Dirigible

I liked this film for it conveys a can-do-attitude that was so prevalent in America at that time. This movie was made (1931) in a time when man was just beginning to test the limits of himself, machine, and the elements (it was only 5 years earlier in 1927 that Limbergh crossed the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis.) This movie focused on the race to the south pole and it made for good entertainment. The special effects for the time were very good.

The human interest aspect of the film showed the negative side of ambition (how it affected a marriage and a friendship)this I found interesting. The character development in the one, Frisky, was especially satisfying.

I would recommend this movie to anyone--however do not compare it to the movies of our time--that would be a disservice to the movie.

Lakehurst, the setting for much of this film was the epicenter of American ballooning and dirigibles, before the second world war and through it as well. A recent book, _They sailed the skies : U.S. Navy balloons and the airship program_ led me to this film, since it represents an easy way to get a look at some of the men and machines in action. Frank "Spig" Wead is the writer and Frank Capra directs. Wead of course was a flyer himself and only turned to writing after a crash broke his neck, crippling him. See WINGS OF EAGLES by John Ford for a dramatization of his life. The early sound era is not known for the sleekness of it's screen story-telling, but if you have interest in the history of zeppelins, or pre-WW2 aviaton, this film is worth watching.

A reasonably decent motion picture for its time, the one attribute that makes this film stand out from its standard storyline, is its footage and scenes regarding dirigibles. When this film was released in 1931, it was the golden age of zeppelin travel, and the crash of the Hindenburg, which doomed this type of transportation, was still five years in the future. There were numerous scenes shot at Lakehurst Naval Air station, where ironically the Hindenburg crashed, that was the center of dirigible activity at the time for the U.S. Navy. As someone who is interested in this subject, I found this part of the movie fascinating as well as the part of the story that took you behind the scenes of airship travel and how much danger could be involved. The riveting scene dealing with the crash of a dirigible in a violent storm brought to mind the U.S. Navy zeppelin Akron, launched the same year as this film, which was destroyed in a similar storm only two years later. It was also interesting to see actress Fay Wray two years before she would gain fame with her role in King Kong. I had the opportunity to catch this film recently during an airing on the TCM cable channel and would recommend it for anyone with a similar interest.

As we watch the Twentieth Century disappear in our wake, we're going to find films like this more and more precious. I mean, can you imagine? -- Here's a film that takes the airship absolutely seriously as an equal partner with the airplane. Here's a film that shows you basically how an airship was constructed and what it looked like inside, and all that as part of the plot! And if you're going to interrupt the main plot with a soap opera, who better to put in front of your eyes than the beautiful Fay Wray? And what a great way to get out of the romantic sub-plot's basic dilemma -- nice, clean, and fast. All things considered, a more than satisfying way to spend an evening.

Aside from featuring Fay Wray BEFORE she became famous in King Kong, the movie has value as historical record, because of the scenes of the U.S. Navy's dirigible, LOS ANGELES. The LOS ANGELES served a dual role in the film, first as the fictional PENSACOLA, destroyed in a storm at sea, and then as her real self. The loss of the PENSACOLA is prescient in a way, because her successors, the very real AKRON and MACON, which had yet to enter service when the movie was made, were subsequently both lost at sea in storms, bringing an end to rigid airships in the U.S. Navy. A predecessor, the SHENANDOAH was lost in 1928 in a storm over Ohio.

When this movie was made, only the LOS ANGELES was in service. The movie shows excellent closeup film of the ship mooring at Lakehurst N.J. as well as her experimental trapeze which allowed an aircraft to moor to the ship while in flight. This feature was incorporated in AKRON and MACON, along with a hanger to stow the planes aboard. These two, the biggest in USN service at 800 feet could each carry 3-4 planes. The planes could be "captured" on the trapeze, brought inside and then launched from their trapeze. An amazing sight to see!