China Clipper

This film essentially begins right after Charles Lindburgh's successful flight from New York to Paris after which an enterprising pilot by the name of "Dave Logan" (Pat O'Brien) comes up with the idea of building an airline which can deliver mail, cargo and eventually passengers from Miami to Havana. It's during this time, however, that his ambition gets the better of him and he not only alienates himself from his friends but he also loses his wife "Jean Logan" (Beverly Roberts) in the process. Yet rather than stepping back to reconsider his approach he doubles down and becomes totally obsessed with expanding his new airline even further. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an okay film for the most part but the plot relied too heavily upon creating drama between Dave Logan and everyone around him and it got rather annoying after a while. Admittedly, I thought Pat O'Brien--and to a limited extent both Humphrey Bogart (as "Hap Stuart") and the aforementioned Beverly Roberts--acquitted themselves quite well but even so the previously mentioned drama seemed a bit too contrived and for that reason I have rated this film accordingly. Average.

This is a great and exciting movie especially if you are a pilot as I am. It reflects a time in aviation that was exciting. Those days are gone forever. I would have enjoyed travel in those flying boats not to mention piloting them. I am from Miami and remember Dinner Key. Those flying boats parked in the bay looked so magnificent with the cumulus nimbus clouds over the Atlantic in the background. I recorded this movie years ago and watch it from time to time and I always enjoy it's vintage scenes. Those great flying boats were magnificent and I can only imagine the joy and sense of adventure flying around the west and south Pacific island hopping! It is true escapism. I highly recommend this movie.

Bogart temporarily left the field of crime to portray a more respectable type in his subsequent effort, "China Clipper." On its simplest level "China Clipper" relates a routine story of an airline owner's (Pat O'Brien) desire to put into operation a trans-Pacific airline… Soap-opera dramatics take over quickly as O'Brien's dedication to his project costs him his wife, his friends, and the clichéd obligatory, for this genre, death of an elderly associate designer...

Bogart's undistinguished role was that of a wise-cracking pilot, frequently engaging in verbal sparring with O'Brien and fellow pilot Ross Alexander, who eventually makes the record-breaking flight across the Pacific in the film's finale...

"China Clipper" is merely artificial drama, but it has a certain value for its generally well-integrated use of newsreel and stock shots of the actual "China Clippers" in operation... One particularly exciting shot is of the mammoth plane flying over an as-yet-uncompleted Golden Gate Bridge with its gigantic opposing spans reaching out into empty air, waiting patiently for its final connecting links

This is basically a thinly disguised bio of Juan Trippe and his early days after founding Pan American Airways. Yet the credits at the beginning disclaim any attachment to a true life story. Well what can you say? Hollywood's been putting those disclaimers on movies since the beginning of films. But the public can, and always does, figure it out. An aviation buff will have a field day pointing out some of the planes that appear in this movie,... a Fokker Trimotor and much stock newsreel footage of the actual Martin Flying Boat "China Clipper" to name a few. The Martin China Clippers of which there were about 4 or 5 ever built flew those pioneering trips to the Orient and an awful long journey it was. This movie re-creates those pioneering days with some great stock footage & some darn good acting. Warners did a number of these aviation flicks in the 30s, 'Devil Dogs of the Air' starring James Cagney comes to mind. But I enjoyed Pat O'Brien(with his wonderful excellerated speech as usual), Humphrey Bogart(marvelous and before all those classics), Marie Wilson, Ross Alexander, Henry B Walthall and silent star Kenneth Harlan who appears early in the film as an airline inspector.

A no-nonsense dreamer drives his men & machines to the breaking point in an attempt to establish a transpacific route for his flying CHINA CLIPPERS.

Warner Brothers gives a rousing production to a story that is essentially, on analysis, a soap opera with wings. Based on the history of Pan American Airlines, the film is at its very best when it takes to the air, especially during the exciting prolonged climax with its race to beat the clock in the initial flight from California to Macao.

Pat O'Brien gives a typically earnest, energetic performance as the tireless & tyrannical protagonist - a man who becomes increasingly obsessed with his lofty aviation goals, no matter what the cost in personal relationships. It's difficult to like the character, but O'Brien also makes it hard not to respect him.

What is especially enjoyable in CHINA CLIPPER is to appreciate the performances of three members of the supporting cast. Henry B. Walthall, the pivotal star of silent cinema, the hero of D. W. Griffith's THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915), plays the gentle engineer who designs the great flying ship. His haggard appearance is not a result of makeup. He was genuinely ill with influenza and he would die two months before the release of the film. He was only 58, although he looked far older. Warners rewarded him by ratcheting him down to 10th place billing.

Ross Alexander & Humphrey Bogart play two friendly, dedicated pilots who chafe under O'Brien's dictates. These young actors had very similar acting styles & screen personas and it is quite interesting to see them perform together. Their fates, however, would be very different. Alexander had the necessary talent to become a major star, but the breaks simply didn't come his way, and, his private life spiraling out of control, he would be dead less than five months after the release of CHINA CLIPPER, a suicide at 29. Bogart got the lucky breaks, and, with some good roles in the next five years, was on his way to eventually becoming a screen legend.

Pretty Marie Wilson has a comical recurring role as a ditsy blonde enamored with Alexander. Movie mavens should spot Frank Faylen in an uncredited bit part as the company's weatherman in Columbia.