Gallant Journey

It is amazing how little has appeared in motion pictures about early attempts at flight before the Wright Brothers. There are no films about Sir George Cayley (the founder of aeronautics), the Montgolfier Brothers, Otto Lilienthal, or Samuel Langley. Actually, except for a television film that starred Michael Moriarty as Wilbur Wright, there is no film about the Wright Brothers. Only two films (that I know of) deal with early aviation pioneers. One is a film with Don Ameche and Myrna Loy about the life of inventor Hiram Percy Maxim (inventor of the Maxim machine gun and the lawn sprinkler - he designed a cumbersome flying machine that almost flew a little in 1895). The other is this film, about John Montgomery.

John Who?

John J. Montgomery was a professional acrobat who had an act concerning gliding in his own glider. It involved some degree of tightrope style balancing and looked very impressive. Less impressive than Montgomery and his fans have made it sound in the last century. To his fans, Montgomery almost flew a plane before the Wrights. Actually the glider he designed was basically stationary, and only went aloft due to a balloon above it. It would detach and drift (or be steered) to go softly to the ground. Otto Lillienthal and Percy Pilcher flew real gliders in the 1890s (both were killed eventually in their gliders), but they flew in the outside air. Montgomery never achieved the results of those two real pioneers*.

But he was a local boy from California, so he had a fan base. And William Wellman tapped it for this very good movie (alas, not shown as often as it should be shown), dealing with his career, up to his tragic death in 1911 (killed, ironically, when trying to fly an early motorized aircraft). It has a typically first rate performance by Ford. Catch it if it is offered on the Turner network.

*Since I originally put this on the Board I have looked a bit deeper into Montgomery's work. He apparently was more experimental than I credited him for, but still it doesn't convince me that he could have beaten the Wright Brothers to powered man-made flight.

Depending on whether you believe the plot of Gallant Journey verbatim or not, John J. Montgomery may have been the first man to make a heavier than air flight and he did it in 1883, twenty years before the Wright Brothers did their thing at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Whether you do or not there is no denying that Glenn Ford gave a wonderful performance as the earnest young man, consumed as so many were at that time of the dream of manned flight. Janet Blair played the ever helpful and supportive wife of Ford and does it well.

The film is directed by William Wellman, one of many he did in his career combining his two great loves, film and aviation. Of course Wellman reached the pinnacle of his aviation success with the first Academy Award winning Best film, Wings.

The film is narrated by Charlie Ruggles to a group of post World War II kids and he's Montgomery's brother who has outlived him by a considerable period. Montgomery when he wasn't doing his aviation glider experiments, earned a living teaching science at Santa Clara College where a couple of supportive priests are played by Arthur Shields and Charles Kemper. Best in the supporting parts in the film however is Jim Lloyd who plays the balloonist daredevil who helps pilot Ford's experiments when an inner ear problem forces him to stop doing the actual flying.

Aviation historians still debate Montgomery's actual contributions to the saga of manned flight. But I think Montgomery himself would have been well pleased with how Bill Wellman and Glenn Ford told his tale.

Sturdy, dependable GLENN FORD gives another one of his understated but sincere performances as a young inventor, John Montgomery, in the late 1800s who makes a number of semi-successful attempts at getting his flying machine off the ground and soaring into the atmosphere.

JANET BLAIR is the love interest as the childhood sweetheart who stands by her man until the end of his life. While I always liked this actress, the jarring note is her make-up which is so modern that it seems like an anachronism. She has a distinctly 1940s look about her (lip gloss and modern hairdos) that works against the otherwise authentic look of the film.

WILLARD ROBERTSON as Ford's pa is fine but SELENA ROYLE is completely wasted in a minor role as his loving mom. William Wellman directs with a thorough knowledge of his subject and as an aviation drama it maintains interest throughout. All of the aerial scenes are well staged and look glorious in crisp B&W photography.

Summing up: A very unheralded film that is certainly watchable but could have used a stronger and less sentimental script.

Gallant Journey is a curious and not a very good biopic of an early aviation pioneer.

John Montgomery (Glenn Ford) was a man whose father wanted to enter the clergy. He had plans to fly gliders, only his health meant that flying gliders was dangerous. John suffered from dizzy spells.

Later John comes across Dan Mahoney. Another aviation enthusiast who launches the glider from a hot air balloon. Things seem to be going well until Dan crashes and dies.

Eventually John sells his possessions to keep going. Then ending up in a costly lawsuit.

All the while he still has the love from his girl Regina. As well as the support from several priests who share his enthusiasms about flight.

Director William Wellman has some good flying sequences. All too often this movie fails to soar and is never too life affirming. John is plagued with miserable luck.

Montgomery claimed to have flown his gliders in the 1880's but there were no wittiness, and no parts were kept... therefore it was just flights of his imagination. I have read the only book on Montgomery, by Father Spearman of Santa Clara University, and many claims are made but no real proof is given. I have also read Montgomery's papers which are a jumble of nonsense...the papers came to me from Northern Californians who support Montgomery's claims. Montgomery did build several gliders that were flown from hot air balloons in early 1900's, as shown in the movie, but these lacked any controls and tumbled to the ground...the daredevil "pilots" were lucky to survive! In 1911 Montgomery did build and attempted to fly his glider in San Jose. It had no lateral control, was rather crude, and it crashed after a short hop. He was killed in the crash. No motor could have been installed on his design. The Wright brothers made fully documented powered flights with 3-axis control in 1903! The Wrights were aware of Montgomery's claims and considered him a crackpot. One of the claims was his "parabolic wing"configuration but that was not valid...many others were aware of lift developed by curved airfoil surfaces.