Task Force is a 1949 American war film filmed in black-and-white with some Technicolor sequences about the development of U.S. aircraft carriers from USS Langley (CV-1) to USS Franklin (CV-13). Although Robert Montgomery was originally considered for the leading role, the film stars Gary Cooper, Jane Wyatt, Walter Brennan, Wayne Morris, Julie London and Jack Holt. Task Force was the only film Gary Cooper and Jane Wyatt made together, and was the last of the eight films Cooper and Walter Brennan made together. The U.S. Navy provided complete support in not only lending naval vessels and facilities, but also allowed the use of archival footage of the development of naval air power.
theatrical poster
The use of U.S. Navy gun camera film such as the downing of a Japanese Kawanishi H8K "Emily" flying boat by a Grumman F6F Hellcat, created an authentic look.
Jane Waddington Wyatt was an American actress. She starred in a number of Hollywood films, such as Frank Capra's Lost Horizon, but is likely best known for her role as homemaker and mother Margaret Anderson on the CBS and NBC television comedy series Father Knows Best, and as Amanda Grayson, the human mother of Spock on the science-fiction television series Star Trek. Wyatt was a three-time Emmy Award–winner.
Wyatt in the 1930s
Wyatt in Gentleman's Agreement
Jane Wyatt and Richard Dix in The Kansan in 1943
(L-R): Hollywood Stars manger Charlie Root, Jane Wyatt and Los Angeles Angels manager Bill Sweeney sit atop a pile of baseball equipment donated to members of the United States Armed Forces at military installations in Southern California in 1943