Today’s movie is a courtroom drama with a scene that happens on
November 10. Watch it tonight and enjoy.
THE COURT-MARTIAL OF BILLY MITCHELL
Gen. Billy Mitchell disobeys
orders and uses heavier bombs to sink the former German battleship
Ostfriesland. For this he is demoted to Colonel and reassigned to a ground job
in Texas. After his friend Cmdr. Zack Lansdowne is killed in the crash of the
Shenandoah airship and six army planes crash, he gives a statement to reporters
critical of the top brasses handling of the air corps. He is court-martialed
and gets his friend Cong. Frank Reid to represent him. To delay the trial he tries to subpoena the
President, but refuses an offer to withdraw his statement in return for a
reprimand. Reid asks Lansdowne’s widow to testify and she finally does. There
she testifies that naval officers asked her not to talk about the fact that the
Shenandoah was an unsafe airship. The court reverses an earlier ruling and on
November 10, 1925 [1:01:40 to 1:14:48] allows various officers testify that
pilots have died due to flying out of date airplanes. Mitchell testifies, but
is found guilty and suspended for five years.
A decent biopic. The film holds
your interest. A good trial movie.
Day by Day: The Twenties: Volume 2 1925-1929 ed, by
Rodney P. Carlisle (FactsOnFile, New York, 2008) p. 687
Producer - Milton Sperling
Director - Otto Preminger
Screenplay - Emmet Lavery and Milton Sperling
Runtiome – 1 hour 40 minutes
Released - December 22, 1955
Starring –
Gary Cooper as Col. Billy Mitchell
Charles Bickford as Maj. Gen. Jimmy Guthrie
Ralph Bellamy as Congressman Frank R. Reid
Rod Steiger as Maj. Allan Guillion
Elizabeth Montgomery as Mrs. Margaret Lansdowne
Jack Lord as Lt. Cmdr. Zachary Lansdowne
Fred Clark as Col. Sherman Moreland
Darren McGavin as Capt. Russ Peters
James Daly as Lt.
Col. Herbert White
Peter Graves as Capt. Bob Elliott
Robert F. Simon as Adm. Gage
Charles Dingle as Senator Fullerton
Dayton Lummis as Maj. Gen. Douglas MacArthur
Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014.
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