Robert T. Smith, a real former Flying Tiger pilot on leave before joining the Army Air Forces, was the technical adviser on the film.

During World War II, Flying Tiger triple ace Lieutenant Fred Atwell and his almost-as-successful comrades, Reginald Fenton and Richard Merlin, are brought back to the United States for a ticker tape parade and a ten-day "leave."

Her boss, newspaper publisher Phil Harriman, likes her just where she is: nearby so he can try to wear her down and persuade her to marry him.

Fred, giving himself the last name "Burton" to hide his identity, romances her himself in an annoyingly persistent way, even renting a room in the building she lives in.

She lets him take her on a date, though she steers him into a crowded canteen where she does volunteer work entertaining servicemen.

Since Fred still does not have a job, Joan takes him along to a banquet honoring airplane manufacturer Harvey J. Sloan.

Fred proceeds to get drunk, singing to bartenders while bar-hopping, "One for My Baby," even tapdancing on a bar table and breaking dozens of drinking glasses in the process.

When that fails, he sends her to the airfield to take pictures of pilots returning to the fight in the Pacific, knowing Fred would be there.

Director Edward H. Griffith introduces the program in a pre-recorded announcement, speaking of the then-current nostalgia for the period.

He has neither one in this..”[7] Michael Phillips reassesses the film in his review for the Chicago Tribune, first published on July 31, 2014 and updated on June 18, 2018: “…a telling and bittersweet artifact of the World War II era, surprisingly clear-eyed about fly-by-night romance (even if it’s true love) and the Yanks who flew by night, and day, for real, many of them dying on the job.…Astaire’s atypically cynical character has a clock running and a lot of living to do.

When things don’t appear to work out… he lets loose with a startling, rage- and alcohol-fueled tap solo set to the great Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer lament, “One for My Baby.”.. (the score) includes “My Shining Hour,” one of the classiest of all wartime ballads, ….

The movie manages to fulfill its topical patriotic duties in a way that feels fresh, urgent and honest about its time and place.”[8]