Bird’s-Eye View of History

William Wyler’s “The Memphis Belle” (1944), widely regarded as the best live-action U.S. Army Air Forces movie of World War II, tells the story of a B-17 bomber crew flying its 25th combat mission.

The 42-minute documentary--screening Tuesday at Cal State Fullerton--is not to be confused with the 1990 Warner Bros. feature film of the same name. This historical picture made the Memphis Belle and its crew the most famous American flyers during the war.

“The Memphis Belle” was, moreover, the first American movie ever reviewed on the front page of the New York Times. Many papers followed suit, making the picture not only Page 1 news but also the subject of their lead editorials.

Wyler, who went on five bombing missions over Germany and German-occupied France in the winter and spring of 1943, shot much of the film himself, defying a general’s order to ground him. Among other things, the air force wanted him to avoid the risk of being shot down and captured by the Nazis.

Besides being Jewish, Wyler had angered Hitler and his minions for his pro-British, anti-Nazi “Mrs. Miniver” (1942). That Hollywood feature, which drew furious opposition from the America Firsters who opposed U.S. entry into the war, bolstered public opinion against Germany. MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer boasted that Winston Churchill had written him a letter calling the picture indispensable to the Allied war effort and “propaganda worth a hundred battleships.”

On March 4, 1943, a week after Wyler’s first bombing raid, “Mrs. Miniver” won the Academy Award for best picture (also landing Wyler the first of three best-director Oscars). The attendant publicity, especially in England, where he was based, reinforced the air force’s concern. But when Wyler decided to fly, a friend and fellow officer kept it secret from the top brass.

“The Memphis Belle,” made in color, opens with shots of the quiet English countryside. “This,” says a voice-over, is a battle front. A battle front like no other in the long history of mankind’s wars.”

Images of green splendor give way to shots of an airstrip tucked into the landscape. A B-17 stands in silhouette against the bright blue sky. All over England, bombers were launched in the shadow of rural churchyards and villages.

“This,” the voice-over says, “is an air front.”

The hypnotic narrative of staunch words, written by Lester Koenig, verges on poetry. It is spare, muscular and stirring. Combined with the revving of engines and images of crews preparing for takeoff, it rivets our attention.

Soon we’re airborne, inside the Memphis Belle, hearing what the pilots hear and seeing what they see: white vapor trails that give away their position to German antiaircraft batteries; harmless-looking puffs of black smoke, a warning of deadly flak bursts.

Swarms of enemy fighters meet them over the North Sea. Yet the crew’s voices on the intercom remain completely matter-of-fact:

“There’s four of ‘em.” “One o’clock.” “High.” “They’re comin’ round.” “Watch ‘em.” “Two fighters, 6 o’clock.” “Comin’ in.” “Diving at us, Chief.”

The waist gunners fire; we hear the bleat of 50-caliber machine guns; bullet tracers stream from the guns. “Comin’ round at 10.” “Watch ‘em. Chuck. “Eyes open.” “They’re breakin’ at 11.” “I got ‘em.”

Wyler shot scenes with a hand-held camera. Occasionally, this 41-year-old major with no military training became so intent on filming that he unconsciously almost shouldered a gunner aside.

While assembling the documentary in the summer of 1943, the Memphis Belle was ordered home. Pilot and crew barnstormed across the country, raising money for war bonds and putting on demonstrations of acrobatic flying.

When the Belle got to Los Angeles, Wyler threw the crew a party at his home in Beverly Hills. He had promised them they could meet any movie star they liked. The pilot, who wanted a date with Hedy Lamarr, settled for Olivia de Havilland. Another star introduced herself: “Boys, I’m Veronica Lake.” The teenage tail gunner said, “Ma’am, that’s nice. Why don’t you sit back down and I’ll buy you a drink.”

Before its release, Wyler screened “The Memphis Belle” for President Roosevelt in the White House basement. He urged that it be rushed into commercial release for a public that had not seen the war except through impersonal news reels.

Wyler took the picture to Paramount Pictures, which distributed prints to more than 10,000 theaters. “The Memphis Belle” premiered on April 14, 1944. By personalizing the war and dramatizing the life of a crew in combat, it made news as the emblematic story of thousands of B-17 crews just like them.

* “The Memphis Belle” screens at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Mackey Auditorium on Gymnasium Drive, at the Ruby Gerontology Center, Cal State Fullerton (800 N. State College Ave., Fullerton). Free; $1.50 for parking. (714) 278-2446.

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Also screening in Orange County:

* “Great Black Women” screens today at 7:30 p.m. at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2002 Main St., Santa Ana. The screening is included free with museum admission: $2-$6. (714) 567-3600.

This 52-minute video from 1987, hosted by Tany Hart, is billed as an educational program about African American women “throughout our history [who] have triumphed over adversity to make significant contributions” to American society.

Unfortunately, the program is woefully dated and trivial. To justify the title, “Great Black Women” offers snippets of interviews with Coretta Scott King and Shirley Chisholm, some footage of the Civil Rights movement and shots of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a brief appearance of Barbara Jordan speaking at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

But the program’s true focus is on entertainment figures, with a few athletes tossed in. Among those singled out: the Pointer Sisters, Natalie Cole, Patti LaBelle, Tina Turner, Debbie Allen, track star Valerie Brisco Hooks, bodybuilder Carla Dunlap, several fashion models, Oprah Winfrey, Butterfly McQueen (of “Gone With the Wind” fame), Whoopi Goldberg (before she was famous) and, inevitably, Lena Horne.

* “Hollywood Shuffle” (1987) screens today at 7 p.m. in the Argyros Forum, Room 208, at Chapman University, 333 N. Glassell St., Orange. Free. (714) 744-7018. An uneven comedy about a black actor trying to get a break in Hollywood, it stars Robert Townsend in a likable performance as he encounters the usual stereotyping.

* “A Couch in New York” (1997)--directed by Chantal Akerman, who made “The English Patient”--opens Friday for a weeklong run at the Port Theatre (2905 E. Coast Highway, Corona del Mar). This romantic comedy centers on an obsessive, withdrawn psychoanalyst (William Hurt) who meets an exuberant French dancer (Juliette Binoche) when he places an ad to exchange apartments. $7. (714) 673-6260.

* “Maedchen in Uniform” (1931)--an early feminist German classic originally banned in Germany--will be screened Friday, at 7 and 9 p.m. by the UC Irvine Film Society. Set in a boarding school, it tells the story of a girl who falls in love with her female teacher. In the UCI Student Center, Crystal Cove Auditorium, Pereira and West Peltason roads. $2.50-$4.50. (714) 824-5588.

* Post-Colonial Classics of Korean Cinema continues Saturday, 4:30 p.m., at UCI with the U.S. premiere of “Madame Freedom” (1956), in a newly restored print, and at 7 p.m. with “The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well” (1996). “Madame Freedom” is said to be “one of the most controversial films” produced in South Korea.” It addresses “the moral issues” surrounding an extramarital affair by a bored professor’s wife who abandons tradition and gets a job in a Parisian-style boutique. “The Day a Pig Fell . . .” explores the everyday lives of workers in the postindustrial environment of modern-day Seoul, where “greed, contempt, betrayal and desire prevail.” In the UCI Film and Video Center, Humanities Instructional Building, Room 100, West Peltason Road. Separate admissions. $4-$6. (714) 824-7418.

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In L.A. and beyond:

The Pan African Film Festival, which will present some 70 programs through Feb. 16 at the Magic Johnson Theaters, opens tonight at 7:30 with Senegalese filmmaker Moussa Sense Absa’s “Tableau Ferraille” (Scrap Heap).

The film is a strong, socially conscious drama about the rise and fall of a naive young politician (Ismael Lo) with two very different wives, the devoted but barren Gagnesiri (Ndeye Fatou Ndaw) and the bored, glamorous Kine (Ndeye Beneta Diop). For full schedule and festival information: (213) 896-8221; Magic Johnson Theaters: (213) 290-5900.

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The crown jewel of the new California Science Center is its Imax Theater, which has 3-D capabilities and has a screen 91 feet high and 68 feet wide (the original theater was 70 feet by 50 feet) The Imax 3-D Theater opens Saturday with two films, the 3-D “Into the Deep,” a wondrous undersea exploration--you have the illusion of being able to reach out and touch kelp and every manner of sea creature--which opened the Imax 3-D theater at the Edwards 21 Cinemas at the Irvine Spectrum in March 1996, and the new 2-D “Mission to Mir.”

Also on the bill with “Into the Deep”: “Paint Misbehavin,” a knockout two-minute preview of Imax 3-D animation.

Imax is always a perfect medium for space travel, and “Mission to Mir,” co-directed by Ivan Galin and James Neihouse, gives us a good idea of what it’s like to be in the cramped quarters of Mir and of the awesome view of Earth it provides. But it’s a bit bland, heavy on the brotherhood theme, in comparison with Andrei Ujica’s more amusing and far more personal Mir documentary, “Out of the Present.” (213) 744-2016.

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LACMA’s “Luis Bun~uel in Mexico,” a series of 12 of the 20 films the iconoclastic Spanish master made in his long exile, commences Friday at 7:30 p.m. with “Los Olvidados” (The Young and the Damned), a timeless 1950 masterpiece in its depiction of juvenile delinquency.For full schedule: (213) 857-6010.

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“Gaach” (The Tree), Catherine Berge’s 63-minute, deeply touching documentary on Soumitra Chatterjee, the star of 14 Satyajit Ray films, opens a one-week run at the Grande 4-Plex Friday.(213) 617-0268.

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The UCLA Film Archive’s outstanding and venturesome “Contemporary Latin American Films” concludes this weekend with “There’s No Pain in Paradise,” a Mexican film dealing with the reactions of two gay men to the death of their closest friend from AIDS; the film was unavailable for preview and screens tonight at 7:30 in Melnitz Hall’s James Bridges Theater.(310) 206-FILM.

Times staff writer Kevin Thomas contributed to this report.