NIght Flight
Directed by Clarence Brown
Written by Oliver H. G. Garrett from a novel by Antoine de Saint-Expury
1933/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
This all-star MGM extravaganza could have used a little more oomph and character development.
The story is based on an Antoine de Saint-Exupéry novel recounting experiences he had as a pilot in South America. A french airmail company is headquartered in Buenos Aires. Its manager (John Barrymore) is an SOB that is determined that the introduction of night mail will succeed in spite of all obstacles. The weather is his main enemy. We are drawn into the story by a small polio patient in Rio de Janeiro who must receive life-saving serum from Santiago within 24 hours or die. All the characters are ignorant of this of course. They are just carrying the mail. Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery and William Gargan play the brave pilots. Helen Hayes and Myrna Loy are the pilots’ terrified wives. Lionel Barrymore plays a downtrodden flight inspector who suffers mightly from eczema and scratches throughout.
This is the story of the inauguration of the first night air mail service and the dangers those early pilots faced. Night flight in an era without radar must have seemed to people in the 30’s like space travel did to folks in the 50’s and 60’s. I was able to watch this in HD this time around and it helped the film enormously. Gable has hardly a line in the movie though he does have a key part.
This was the last picture the Barrymore Brothers appeared in together.
