The Rear Gunner
Synopsis
This documentary-style drama focuses on the training of aerial rear gunners during World War II. It follows Private PeeWee Williams, a Kansas farm boy, as he develops his home-grown shooting skills into the specialized abilities required of an aerial gunner manning the tail turret of an American bomber. The film was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 16
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
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This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Louis HesseShot by Ted D Mccord
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Cast & Crew
16 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Burgess Meredith
as Pvt. L.A. Pee Wee Williams
Ronald Reagan
as Lt. Ames
Tom Neal
as Instructor Sergeant
Dane Clark
as Benny
Jonathan Hale
as Commanding Officer
Knox Manning
as Narrator
Frank Coghlan Jr
as Gunnery Student
Hank Mann
as Carnival Booth Man
Jack Mower
as Recruiting Officer
Richard Quine
as Pilot with Sun Glasses
Directors
1Writers
1Producers
1Other crew
3Parents Guide
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