Extremely popular in its day, A Guy Named Joe (1943) is an odd concoction. This wartime fantasy feels too heavy for a frothy melodrama, but the silly premise undercuts its dramatic potential. Pete Sanbridge (Spencer Tracy) is a brash bomber pilot in the Army Air Corps. Shot down during a mission, Pete receives an afterlife mission: to impart supernatural wisdom to American pilots. Specifically, he mentors fighter pilot Ted Randall (Van Johnson) in action over the Pacific. Things grow complicated when Ted falls for Dorinda Durston (Irene Dunne), Pete's love interest in life.
A Guy Named Joe sounds like an unpleasant production. Tracy and Dunne did not get along; one imagines that director Victor Fleming (a right wing isolationist) and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (ex-Communist and future blacklistee) also made an awkward combination. Costar Van Johnson was seriously injured midway through production and nearly fired, until Tracy and Dunne reconciled, then intervened to save him. Despite everything, Joe was a huge hit.
Regardless, Joe's story is overstuffed (running 122 minutes) yet flimsy. We're told that all pilots receive supernatural guidance, an odd conceit delivered without clear explanation of Pete's powers. Apparently he provides subconscious hints that the pilots pick up on? It's a weird idea that doesn't take hold. The strident propaganda content, from the bombastic score to Heaven directing the Allied war effort, clanks starkly against the intended escapism.
Jingoism aside, the story never really gels. Joe works best in simpler moments, like Pete's first interaction with Ted, rather than its set pieces. Several air raids provide action scenes but the establishing scenes drag on far too long: Powell and Pressburger's similar A Matter of Life and Death plunged directly into its story. Ted and Dorinda's romance never feels convincing so the supernatural triangle doesn't register. At least the ending takes an unusual tack, putting Dorinda in a bomber's cockpit.
Like many such films, Joe benefits from a committed cast. Spencer Tracy plays stern rectitude and brash romanticism equally well, and Irene Dunne is tough and sweetly vulnerable. Van Johnson is charming but struggles to connect with Dunne; their iffy chemistry proves a deadweight. Lionel Barrymore features in an unusually benevolent role; Ward Bond, James Gleason and Barry Nelson have other roles. Look for Esther Williams in a bit part.
A Guy Named Joe charmed audiences and influenced numerous filmmakers, from Michael Powell to Steven Spielberg, who remade it as Always (1989). Its cocktail of disparate ingredients probably hooked '40s audiences, but they make for an awkward, uneven film.
