March 2021 Round-Up
TOTAL FILMS SEEN IN MARCH: 35
(see the film posters at the bottom of the post, arranged in watching order)
NEW-TO-ME: 35
REWATCHES: 0
SEEN ON THE BIG SCREEN: 1
AVIATION FILMS: 34
MOST WATCHED ACTOR: James Stewart (3 in total)
Cannot believe spring has arrived and soon we will be heading towards summer. I'm desperately hoping for a relaxation of the Covid restrictions now more people are being vaccinated. My main concern is for both the Spanish and Dutch government to drop the mandatory PCR tests so I can go and visit my family in The Netherlands without having to spend extra money on tests. But as Covid cases are rising again in Catalunya, I'm afraid there is little hope for relaxation of the restrictions at present.
This month we've renewed our rental contract for our Barcelona beach apartment. Apart from enjoying the spring weather now and then — on our little terrace or in our barrio and beyond — I don't mind being cooped up in our lovely apartment at all, because I can watch classic films forever. I did watch a considerable amount this March, 35 films in total! Same amount as in the two previous months. And what a great viewing month it has been since I was concentrating on aviation films exclusively. I must have spent much more hours watching films this month than I normally do because a lot of these aviation films had a long runtime, of two hours or even longer (e.g. Hell's Angels, The Spirit of St. Louis, The Flight of the Phoenix, Wings, A Guy Named Joe, Test Pilot).
I also wrote an extra blog post on cinema and aviation (here).
My most watched actor is Jimmy Stewart. I didn't set out to watch films of a certain actor, just aviation films. But I was happy to have watched 3 Jimmy Stewart films this month since I hope to complete his pre-1970 filmography this year.
My most watched actress is Myrna Loy with 3 films watched.
Breaking the 35 watched films down in decades:
1910s - 0
1920s - 2
1930s - 17
1940s - 9
1950s - 5
1960s - 2
Among the aviation films were two silents (Wings and Lilac Time), so I'm definitely going to make good on my intention to watch at least one or two silents a month.
Apart from watching aviation films I made one trip to the Filmoteca to watch the pre-code Cleopatra.
I'll start with the one theater viewing. I missed the screening of Secret People, one of Audrey Hepburn's earliest films, because I was just too tired to go out to the cinema. It isn't a film I'm particularly keen on watching anyway. Cleopatra by Cecil B. DeMille isn't a film that was high on my watchlist either but since it's more of a spectacle I gathered it would be more fun to view it on the big screen. Since it was a first watch, there are no rewatches at all this month (normally my only rewatches are theater viewings).
Claudette Colbert stars in Cleopatra together with Warren William, Henry Wilcoxon and Gertrude Michael. I probably liked this film more seeing it on the big screen than if I would have watched it at home. Though I love Claudette Colbert, she couldn't convince me she was Cleopatra (it felt like she had just walked in and had put on her costume), neither could Warren William sell his Julius Caesar to me. I guess I'm not really into these historical films, about ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire. The acting was a bit stiff, like it was a stage play, but the sets were impressive and there is some nice photography by Victor Milner. I also loved Colbert's costumes, some were pretty daring. I thought Henry Wilcoxon was a weak Marc Antony and a bit boring, but the scene where he hears that Cleopatra is testing poisons had me laughing out loud. Incidentally, I was waiting for Colbert to take a milk bath and thought they had maybe cut the scene. Turned out the milk bath scene is from another Colbert film, The Sign of the Cross (1932). Not really inclined to see that one any time soon. I'll wait for a theater viewing.
I'll continue with the aviation films, 34 in total, here listed in watching order:
The Dawn Patrol (with Richard Barthelmess, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Neil Hamilton)
God Is My Co-Pilot (with Dennis Morgan, Dane Clark, Raymond Massey, Andrea King and Alan Hale)
Flight from Glory (with Chester Morris, Van Heflin, Whitney Bourne and Onslow Stevens)
Test Pilot (with Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy and Lionel Barrymore)
Wings in the Dark (with Myrna Loy, Cary Grant, Roscoe Karns and Dean Jagger)
Christopher Strong (with Katharine Hepburn, Colin Clive, Billie Burke and Helen Chandler)
Devil Dogs of the Air (with James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, Margaret Lindsay and Frank McHugh)
Fugitive in the Sky (with Jean Muir, Warren Hull and John Litel)
Fate Is the Hunter (with Glenn Ford, Nancy Kwan, Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette and Mark Stevens)
Q Planes (with Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson and Valerie Hobson)
Murder in the Air (with Ronald Reagan, John Litel and Lya Lys)
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (with William Holden, Grace Kelly, Fredric March and Mickey Rooney)
The Man Who Found Himself (with John Beal, Joan Fontaine and Philip Huston)
Men Against the Sky (with Richard Dix, Kent Taylor, Edmund Lowe and Wendy Barrie)
Hell's Angels (with Ben Lyon, James Hall and Jean Harlow)
Slattery’s Hurricane (with Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell and Veronica Lake)
Corregidor (with Otto Kruger, Elissa Landi and Donald Woods)
Thunder Birds (with Gene Tierney, Preston Foster and John Sutton)
Flight Command (with Robert Taylor, Ruth Hussey, Walter Pidgeon and Paul Kelly)
Murder in the Clouds (with Lyle Talbot, Ann Dvorak and Gordon Westcott)
China Clipper (with Pat O'Brien, Beverly Roberts, Humphrey Bogart and Ross Alexander)
The Spirit of St. Louis (with James Stewart, Murray Hamilton and Patricia Smith)
Strategic Air Command (with James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Lovejoy and Barry Sullivan)
The Flight of the Phoenix (with James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch and Hardy Krüger)
Julie (with Doris Day, Louis Jourdan, Barry Sullivan and Frank Lovejoy)
Lilac Time (with Colleen Moore and Gary Cooper)
A Guy Named Joe (with Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson, Ward Bond and Lionel Barrymore)
The Dawn Patrol (with Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, David Niven and Donald Crisp)
Flying Devils (with Bruce Cabot, Eric Linden, Arline Judge and Ralph Bellamy)
Wings (with Clara Bow, Charles Rogers, Richard Arlen, Jobyna Ralston and Gary Cooper)
Night Flight (with John Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Myrna Loy and Robert Montgomery)
The Tarnished Angels (with Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone and Jack Carson)
Air Hawks (with Ralph Bellamy and Tala Birrell)
Flight for Freedom (with Rosalind Russell, Fred MacMurray and Herbert Marshall)
Let's first start with the well-known aviation films that have been on my watchlist for some time now: Wings, Hell's Angels and both versions of The Dawn Patrol.
Wings is my highest rated film of the month. This acclaimed WWI aviation film won the first Oscar for Best Picture, the only silent film to do so. It is indeed a masterpiece and a lengthy one at that. But I was entertained throughout and it didn't even feel thát long. I liked the casting and Clara Bow glowed. I had only seen her in It but here she's really sparkling and very likeable as the girl-next-door in love with Charles Rogers. I also love Jobyna Ralston but sadly her role is very small. The boys Rogers and Richard Arlen are well cast as the two friends and Rogers is especially good in his emotional moments. (I was also fighting tears.) Furthermore the production values are good and the aerial scenes are outstanding. Also loved the music score (I watched the restored Paramount version) and the different tints and the orange-yellow flames when the planes go down. There's a famous tracking shot at a party that is amazing. So all in all, a great war buddy film with a splash of romance. That ending is cute. And watch out for a young Gary Cooper in a small yet memorable part.
Hell’s Angels is an early talkie and it shows. The dialogue is stilted and wooden and everything comes off rather stiff. Directed by Howard Hughes, this epic war film went down in film history as a controversial production with a budget of four million dollars and with three stunt pilots losing their lives. Initially made as a silent film Hughes decided to reshoot it when sound became available. The film is mainly shot in black-and-white but there are also scenes in colour. The party sequence with Jean Harlow is shot in beautiful pinkish tones and there are night shots in blue tints, also the duel at sunrise and the great scene with the German zeppelin (going down in orangy-pink colours). The best thing this film has to offer is Jean Harlow ánd the spectacular aerial sequences. Harlow looks especially beautiful in colour in that gorgeous dress with the amazing back. (This would be her only screen appearance in colour.) The action scenes are pretty wild, even for modern standards, and they must have been amazing to see on the big screen for 1930s audiences. Not much to say about the two leading men Ben Lyon and James Hall. They make believable brothers but mainly because they look alike. They are very bland, though. Thus, the shortcomings are the performances and the narrative but for aviation fans these aerial shots are a real treat.
I really loved The Dawn Patrol from 1930. First of all, I like both Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and especially Barthelmess looks really good here (I prefer Fairbanks Jr. a bit older). Of course I had heard good things about this acclaimed early talkie, an anti-war film, and it really lives up to its reputation. Poignant story where commanding officer (an overacting Neil Hamilton) obeys orders, sending his young men with few flight hours to their deaths while getting resistance from Barthelmess. When it's Barthelmess' turn as commander in chief, he gets the same orders and also has to send his unexperienced pilots behind enemy lines. The film is bleak and captures the futility of war well. The acting could be better (Barthelmess is the stand-out and I loved his sensitive performance) but director Howard Hawks really gets his message across. The scene with the captured German soldier joining Barthelmess and his men for a drink shows how men are just men and also young enemy soldiers are unwillingly thrown into this mess of a war. What's the most appealing of this film is the typical Hawksian male camaraderie and friendship between Fairbanks Jr. and Barthelmess. It's truly heartwarming. With sing-along-songs and great aerial scenes, I think this is a great film. It's by no means perfect but it left an indelible impression. Small supporting part by Frank McHugh and fine cinematography by Ernest Haller.
The 1938 remake of The Dawn Patrol is as good as the 1930 original by Howard Hawks but I have a slight preference for the earlier version. This one is more polished and fluid, the Hawks version is more gritty and raw. There are some plus points in this Edmund Goulding version: I prefer Basil Rathbone over Neil Hamilton. In the first place Rathbone is a much more charismatic actor than Hamilton and a better one at that. He plays Major Brand like he's more in command than Hamilton who seems more of a nervous wreck. Rathbone's stern demeanour may elicit less sympathy from the viewer at first but his conflicted feelings about sending his unexperienced men behind enemy lines is also very apparent here. The addition of Donald Crisp as Rathbone's right hand is a definite plus. They play well off each other and there's even humour there. This is also where it differs from the Hawks version: there's more humour and it's a bit lighter in tone. Lot has to do with Errol Flynn in the lead whose vibrant on-screen personality is vastly different from Richard Barthelmess who at times comes across as stiff and formal. Flynn and David Niven were good friends off-screen and it shows because they have great chemistry and their interplay looks very natural. A lot of aerial footage was taken from the 1930 film which is a negative point for this one. Though I love Flynn, I prefer Barthelmess' sensitive portrayal.
Furthermore I watched three aviation films with James Stewart: The Spirit of St. Louis, Strategic Air Command and The Flight of the Phoenix.
The Spirit of St. Louis is an unusual film in Billy Wilder's oeuvre, starring Jimmy Stewart as Charles 'Slim' Lindbergh who would make history as the first pilot to undertake a solo non-stop transatlantic crossing from New York to Paris. The film is too long, with 2 hours and 15 minutes of runtime, and little time is spent on Lindbergh the man himself, just Lindbergh the aviator. There are flashbacks with some humour in them but I found them mostly unfunny. Stewart gives a solid performance, as can be expected, but he's too old for the part and I didn't like the blond hair and eye makeup. I liked seeing his struggle against sleepiness while flying. Probably my fave bit was the part with the mirror girl.
Strategic Air Command is another Jimmy Stewart aviation film, his final collaboration with Anthony Mann, yet not their finest one. It was the least enjoyable of the three Stewart films I watched this month. He's paired with June Allyson again, this would be their third and last film. It's clearly a propaganda film, serving as a recruitment tool, and pretty dull. Fortunately it benefits from some gorgeous aerial photography by William H. Daniels. Actually, seeing those big silver birds soaring through the blue sky, accompanied by the beautiful music score by Victor Young, is one of the best things about this film. Also, Jimmy Stewart doesn't disappoint and he looks good in uniform. The biggest flaw here is Allyson as Stewart's wife. They have good chemistry but her character is so whiny and she just got on my nerves. I do like Allyson (especially as Jo in Little Women) but I can really understand why people don't like her as an actress. Also with Frank Lovejoy, Barry Sullivan and Harry Morgan in supporting roles.
I did not expect to enjoy The Flight of the Phoenix so much. I was dreading the long runtime so watched it in two sittings. This film about the crash of a cargo aircraft and its survivors hinges on the excellent performances from the male cast. James Stewart and Richard Attenborough are the stand-outs here and are aptly supported by Peter Finch, Hardy Krüger, Ian Bannen, Ernest Borgnine, Dan Duryea and George Kennedy. I love the little heartfelt moments between the different characters, like Ernest Borgnine lending his radio to Gabriele Tinti, the friendship between Stewart and Attenborough and all their scenes together, the last reconciliatory moment between Stewart and Krüger. Though this film is more character-driven than plot-driven, there is enough plot to keep the viewer fully engaged with plenty of tension and drama (especially the final act with the men waiting in eager anticipation for the engine of the aircraft to work). Great film!
Apart from the acclaimed Wings I watched another silent film, also with Gary Cooper: Lilac Time. It's the first American silent WWI aviation film, telling the story of a French farm girl (Colleen Moore) and a British pilot (Cooper) falling in love in wartime. The film starts off light with Moore having ample opportunity to show off her comedic skills. I found little subtlety in her acting. It's all broad gestures and exaggerated facial expressions. Fortunately she's more subdued later on in the film when the events take a more dramatic turn. It's really Moore's vehicle and it's actually the first one I've seen her in. Cooper has less to do but he looks beautiful this young, even though the lipstick is a bit distracting. The aerial shots are great, with amazing stunts of biplanes going down. Some incidents are really too coincidental: when Cooper's plane goes down, it lands miraculously close to where Moore is, and whaddayaknow? At that very moment a medical convoy passes by and can take the wounded Cooper to the hospital. Though I like happy endings, this film would definitely have benefited from a more dramatic ending.
I watched a lot of 1930s aviation films. They are (apart from Hell's Angels and both versions of The Dawn Patrol mentioned earlier): Flight from Glory, Test Pilot, Wings in the Dark, Christopher Strong, Devil Dogs of the Air, Fugitive in the Sky, Q Planes, The Man Who Found Himself, Murder in the Clouds, China Clipper, Flying Devils, Night Flight and Air Hawks. Of these I enjoyed Test Pilot and Q Planes the most.
Test Pilot is a MGM production with great star power. A bit too long but I enjoyed this a lot and it also delivers an emotional punch at the end. Clark Gable and Myrna Loy have great chemistry, in fact they have good chemistry with Gable's best friend Spencer Tracy as well and the actors play well off each other separately too (Gable & Tracy and Loy & Tracy). I loved Loy here and her character. She's witty, vulnerable and likeable and Loy switches effortlessly from acting gaily to acting dramatically (reportedly this was her personal favourite film). My second fave person is Tracy. He acts so natural and I loved his laid-back manner and his loyal character. His scenes with Loy were more precious to me than Loy's scenes with Gable. I wouldn't have minded if Gable would have died and Tracy would have ended up with Loy. (Tracy and Loy also star together in Whipsaw, and I might check that out soon.) Though Gable is mostly Gable like we know him, he impresses in his emotional scenes towards the end of the film. Also with Lionel Barrymore.
Q Planes, a British mix of spy thriller and screwball comedy, was great fun and I chuckled my way through. I sought this out after someone recommended it on Letterboxd. The plot is a bit silly but it's really secondary to the characterisation and performances and the wonderful witty dialogue. It has Ralph Richardson in the lead and he's delightful and hilarious as the eccentric Scotland Yard agent trying to solve the mystery of the missing airplanes. Armed with his hat and umbrella (watch out for the shot of his wardrobe filled with hats and umbrellas) and aided by his sister reporter Valerie Hobson and pilot Laurence Olivier he cracks the case (I just found out he and Olivier had a 50-year friendship off-screen). I liked the romance between Olivier and Hobson and would have liked to see more of them together. Hobson is a likeable and sassy female lead and I liked seeing Olivier in such a light role. I really should watch this again because I'm sure I missed some of the rapid-fire dialogue. Recommended!
I also really enjoyed Wings in the Dark and The Man Who Found Himself.
Admittedly Wings in the Dark has a plot that stretches the boundaries of credibility and Cary Grant as an aviator/inventor is not very convincing either. But as a whole this was really watchable and entertaining. I sought this out because I was looking for another aviation film with Myrna Loy (after having seen Test Pilot) and she has a great role as a stunt pilot and there are some fine aerial sequences. The leads have good chemistry and I liked their scenes together, especially when a blind Grant asks Loy to describe her physical appearance to him and when he sees her face with his hands. I don't find Grant a very good dramatic actor, but he's doing okay here in his dramatic scenes. Also with Roscoe Karns and a young Dean Jagger, and extra points for the German shepherd guide-dog Lighting.
The Man Who Found Himself is primarily noteworthy for seeing Joan Fontaine in one of her first roles, and she looks lovely this young. I like John Beal — although he's not very strong leading man material — but Joan doesn't make a particularly good match with him. Here Beal plays a doctor turning hobo after a scandal and then finds himself working as a mechanic for an aviation company. Passionate about flying he soon becomes a pilot for a medical service. Fontaine is the nurse who helps him to get back on track. By the way, it was curious to see how the medical staff was wearing surgical masks without covering their noses. Our current pandemic really makes us notice these things right away. Though the whole film was pretty predictable, I really enjoyed it, but mainly because of Fontaine's lovely presence.
Flight from Glory, Fugitive in the Sky, Murder in the Clouds and China Clipper are all decent and entertaining B-movies.
Flight from Glory is an aviation film about misfit pilots working in Argentina for an unscrupulous man (Onslow Stevens) who's running an air service and lets his pilots fly planes well past their expiry date. (When a pilot crashes Stevens lets his next of kin pay for the plane that killed their beloved!) This film is elevated by the good performance of a young Van Heflin (I think I've never seen him this young before). I hardly find fault with his performances, he always delivers. Overall the acting was okay and I also like Chester Morris. Some great photography, which is quite a surprise for such a low budget film, especially the tracking shot when the pilots are sitting around the table and tell their life stories. The DP is Nicholas Musuraca so it's actually no wonder. Good plot twist when a bitter Van Heflin forces Onslow Stevens to experience a flight on one of his own crappy planes.
Fugitive in the Sky manages to pack a lot of plot in the short runtime of just 58 minutes. A commercial flight with two disguised criminals aboard, an undercover G-man, a reporter, a brave stewardess flying the plane when the two pilots are taken out of action, a fiery dust storm, a crash landing. Need I say more? Of course one should not expect too much from the production values and the performances are standard, but it sure is entertaining and the hour is over before you know it. I like seeing commercial flights on these little vintage planes and how they take stopovers to do some shopping like they are on a bus. I also like Jean Muir and I plan to see more of her films.
Murder in the Clouds is a fun and fast-paced aviation film with a runtime of an hour. Best thing of course is Ann Dvorak, too bad she didn't have more screen time. She also doesn't have a lot of chemistry with her male co-star Lyle Talbot. He has a rare leading part and is the weak link here since he's not a strong leading man. With some great aerial scenes, this was more enjoyable than I thought it would be, despite the plot holes.
In China Clipper Pat O'Brien plays the unlikeable owner of an airline, spending the best part of the film being nasty to everyone around him. (This is apparently based on the true story of the creation of Pan American Airways.) His wife Beverly Roberts leaves him but his friend Humphrey Bogart (whom he also treats like dirt) sticks with him and flies his clipper to China. Best moment is when Bogart tells O'Brien off and socks him on the jaw. There is some unfunny and irritating comic relief by Marie Wilson.
Christopher Strong, Devil Dogs of the Air, Flying Devils, Night Flight and Air Hawks are the least enjoyable of the 1930s aviation films seen this month.
In Christopher Strong, directed by Dorothy Arzner — probably the most famous female director of Classic Hollywood (except for Ida Lupino, of course) — Katharine Hepburn plays an aviatrix, falling for a married man (Colin Clive). There were several reasons why I didn't like this film so much. I thought the dialogue was pretty stilted and Hepburn's performance is too harsh, I was missing some warmth. Also, she doesn't have a lot of chemistry with Clive and I had a hard time buying into their love affair. I guess I also didn't care much for their characters. I had a problem with Hepburn's character seemingly having a mind of her own — with a great adventurous job — but all of a sudden willing to give it all up for love. The biggest surprise was the ending (SPOILER AHEAD!) when she finds herself pregnant. With the prospect of a child born out of wedlock and not being able to bear the thought of her married lover doing the right thing just out of duty, she runs her plane into the ground and kills herself. Anyway, my favourite performance and character was Billie Burke's. She was the only one for whom I felt sympathy. Watch out for Margaret Lindsay (in an uncredited part) asking Hepburn for an autograph at a party. Two stand-out scenes: the one where Hepburn appears in a glittering moth dress and the one where we see her hand underneath a burning lamp, showing a bracelet and ring (a truly beautiful shot). Oh ... by the way, why is this film called Christopher Strong? Clive's character is not the principal one and the story is not even told from his point of view ánd he has second billing to Hepburn. The mind boggles!
Devil Dogs of the Air stars lifelong friends James Cagney and Pat O'Brien who made nine films together. I didn't enjoy this as much as I'd hoped I would, mainly to do with the fact that I found Cagney's character too cocky. Normally I really like Cagney. I've seen plenty of his films and he mostly plays a brash character but not to the point that it becomes annoying. Here his character is just too full of himself and irritating. Going after one's friend's girl is a no-go in my book and Cagney's romance with Margaret Lindsay is weak. I didn't understand why Lindsay would prefer Cagney over O'Brien in the first place. Though O'Brien isn't very amiable either, I was still rooting for him to get the girl. For me the most enjoyable scenes were the aerial scenes, some of them were great. Also with Frank McHugh, who's annoying too.
I kept dozing off while watching Flying Devils in bed but it was entertaining as far as I could see. The ending where the two planes clash in midair was quite unexpected and shocking, also because I had missed what was going on. The aerial scenes are exciting but I read somewhere they're stock footage from another film. Might rewatch this someday to see what I've missed.
I had already anticipated that Night Flight wasn't going to be particularly good, having seen the ratings on Letterboxd. It really is a crying shame with such a star-studded cast and a plot that held some thrills. Where it really fails is that there is hardly any interaction between the different characters. These characters are poorly drawn and most have little to do. Clark Gable has only scenes from the open cockpit of his plane, Myrna Loy doesn't even have a name but is cast as the wife of a Brasilian pilot (William Gargan), and Helen Hayes is a bit annoying as Gable's wife. Fortunately Lionel Barrymore shares some scenes with John Barrymore (who overacts at times) and also with Robert Montgomery who plays a playboy pilot (I almost missed Montgomery in his last scene where he's in pj's and looks out the window). I actually liked Frank Conroy as the radio operator. Probably the best thing about this film is the cinematography by Oliver T. Marsh, it really stands out. So many beautiful framed shots with light and shadow. The aerial scenes are also good and I liked the handwritten notes Gable and his wireless operator exchange on the plane.
Air Hawks is a short B-film that I watched for Ralph Bellamy, and fortunately he gets the girl (Tala Birell). This film about an airmail service is nothing special and the plot with the mad scientist and his death ray machine targeting planes and shooting them down in mid-flight was a bit laughable. There is a cameo appearance by Wiley Post (I had never heard of him before), apparently a famous aviator during the interwar period who died in a plane crash, together with his friend, the actor Will Rogers.
Continuing with the aviation films from the 1940s: God Is My Co-Pilot, Murder in the Air, Men Against the Sky, Slattery’s Hurricane, Corregidor, Thunder Birds, Flight Command, A Guy Named Joe and Flight for Freedom.
Thunder Birds, Flight Command and A Guy Named Joe are the best of the 1940s films.
Thunder Birds is a lighthearted aviation film with Preston Foster playing a flight instructor helping rookie John Sutton with his pilot career. The characters are really likeable, and even though there was competition between the men over gorgeous Gene Tierney, they liked each other and respected one another. Actually, Foster was a bit too nice and polite and should have fought harder to get the girl. It was this film's greatest bummer: Tierney ended up with dull Sutton while she had good chemistry with Foster and they made a much nicer couple. Tierney looks very good in Technicolor and I like her outfits in cowgirl fashion. Love those boots! The aerial scenes are also beautifully photographed with the yellow-blue planes against a cloudless sky. Supporting roles for Jack Holt and Reginald Denny and an uncredited appearance by a young Peter Lawford. Also Dame May Whitty has a small part in a flashback to provide the backstory for Sutton's character but I found her part and the flasback rather superfluous.
Flight Command is a drama with a good cast and great aerial scenes. I loved seeing those little planes up in the air in formation and hear them buzz like bees. Robert Taylor is beautiful this young but as an actor he would mature and improve as he got older. The best thing about this film is Ruth Hussey as Walter Pidgeon's wife. I like her vulnerability. I also liked the fact that Taylor and Hussey didn't succumb to an illicit affair, being friends and attracted to each other. There's this great scene where Hussey touches Taylor's hand, realises her feelings have deepened, and she pulls her hand away immediately as if stung. Taylor is doing some trick with spoons and doesn't even notice her reaction to touching his hand. Hussey is also very good in the scene where she tells Pidgeon she's going away. Somehow it didn't surprise me that this film was directed by Frank Borzage. It's not typical Borzage, but there is a warmth and depth to the characters that still betrays the master's hand. I also liked the warm comradeship between the men of the Hellcats Squadron. This film has a very predictable ending but I didn't mind. Also small forgettable part for Marsha Hunt.
Best thing about A Guy Named Joe is Irene Dunne and I enjoyed the first part best before Spencer Tracy dies. Dunne and Tracy have good chemistry and I loved their playful banter, well scripted by Dalton Trumbo. Dunne's romance with Van Johnson isn't convincing (nothing to do with the 18-year age gap) and I would have preferred for Dunne to end up with Ward Bond (who has a great role here) but knew this wouldn't happen since they were just good friends. The film tends to gravitate towards sentimentality, with the heavenly music and all, but there were moments that were genuinely touching. The scene where pilot Dunne steals Johnson's plane to drop bombs behind enemy lines is a bit far-fetched. Also with Lionel Barrymore and Esther Williams in small parts.
I also enjoyed Men Against the Sky, Slattery’s Hurricane and Flight for Freedom.
Men Against the Sky is a standard aviation B-programmer but enjoyable nonetheless thanks to the efforts of the cast. I like Richard Dix, Edmund Lowe and Wendy Barrie. Lowe brings something lighthearted to the film while Dix's drunken pilot is a bit of a tragic character. Barrie looks lovely and fortunately she has a reasonable amount of screen time. I actually liked Kent Taylor as her love interest. This film has some exciting aerial scenes but a depressing ending. Poor Dix.
Slattery’s Hurricane is a drama with a good cast but meandering plot. This redemption story felt pretty meek, also the performances, yet it's still entertaining. Richard Widmark plays a former navy pilot taking a plane into a hurricane storm and reminisces about his past (his story is told in flashback). His character is unpleasant, at times annoying, but becomes more likeable towards the end. John Russell is okay as Widmark's friend whose wife Linda Darnell was Widmark's former flame. Darnell has a rather boring part and doesn't elicit much sympathy from the viewer. I was rooting for Veronica Lake who plays Widmark's girlfriend desperately in love with him. Lake is less attractive here with her hair cut short and without her trademark peekaboo hairstyle. (She was married to director André De Toth at the time.) With some good hurricane scenes.
Flight for Freedom is a fictionalised biopic about Amelia Earhart, with Rosalind Russell playing an Earhart-like aviatrix, learning to fly under the tutelage of Herbert Marshall. Fred MacMurray is a pilot colleague and her love interest. I was rooting for sweet Marshall because MacMurray was pretty arrogant, though I have to say he looked really handsome here. Though Russell is good in playing feminist types, she just didn't really suit this part, I thought. She looked good when she had her hair up, wearing pants and with grease on her face. But when she dressed up and wore her hair in the victory roll style, hair all piled up on top of her head, she looked awful. Russell has some good acting moments when showing her vulnerable side.
Coming to the last 1940s films to mention: God Is My Co-Pilot, Murder in the Air and Corregidor.
God Is My Co-Pilot is seriously flawed yet entertaining to some extent. It's a biopic of fighter pilot Robert L. Scott who flew with the famed Flying Tigers, nickname of the First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force in 1941 – 1942, who were tasked to protect China from Japanese forces and were recruited and commanded by retired U.S. Army captain Claire Lee Chennault. I think Dennis Morgan is miscast as Scott and Raymond Massey as Chennault has the best acting papers. The film is tonally uneven, at times too lightweight, and could have used more drama. A lot has to do with the performances, Morgan looks too cheery as well as the other actors who play the Flying Tigers. The religious aspect of how God is one's co-pilot, advocated by priest Alan Hale, is treated here almost like an afterthought. In fact, the film is short on faith and when it does broach the topic, it comes off corny. The best thing this film has going for it are the great aerial scenes and dogfights.
Murder in the Air and Corregidor are my lowest rated films of all films watched this month.
Murder in the Air is part of a four-film serial, with Ronald Reagan playing Secret Service agent Brass Bancroft and Eddie Foy Jr. as his sidekick providing comic relief. I was sleepy while watching this and the only reason I chose it was for its short runtime and aviation theme. I knew not to expect too much from leading man Reagan and he's indeed very bland but he didn't have much to work with in the first place. The whole experience was unexciting. The aviation part was not an airplane but a zeppelin. This type of airship really fascinates me. Apparently the scene where the dirigible crashes shows real-life footage from the USS Macon crash. Probably the most noteworthy thing about this film is Reagan walking around bare-chested for a long time after his shirt is pulled off for a body search. I didn't mind but it didn't make much sense. Also with John Litel who gives a very lackluster performance.
Corregidor was not much of an aviation film at all, if it weren't for the war aerial scenes with planes crossing the sky carrying deadly bombs. It's mostly a drab romance story, a love triangle, with Elissa Landi being involved with both her husband Otto Kruger and former love Donald Woods. I love Landi but more in her 1930s films. Here she looks a bit worn out. With low production values and an overbearing music score there is close to nothing to recommend here.
Only a couple of films from the 1950s and 1960s left to mention (apart from the 3 Jimmy Stewart films already discussed): Fate Is the Hunter, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, Julie and The Tarnished Angels.
Fate Is the Hunter and The Tarnished Angels are the best of these four films, though they were both disappointing.
Fate Is the Hunter is a disaster movie starring Glenn Ford as an airline executive tasked with the investigation of an air crash of a commercial flight. His buddy Rod Taylor was the plane's captain. Was it pilot error or did fate cause the accident? The investigation is told in a series of flashbacks with people who knew Taylor. This film could have used a bit more tension to make it more compelling. Though it definitely held my attention and was entertaining, there was something lacking in the narrative and characterisation. I guess that if the characters would have been drawn better I would have felt more engaged emotionally. Still, the performances are good and Ford convinces as the airline executive. I thought Mark Stevens' performance was the stand-out. Nancy Kwan has second billing but her role is small and also Suzanne Pleshette as the sole survivor has limited screen time. Jane Russell appears as herself and an uncredited Dorothy Malone has a small speaking part. Oh ... pay attention to the spilled coffee!
The Tarnished Angels, directed by Douglas Sirk, tells the story of a newspaper reporter (Rock Hudson) becoming involved with a daredevil barnstorming pilot (Robert Stack) and his wife (Dorothy Malone), who works as a parachutist. Though I enjoyed this movie, I never felt emotionally involved and didn't really care for the characters. Hudson's role and performance wasn't his strongest. I think Malone has the best role here and she looks good. I was pleasantly surprised how good the cinematography was (filmed in black-and-white CinemaScope), courtesy of Irving Glassberg, it really added to the moody atmosphere. The aerial scenes of the flight races are pretty amazing.
Both The Bridges at Toko-Ri and Julie were entertaining but underwhelming.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri is a drab Korean War movie. William Holden gives a fairly decent performance as a lawyer turned fighter pilot with doubts about his upcoming dangerous mission of bombing the bridges at Toko-Ri. Grace Kelly has a very small part as Holden's wife. With the little screen time she has she doesn't impress much and her character is dull. The flying sequences are well done and I liked the proceedings of getting the fighter pilots ready for take off and, most excitingly, the landing part on the aircraft carrier. Probably the best thing is watching the tension on Fredric March's face as he anticipates Holden's landing with dread. The film gets sentimental from time to time but the ending came as a surprise and is truly bleak. Mickey Rooney is in this too as a brave helicopter pilot and there's a sympathetic role for Charles McGraw as Holden's commander in chief. Academy Award for Best Special Effects.
All in all, it was a good film month. I enjoyed watching so many aviation films and haven't finished watching them by a long shot. In April I might watch more films directed by William Wellman and this will also give me the opportunity to watch some more aviation films since he made many. But mostly I will be watching random films next month, choose whatever tickles my fancy. See you then!
PHOTOS/GIFS IN THIS POST FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:
*Wings (1927) with Clara Bow;
*Cleopatra (1934) with Claudette Colbert;
*Cleopatra (1934) with Claudette Colbert and Henry Wilcoxon;
*Cleopatra (1934) with Warren William;
*Wings (1927) with Charles Rogers; (gif by me)
*Wings (1927) with Jobyna Ralston, Richard Arlen and Charles Rogers; (gif by me)
*Hell’s Angels (1930); (gif by me)
*Hell’s Angels (1930) with Jean Harlow and Ben Lyon; (gif by me)
*Hell’s Angels (1930) with Jean Harlow, James Hall and Ben Lyon; (gif by me)
*The Dawn Patrol (1930), behind the scenes with director Howard Hawks and Richard Barthelmess;
*The Dawn Patrol (1930) with Richard Barthelmess, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Neil Hamilton;
*The Dawn Patrol (1930) with Richard Barthelmess and Neil Hamilton;
*The Dawn Patrol (1938) with Errol Flynn and David Niven;
*The Dawn Patrol (1938) with Errol Flynn, David Niven, Donald Crisp and Basil Rathbone;
*The Spirit of St. Louis (1957) with James Stewart and Bartlett Robinson;
*The Spirit of St. Louis (1957) with James Stewart and Patricia Smith; (screenshot by me)
*Strategic Air Command (1955) with James Stewart, June Allyson and Jay C. Flippen;
*Strategic Air Command (1955), behind the scenes with James Stewart and June Allyson;
*Strategic Air Command (1955) with James Stewart;
*The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) with James Stewart, Richard Attenborough and Hardy Krüger;
*The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) with James Stewart and Peter Finch;
*Lilac Time (1928) with Colleen Moore and Gary Cooper;
*Lilac Time (1928), publicity photo with Colleen Moore, director George Fitzmaurice and several real aviators who appeared in the movie: Stuart Knox, Richard Jarvis, Jack Ponder, Jack Stone and Cleve Moore;
*Test Pilot (1938) with Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy;
*Stars of Test Pilot (1938): Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy;
*Test Pilot (1938) with Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy;
*Q Planes (1939) with Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier;
*Q Planes (1939) with Laurence Olivier and Valerie Hobson; (screenshot by me)
*Wings in the Dark (1935) with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy;
*The Man Who Found Himself (1937) with Joan Fontaine and John Beal;
*Flight from Glory (1937) with Chester Morris, Whitney Bourne and Van Heflin;
*Fugitive in the Sky (1936) with Jean Muir, Warren Hull and Gordon Oliver;
*Murder in the Clouds (1934) with Ann Dvorak and Lyle Talbot;
*China Clipper (1936) with Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart;
*Christopher Strong (1933) with Katharine Hepburn;
*Devil Dogs of the Air (1935) with James Cagney, Pat O'Brien and Margaret Lindsay;
*Flying Devils (1933) with Arline Judge and Eric Linden;
*Night Flight (1933), film poster;
*Night Flight (1933) with Myrna Loy and William Gargan;
*Air Hawks (1935) with Ralph Bellamy and Tala Birell;
*Thunder Birds (1942) with Gene Tierney;
*Thunder Birds (1942) with Gene Tierney, Preston Foster and John Sutton;
*Flight Command (1940) with Walter Pidgeon, Ruth Hussey and Robert Taylor;
*A Guy Named Joe (1943) with Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne;
*Men Against the Sky (1940) with Richard Dix, Wendy Barrie and Kent Taylor;
*Slattery’s Hurricane (1949) with Richard Widmark and Veronica Lake;
*Slattery’s Hurricane (1949) with John Russell and Linda Darnell;
*Flight for Freedom (1943) with Rosalind Russell, Fred MacMurray and Herbert Marshall;
*God Is My Co-Pilot (1945) with Dennis Morgan and Alan Hale;
*Murder in the Air (1940) with Ronald Reagan and John Litel;
*Corregidor (1943) with Elissa Landi, Otto Kruger and Donald Woods;
*Fate Is the Hunter (1964), behind the scenes with Rod Taylor, Jane Russell and Glenn Ford;
*Fate Is the Hunter (1964) with Rod Taylor and Nancy Kwan;
*The Tarnished Angels (1957) with Robert Stack, Rock Hudson and Jack Carson;
*The Tarnished Angels (1957) with Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone;
*The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) with Grace Kelly and William Holden;
*Julie (1956) with Doris Day; (screenshot by me)
*Thunder Birds (1942).
