MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: AIR MAIL (1932)

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Thursday, January 21, 2021

AIR MAIL (1932)

The story’s familiar from later films about planes in threatening skies and tough ex-pilot managers working out of cramped control rooms (think Howard Hawks’ CEILING ZERO*, like this written by Frank Wead*, or ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS/’39 with its classic Jules Furthman script), but this well made John Ford film earned its wings first. Made on the cheap at Universal, it looks swell with lenser Karl Freund pushing in for emphasis more than was Ford’s wont, excellent models, process work & effects for the period, astounding stunt flying and superb staging for the ensemble scenes. The assignment something of a punishment from home studio Fox after Ford went on a bender when he should have been wrapping up ARROWSMITH/’31 on loan to Sam Goldwyn. You’ll tumble to the plot as soon as you see Ralph Bellamy's manager sending his air mail crew out on the next dangerous run, missing dates with main squeeze Gloria Stuart, getting bad news on his eyesight from Doc, and resentfully greeting flashy replacement pilot Pat O’Brien. With standout support from Slim Summerville as a comic relief mechanic and Leslie Fenton as a pilot with a past, Ford, perhaps because of the tight budget, neither dawdles nor overdoses on booze jokes. A damn good little picture, ignored in Ford surveys yet showing plenty of future themes including a ‘Print the legend’ moment after a horrifying plane crash death, and a fascinating early touch of racial conscience-lifting with Stuart teaching a class of Native American kids in a room James Stewart might have recognized from similar use in THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE/’62.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *In CEILING ZERO/’36, Pat O’Brien takes the Bellamy spot and James Cagney scores as the O’Brien cock-of-the-walk pilot.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned above: CEILING ZERO; ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS.

https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/09/ceiling-zero-1936.html

https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/only-angels-have-wings-1939.html

OR: *Ford’s bio of Frank Wead: THE WINGS OF EAGLES/’57. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/06/wings-of-eagles-1957.html

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Thursday, January 21, 2021

AIR MAIL (1932)

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