A CAP Movie!!! It has it all...

Major Carrales · March 15, 2007, 04:59:18 PM

A while back we toyed with the idea of a CAP movie...

Imagine that... (narrated by Don La Fontaine)

"In a world where Civil Aviation is challenged..." (dark music...shows men closing aircraft doors and images of a Nazi Party Rally and Hitler making a speech)

"A NATON'S coastline trembles...(a sub emerges from a dark sea)"

"But one man has a vision... and a nation's civilians answer the call..."

Coming Summer 2010... Harrison Ford is Gill Rob Wilson...

Paramount Pictures proudly presents...

THOSE [darn] LITTLE YELLOW PLANES- The Gill Rob Wilson Story!!!

Harrison Ford as Gill Rob Wilson, an aviator with a vision, John Goodman as Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and Calista Flockhart as some amalgam of a 1930s female aviator...and featuring Steve Martin as General Hap Arnold.

LtCol White · March 15, 2007, 05:05:27 PM

HAHAHA...well done!

Major Carrales · March 15, 2007, 05:09:59 PM

Quote from: LtCol White on March 15, 2007, 05:05:27 PM
HAHAHA...well done!

Thanks,
The Steve Martin as HAP, turned out the best. If anyone want's to CLEAN it up for me. It's still clay.

Psicorp · March 15, 2007, 05:23:58 PM

I love it!

I can even picture the preview shot of a plane on fire and it's pilot yelling into the radio, "Coastal Base, Coastal Base...Ahhhhhhh" (splash)

A.Member · March 15, 2007, 06:14:08 PM

Seriously, probably one of the best stories never told.

Given that Hollywood is apparently out of ideas these days, they should snatch it up (provided they "do it right").

p.s. I think we'll leave the casting to the pros...and maybe we'll work on the title too! (no offense

)

JohnKachenmeister · March 15, 2007, 07:17:30 PM

I like Harrison Ford, but he needs to be the lead, the hero-pilot, and get the girl.

He's perfect for the part of the World War I ace making a marginal living as a barnstorming pilot, who is turned away from the Army Air Corps recruiting office because he's too old.

But... Later that day, he meets Sue. Sue volunteered as a CAP communicator as a way of helping the war effort, and because her brother is a merchant seaman. Sue finds out that Lance Romance (Ford) is a pilot and recruits him to fly for the CAP.

The climax comes when another merchant sailor gets drunk at a party with three girls (Played by The Dixie Chicks) and they turn out to be German spies. They report the sailing of a ship bound for England full of Air Corps troops, and the Germans move in a submarine to destroy it.

If you haven't seen a war movie before, the ship bound for England will have Sue's brother as the new captain and master, his first command. One of the Air Corps passengers will be the recruiter that turned Lance Romance away.

And, obviously, Lance will be piloting the plane that spots the U-Boat. Sue radios the ship to change course just as the Nazis move in for the kill, and the Krauts will be so fixated on the troop transport that they never see Lance's Piper rolling in on a bomb run until its too late to do anything except yell "Ach, du Lieber!"

As the secondary explosions go off on the sinking U-Boat, the Air Corps flyers wave from the ship's deck in grateful respect at Lance's little airplane. Then Lance flies back to the base, and to the waiting arms of Sue, embracing her under the Flag as a formation of Aeronca Champs fly overhead into the clear, blue sky.

Now THAT's entertainment!

ddelaney103 · March 16, 2007, 02:22:05 AM

QuoteTHOSE [darn] LITTLE YELLOW PLANES

Does anyone have a real citation for this quote? I looked before and couldn't get a primary cite.

JohnKachenmeister · March 16, 2007, 03:36:00 AM

It was quoted in a book called "Hero Next Door" which was about the CAP and its history. It was not attributed to any named German officer. The book said it was a remark made during an after-the-war interrogation of a German submarine commander.

ddelaney103 · March 16, 2007, 04:37:40 AM

Quote from: JohnKachenmeister on March 16, 2007, 03:36:00 AM
It was quoted in a book called "Hero Next Door" which was about the CAP and its history. It was not attributed to any named German officer. The book said it was a remark made during an after-the-war interrogation of a German submarine commander.

Yeah, that's the problem - we throw this phrase around but I don't think anyone has a real source for it. It probably needs to be filed under "Cool Things No One Ever Said."

SarDragon · March 16, 2007, 06:40:34 AM

It was also quoted in the Level I Orientation video, but I'm not sure of any exact attribution.

LtCol White · March 16, 2007, 01:32:18 PM

I had always heard that it was from a logbook entry from a U boat commander.

PhotogPilot · March 17, 2007, 12:35:55 AM

Quote from: LtCol White on March 16, 2007, 01:32:18 PM
I had always heard that it was from a logbook entry from a U boat commander.

The best source I could find is from my 1948 copy of "Flying Minute Men", page 77.

"A final evaluation of CAP's coastal patrol came many months later--and from the other side of the Atlantic. After the German surrender, one of Hitler's high-ranking naval officers was asked why the Nazi U-boats had been withdrawn from United States coastal waters early in 1943. The answer was exploded in a curt gutteral: "It was because of those [darn]ed little red and yellow planes"."

JohnKachenmeister · March 17, 2007, 01:06:28 AM

Same book. Later published under a new title.

LtCol White · March 17, 2007, 01:09:42 AM

Well, there you have it! Das ist gut

JohnKachenmeister · March 17, 2007, 02:28:03 AM

Scheisz auf dem kleine geld Flugzeugen!

Major Carrales · March 17, 2007, 03:15:03 AM

Quote from: JohnKachenmeister on March 17, 2007, 02:28:03 AM
Scheisz auf dem kleine geld Flugzeugen!

Mein gott!!!

MajorSER · March 17, 2007, 03:25:14 AM

Die verdamte gelbe Flugzeuge!

SarDragon · March 17, 2007, 03:27:21 AM

Gesundheit!

thefischNX01 · March 17, 2007, 03:55:44 AM

Considering how well "The Guardian" did, I think it's definitly Plausible.

I thought about it myself once, doing it as an Indepedent Film. I know a few people in that industry, so I thought it would be fun. Although I opted to set it in the Modern CAP, as opposed to WWII CAP. My story would have been a 2-day mission over Christmas. Here's the poster. What'd you think?

Major Carrales · March 17, 2007, 04:49:32 AM

Hey, I could support that.

dbaran · March 17, 2007, 04:55:57 PM

Here's another quote - from Operation Drumbeat, by Michael Gannon. If you haven't read it, it is a great book by a historian who did a lot of very careful research. He's got three or four pages on the success of CAP convincing the Germans to give up their submarine campaign:

For their part, U-boat commanders cursed the persistent presence of what they called the "yellow bees".

RogueLeader · March 20, 2007, 07:23:58 PM

Quote from: LtCol White on March 17, 2007, 01:09:42 AM
Well, there you have it! Das ist gut

ja ja

Major Carrales · March 31, 2007, 06:57:21 AM

Quote from: Psicorp on March 15, 2007, 05:23:58 PM
I love it!

I can even picture the preview shot of a plane on fire and it's pilot yelling into the radio, "Coastal Base, Coastal Base...Ahhhhhhh" (splash)

Yes, followed by...

CAP PILOTS: "Mayday...we're sinking!!"

German: "Ja, hello...zis is da German Coast Guard..."

CAP PILOTS: "Help...we're sinking...I repeat...sinking!!"

German: "Ja...wot are you sinking about?"

JohnKachenmeister · March 31, 2007, 07:26:12 AM

Quote from: Major Carrales on March 31, 2007, 06:57:21 AM
Quote from: Psicorp on March 15, 2007, 05:23:58 PM
I love it!

I can even picture the preview shot of a plane on fire and it's pilot yelling into the radio, "Coastal Base, Coastal Base...Ahhhhhhh" (splash)

Yes, followed by...

CAP PILOTS: "Mayday...we're sinking!!"

German: "Ja, hello...zis is da German Coast Guard..."

CAP PILOTS: "Help...we're sinking...I repeat...sinking!!"

German: "Ja...wot are you sinking about?"

I sent you that, didn't I?

Major Carrales · March 31, 2007, 03:34:37 PM

Quote from: JohnKachenmeister on March 31, 2007, 07:26:12 AM
Quote from: Major Carrales on March 31, 2007, 06:57:21 AM
Quote from: Psicorp on March 15, 2007, 05:23:58 PM
I love it!

I can even picture the preview shot of a plane on fire and it's pilot yelling into the radio, "Coastal Base, Coastal Base...Ahhhhhhh" (splash)

Yes, followed by...

CAP PILOTS: "Mayday...we're sinking!!"

German: "Ja, hello...zis is da German Coast Guard..."

CAP PILOTS: "Help...we're sinking...I repeat...sinking!!"

German: "Ja...wot are you sinking about?"

I sent you that, didn't I?

That you did...I showed it to my students as a focus activity on the importance of communications.

Thanks...