“An exciting, accurate, blow-by-blow reconstruction of the famous Doolittle Raid - the first air-raid on Japan, the attack that took the war into the Far East in April, 1942, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle (Spencer Tracy) and B-25 bomber Captain Ted Lawson (Van Johnson). Mervyn LeRoy directed, Dalton Trumbo wrote the screenplay, and the film achieves an almost-documentary feeling. There are stunning sequences - notably the one where the bombers take off from the deck of the aircraft carrier Hornet in the teeth of a storm - but the film mixes the battle scenes and thrilling aerial photography with a suspenseful account of the weeks of strenuous, secret preparations. The New York Times noted the film's ‘magnificent integrity and dramatic eloquence,' and went on to cite it as ‘the best war film made in Hollywood yet. The film has the tough and literal quality of an air force documentary.'”