Operation Haylift

The Second World War is over, and brothers Bill Williams and Tom Brown return to Nevada and ranching. But Williams is called up again as a USAF pilot to take part in the Berlin Airlift, leaving Brown to manage both ranches and make witty but sarcastic comments about government handouts, which reporter Jimmy Conlin uses in the paper. Then 18 snowstorms hit the Rockies and Great Plains in less than four weeks, leaving the cattle and sheep to starve and freeze. The Air Force takes a hand in carrying thousands of tons of hay to th ranches and dropping them where the animals can get at them. Williams is part of the effort, while Brown scoffs.

This movie is based on the real Operation Haylift. While it's a major operation for Lippert, and they used their facility in getting old-time talent in, like Ann Rutherford, co-writers Dean Riesner and Joe Sawyer, and Raymond Hatton, it's a rather dry affair, with straw man arguments disguising the real accomplishments of the operation.

Hatton is worth looking at. He entered the movies in 1909, and joined Keystone early on. In the 1920s, he formed a popular comedy pair with Wallace Beery, and continued on screen until 1967. He died in1971, five days after his wife of 62 years, at the age of 84.