Air Mail

A film that belies its age. There are some corny bits of dialogue and cheesy special effects, but Ford created a good low-key drama utilizing an excellent cast. Strong story written partly by Frank Wead. Could not believe this was made in 1932 and at UNIVERSAL!

I have nothing further to add M. Dumonteil's perceptive remarks on "Air Mail", but I just want to say that this film is criminally neglected among Ford's works. I just saw it for the first time in years and I really loved it very much. When I first saw it about 3 years ago, I didn't care for it that much. But now I think it is one of Ford's most stirring and beautiful masterworks. "Air Mail" will inevitably be compared to Hawks' masterful "Only Angels Have Wings" but Hawks' film is closer to the romantic exoticism of Josef von Sternberg, whereas Ford's shows the influence of Murnau. Of course, Ford surpassed this early effort many times in his career but it should not be missed. It should be a fascinating companion to Ford's "The Wings of Eagles", a superb biography of Frank Weade, the scenarist of "Air Mail".

John Ford directed this look at the US Air Mail Service, from Universal Pictures. Ralph Bellamy stars as Mike Miller, the tough boss of an air mail station and supervisor over a number of pilots. The hazards are many, and turnover in the ranks is frequent as many pilots crash, permanently injuring themselves or, more likely, dying. After one such death, hot-shot former war ace Duke Talbot (Pat O'Brien) joins the service and immediately starts rubbing everyone the wrong way, with the exception of the wife of a fellow pilot, whom he tries to rub the right way, causing even more trouble in the ranks. But when the chips are down, Duke may be the only one who can save the day. What's interesting here is that Pat O'Brien is playing the kind of arrogant character James Cagney played in 1936's Ceiling Zero, where in that same film Pat O'Brien is the tough talking supervisor of pilots.

The highlight here is the aerial footage, with some excellent shots from under the planes while doing low-flying aerobatics. Some rear-projection and miniature work is antiquated, though. There's a lot of the typical "men in close, stressful quarters" type of dialogue and camaraderie, which comes off as more genuine than the attempts at melodrama involving infidelity. The movie serves as a nice snapshot of a type of work, and the characters who worked it, that are now distant history.

As Christmas storms gather, the under-pressure manager of an air mail depot is forced to accept a selfish, boastful foe as one of his new pilots. Ralph Bellamy makes a bland and colourless leading man in a movie that suffers from comparison with Only Angels Have Wings, which is based on the same story by Frank Wead and Dale Van Every. Pat O'Brien doesn't fare much better - he was never particularly convincing in roles that called upon him to be cocky and arrogant - and only Lilian Bond as the unhappy wife of a pilot who falls for O'Brien's dubious charms makes a positive impression, although there is something to be said for Slim Summerville's unerring aim with chewing tobacco and a spittoon (ptooh! ding!!). It starts strongly with an impressive air crash and some insane aerial acrobatics in one of those flimsy-looking biplanes, but there's little else of interest.

Although John Ford was one of the top directors of his time, he apparently didn't always get prime opportunities to helm movies-- particularly earlier in his career. Despite making such prestigious films as "The Iron Horse" and "3 Bad Man" and dozens of other films, here Universal Studios hired him to direct a film which is not much better than a B-movie--passable entertainment and worth seeing but otherwise unremarkable.

The film is set in an airport in the desert and Mike (Ralph Bellamy) is in charge of this airmail operation. However, the job is dangerous and they keep losing people. So, when they are down a man he hires an unlikely guy, Duke (Pat O'Brien). He's unlikely because Duke is a top pilot...one of the world's best...and why would he get involved with such a dangerous and thankless operations? Plus, as the film progresses, it becomes obvious that Duke is a total jerk-- only interested in himself and certainly not a team player. So how is Duke going to rise to the occasion and prove himself to be something more? See the film...or not.

This film is unusual because the part Pat O'Brien plays is very much unlike his usual nice-guy persona. It's also unusual because the film plays a lot like Howard Hawks' film "Only Angels Have Wings" but isn't nearly as good nor as well acted. Passable and predictable entertainment...the sort of film John Ford could have directed in his sleep.