CENTRAL AIRPORT (1933)

In a switch from the social-issue dramas Richard Barthelmess specialized in at Warner Brothers in the early ‘30s, this airborne meller is all romantic triangle as two ace pilots (brothers Barthelmess & young Tom Brown, sporting a wispy mustache) competitively woo sky daredevil Sally Eilers.  The boys take to the air in backscreen projection, but thanks to director William Wellman (WINGS/’27; the Lafayette Escadrille in WWI), special effects work is intercut with plenty of hair-raising sky-jinks stunts.  Who else would fade-out on a plane zipping along upside down?  The storyline has Barthelmess banned from commercial flying after going down in a storm, but finding a way back with Eilers on the Flying Circus circuit.  Always on the move, lovers via connecting hotel rooms*, it’s enough for Barthelmess who doesn’t believe pilots should try for family life, but not enough for Eilers.  And that paves the way for kid brother Brown to move in, causing a major split.  Estranged for years, ex-lovers bump into each other just as Barthelmess, now a world-famous, oft-injured combat/test pilot is needed when kid brother Brown, plane & passengers go missing in a storm at sea.  If only Barthelmess hadn’t just found out that Eilers’ still carried a major torch for him, he'd fly to the rescue without a second thought!  No doubt, this implausible romantic melodrama would have defeated most directors, though not Tay Garnett whose ONE WAY PASSAGE managed just this sort of thwarted romance at Warners the year before. Hard to imagine Wellman ever finding his way in.

DOUBLE-BILL: Largely forgotten today, in spite of silent classics BROKEN BLOSSOMS/’19, WAY DOWN EAST/’20 and TOL’ABLE DAVID/’21, Richard Barthelmess has Howard Hawks’ ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS/’39, again as a pilot with a past to live down, to keep his name fitfully alive.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *With Pre-Code attitudes pretty much taken for granted in 1933, this lobby card is able to show kid brother Tom Brown and gal-in-the-middle Sally Eilers comfortably sharing the same bed . . . and no foot on the floor.