[6] Steven Spielberg's 1989 film Always is a remake of A Guy Named Joe[7] and exchanges the World War II backdrop to for one of aerial firefighting.
Dorinda begs him to accept, and Pete agrees before embarking on one last mission with his best friend Al Yackey to spot a German aircraft carrier.
[Note 1] Wounded after an attack by an enemy fighter, Pete orders his crew to parachute from the plane before he bombs the carrier and crashes into the sea.
Pete is to be returned to Earth, where a year has elapsed, to convey his experience and knowledge to Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter pilot Ted Randall at a flight school in the South Pacific.
When Dorinda learns from Al that Ted has been given an extremely dangerous assignment to destroy the largest Japanese ammunition dump in the Pacific, she steals his aircraft.
[5] During Johnson's period of recovery, Tracy recorded broadcasts for Armed Forces Radio and visited hospitals along the California coast and occasionally appearing at the Hollywood Canteen.
Footage shot at various United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) bases was incorporated using an exterior backdrop process.
The pivotal scene with Dunne flying a Lockheed P-38 Lightning was recreated at Drew Field, Florida utilizing a surplus USAAF P-38E from a base in Omaha, where it had been used for instructional purposes.
[14] The Production Code Administration objected to the film's ending, which originally depicted Dunne’s character crashing after bombing an enemy ammunition dump, thereby reuniting her with Pete.
[11][14] Because MGM was unable to find a Los Angeles-area theater in which to show A Guy Named Joe by the end of 1943, it was ineligible for that year's Academy Awards.
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote:The people at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had a dandy idea by the tail when they set out to make the picture ...
"[6]The team of David Boehm and Chandler Sprague were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story in 1944, which was won by Leo McCarey for Going My Way.