MovieChat Forums > Dive Bomber (1941) Discussion > That music

That music

posted 20 years ago by schappe1
6 replies | jump to latest

I love the musical theme from "Dive Bomber", (and I don't mean the song "What's New"). It always sounded to me that it must be "Captains of the Clouds" - beacuse those words fit the music. I know Warner's made another film in this period by that name and I assumed they were reusing the music from that one. But I saw that one and the music there is not the same as in "Dive Bomber". Also "Captains of the Clouds" came out the next year. So...what is the music from "Dive Bomber" called? I'd love to get a recording of it.

[–] Piafredux 20 years ago

Indeed, "schappel," the march theme in 'Dive Bomber' is rousing and memorable. Like you, I too wish I knew its title! - I'd enjoy having a recording of it. The same theme was used in more than two films, but I can recall the title of only one of them: 1948's 'Fighter Squadron' starring Edmond O'Brien and Robert Stack who fly P-47 Thunderbolt fighters against the Luftwaffe (whose Me.109's are, in the film, represented by black-painted P-51D Mustangs; and the picture was actually filmed on a USAF base in North Carolina).

Let's make a deal: if you find out the march's title, you tell me; and if I learn what it is, I'll tell you.

[–] Piafredux 20 years ago

'Dive Bomber's' title theme is the song "We Watch The Skyways" - music (presumably) by Max Steiner, lyrics by Gus Kahn.

Two nights ago I learned the title by serendipity: on the Special Features (disc 2) of the 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' (1942) DVD set is the 1943 Warner Brothers cartoon 'Yankee Doodle Daffy' in which Daffy (actually, Mel Blanc) sings a stanza of the song. I transcribed the lyrics and used them as a search criterion which took me to IMDb which showed Gus Kahn as the lyricist for "We Watch The Skyways."

The same "We Watch The Skyways" also serves as the title theme for the 1948 film 'Fighter Squadron', and I've also heard the song in several other 1940's features and shorts whose titles do not, unfortunately, come to mind.

As sung by Daffy/Mel Blanc in the cartoon the stanza's lyrics are:

"We watch the skyways / o'er the land and the sea / ready to fly anywhere that duty calls / ready to fight to be free."

I've yet to find the song/soundtrack on any retailed recording medium; and thus far the only source, outside of the music publishing industry, I've found for its lyrics is Daffy's/Mel's singing of it in 'Yankee Doodle Daffy'.

[–] schappe1 17 years ago

...on 77 Sunset Strip: "The Hong Kong Caper". Jeff Spencer is mistakenly introduced as an Air Force man at a night club and the band plays "We watch the Skyways" as an Air Force tribute, rather than "Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder". The credit is to Max Steiner for "stock music". The Warner Brothers' shows frequently reused music and even plots from their movies.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] AriesJB4 9 years ago

This music is heard in the opening credits and throughout in "Operation Pacific" (1950), starring John Wayne and Patricia Neal.

[–] 9 years ago

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