The Dawn Patrol (1938 film)

Errol Flynn as Capt. Courtney and David Niven as Lt. Scott.

The Dawn Patrol is a 1938 film about British flying aces in World War I.

Directed by Edmund Goulding. Written by Seton I. Miller and Dan Totheroh.

They roared through the dawn... with death on their wings!  (taglines)

Capt. Courtney

• Man is a savage animal, who, periodically to relieve his nervous tension, tries to destroy himself.
• [drunkenly] Gentlemen, keep the war going please. We're going to roll in a few gutters.
• [Asking Phipps to translate to the German POW] Ask him if he'll drink a toast to the dead.

Phipps

• [Opens package dropped by enemy plane] It's his helmet and goggles. It means a very gallant gentleman died this afternoon. And for what? What have all these deaths accomplished? So many fine chaps have died in this war and are going to die in future wars. [pause] That's all, gentlemen.

Maj. Brand

• You know what this place is? It's a slaughterhouse, and I'm the butcher!

Dialogue

Lt. "Scotty" Scott: It's a funny war.

Phipps: [sadly] No, not awfully.

---

Phipps: [whimsically after reading a letter from home] You know, Brand, it'd be awfully nice if we had a dog around here in the mornings to come in and cheer us up. [whistling and talking to an imagined dog] Here! Come on, fella! Come on here! Mind your muddy feet. Come on!

Maj. Brand: [not really listening] What you doing?

Phipps: Uh, the dog.

Maj. Brand: Dog? What dog? Where?

Phipps: No, I say it would be nice if we had a dog to come in here in the mornings to sort of cheer us up, you know? And... [He mutters as he realizes Brand has not been listening to him. He kisses the letter] I thought it would be sort of cozy, you know.

[Maj. Brand smiles faintly]

---

Capt. Courtney: Hooh, I did't understand a word, did you?

Lt. 'Scotty' Scott: No, I took German in school but...

Capt. Courtney: So did I, but I can't understand the way these foreigners speak it.

Taglines

• They roared through the dawn... with death on their wings!
• Roaring into each blood-red dawn... fighting for women they had never seen ... for love they might never know ! !

Cast

• Errol Flynn — Capt. Courtney
• Basil Rathbone — Major Brand
• David Niven — Lieutenant Scott
• Donald Crisp — Phipps
• Melville Cooper — Sergeant Watkins
• Barry Fitzgerald — Bott
• Carl Esmond — Hauptmann Von Mueller
• Peter Willes — Hollister
• Morton Lowry — Donnie Scott
• Michael Brooke — Captain Squires
• James Burke — Flaherty

External links

• The Dawn Patrol quotes at the Internet Movie Database