! Schnell! Volkswagen!" as she points pursuing soldiers in the right direction.