A Guy Named Joe (1943)

It was once said that too many cooks spoil the broth. That little saying is also applicable to movies. Here we have a top-budget picture with such leads like Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson, Ward Bond and James Gleason that Lionel Barrymore has to be content with sixth billing and Esther Williams with eighth! M-G-M's top director, Victor Fleming, was in charge – and when I say in charge, I mean in charge. The nominal producer, Everett Riskin, was Fleming's servant rather than his master, and just to drive this point home, Fleming insisted that in addition to his director credit, he receive another credit on both the movie itself and on all its advertising, namely, "A Victor Fleming Production." But alas, the screenplay by Dalton Trumbo lets us all down badly. Admittedly there are two or three fairish action sequences, but the climax is tame. Worse still, the scenario and its dialog could justly be described as high grade soap opera – and like most soap operas, it is expensively mounted. The lavish sets are worthy of much better things, but the players – with the notable exception of Esther Williams (I can't remember who was the jealous rival who said she couldn't act) – display as little ability as Mr. Trumbo.

i get some weird things happening to me once in a while.Spielberg's "Always," the remake of "A Guy Named Joe," was just on an Encore channel two nights ago (2/11/2009).Now here comes TCM replaying "A Guy..." right now.weird.anyway, this original is a decent film. Tracy of course shines in his performance. Van Johnson didn't seem to be into his role very much.Irene Dunne was OK.Maybe he was having an off-season for acting.but the real beauty of this film are the flying sequences. Same for "Always."here it's the P-38. And what flying!I need to buy these 2 films.there is some nice sentimentality in this film, nostalgia.it was a good idea for a film.

This is one of those old-fashioned, nice stories with generally nice people, some good lessons to be learned and some touching scenes. You just have to go with the fantasy-type theologies, in this story dead people coming back as angels-you-can see.Irene Dunne never looked better, although the soft-focus lens helped her looks. She isn't beautiful but she's wholesomely pretty, and thus appealing. Spencer Tracy gives his normal strong performance but I liked supporting actor Ward Bond in here better. Tracy gives an excellent short speech at the end of this film.The special-effects in the aviator-war scenes were not good but, hey, this film was made about 65 years ago. You could tell the planes were model airplanes on several shots.Note: this film was re-made by Steven Spielberg 40 years later under the title "Always." That was a nice film, too, but I think I'd still take this version.

Okay, I want to stop all the rumors that I hate America and wanted Hitler to win the war. It's NOT true--it's just that I really didn't like this film. It just seemed silly and ridiculous. Here's the amazingly silly plot in a nutshell: Spencer Tracy is a hotshot pilot who loves Irene Dunne. The problem is, he crashes and becomes worm food--well at least that's what happens to his body. The angels apparently are good patriotic Hitler-haters, so they let Tracy come back as a ghost to help the war effort by letting him look over and secretly guide the actions of younger, more alive, pilots. Well, he is assigned to Van Johnson and prevents him from also assuming room temperature. BUT, in the process, Johnson now gets Dunne. Bummer.Okay, I know that many romance lovers out there might see this movie as a classic. It must be true because they recently remade this as the film ALWAYS. Well, given that I am a curmudgeon, I have yet to see ALWAYS and have no interest in doing so. The plot just annoys me. Okay folks, time to send me your hate mail, as I am probably one of the few reviewers that didn't really love the film. It only gets a 5 because I really like p-38s and other cool planes.And finally, I just thought of a really cool movie idea. Let's do the same movie. Then, let's switch to the Germans and show little dead guys working for the Devil helping their pilots! Now that would be really cool!