Flight from Glory

I really liked this B picture offering from RKO studios in the mid thirties. Flight from Glory is Ceiling Zero with a bit of Red Dust thrown in and a pinch of Dawn Patrol.

Onslow Stevens is the airline's man in Delgado which looks on the map to be in Bolivia. I presume the mines he's servicing are either silver or tin. Stevens has found a really great way to keep costs down a maximize profits. He buys the oldest planes possible and knowing that pilots who can work elsewhere will, he recruits among pilots who are in trouble in the States and some have even lost their licenses. They can't exactly quit for a better job. Scrap planes and scrap pilots, is this any way to run an airline?

Into this merry bunch of fliers who know they're a couple step up from slaves comes young Van Heflin and his bride Whitney Bourne. A bride is something that Stevens doesn't count on and of course a woman around the place gets the hormones racing for Chester Morris and Douglas Walton among others.

I liked the idea of Onslow Stevens as the villain and it was certainly an original idea in his type of villainy. The rather melodramatic ending was a bit much otherwise I would have given Flight from Glory a higher rating. Chester Morris is a fine cynical hero out of the Humphrey Bogart mold and Douglas Walton does well as poor man's Leslie Howard.

And I assure you that you won't find slimier villains than Onslow Stevens in too many films.

In many ways, "Flight from Glory" is reminiscent of films like "The Wages of Fear" and "Only Angels Have Wings", and it is one of RKO's better films of the 1930s.

The story is set in some god forsaken airport in the middle of no where in South America. A company hires washed out pilots with promises of money and a second chance, but the troll in charge of the operation provides planes which are unsafe, awful working conditions AND they nickel and dime the pilots so badly that they're left with practically nothing.

Into this awful place arrive a disgraced pilot and his new bride (Van Heflin and Whitney Bourne) and they are shocked at the outfit. They are also shocked to hear from the boss (Onslow Stevens) that they owe the company money...so they cannot leave until it's been worked off...something you suspect with never happen. What is to become of this nice couple...as well as the other pilots?

This is a wonderfully written film. I also appreciated the fine ensemble cast which includes Chester Morris (a highly underappreciated actor). All in all, a really fine production.... far better than I'd anticipated...especially since the film has somehow been allowed to slip into the public domain.

There's a lot to like about "Flight From Glory" and if Radio Pictures had the budget to stage more aerial acrobatics, it would be a winner. But too much of the tale is spent in the South American shack where a group of pilots -- all with blemished records -- wait to fly decrepit vintage planes over the Andes. As pilots crash, newcomers are recruited which brings alcoholic stunt flier Van Heflin south along with his new bride. The lady is a problem for Onslow Stevens, the mini-airline's corrupt owner who keeps his pilots in check by gouging their pay for rent and food. And it's even more of a headache for hard-bitten Chester Morris who's attracted to her. Among the film's pleasures is the emotional wallop with which a young Van Heflin invests his character, leading to a surprising climax that finally gets the story where it should have been earlier -- off the ground.

FLIGHT FROM GLORY is a rather generic title for a programmer that is reminiscent of another aviation story that came two years later with a bigger budget and bigger stars--ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS.

And yet, it's a tightly constructed drama that gives early exposure to VAN HEFLIN, as a pilot who likes to drink too much, but who lands a job flying planes over the Andes even though he's newly married to bride WHITNEY BOURNE. Running the decrepit fleet of planes is ONSLO STEVENS, a man who doesn't fly the planes himself but who is a strict manager responsible for sending a group of down-on-their-luck men to almost certain death.

CHESTER MORRIS gets top billing as a man who's perceptive enough to realize that Whitney Bourne should never have come to the God forsaken airline and who forms an intimate association with her after trying to discourage her from liking him too much, since she's married to Heflin.

There's a strong ending with Stevens getting his comeuppance and a nice finish for Morris and Bourne.

Summing up: Interesting aviation drama worth watching mainly for the performances of Van Heflin and Onslo Stevens.

Flight from Glory (1937)

*** (out of 4)

Good "B" picture from RKO centers on a group of reject pilots working in Delgado for a boss (Onslow Stevens) who is more interested in money than people's safety. This causes problems when a alcoholic pilot (Van Heflin) shows up with a new wife (Whitney Bourne) and catches the attention of a lead pilot (Chester Morris). FLIGHT FROM GLORY is a pretty silly film that suffers from an obvious low-budget but the cast members are so good that you can't help but overlook the flaws and just sit back and enjoy the picture. I've always been a fan of Morris and I thought he did a pretty good job here and certainly had no issues getting this character across. This includes his dead serious look that he uses each time something dramatic happens. I also enjoyed Bourne as she had some great chemistry with all the men in the film. Heflin was very good in this early role in his career and Stevens really managed to be fun as the bad guy. There are some pretty good aerial shots and the cinematography is a step up from what you'd typical see in a picture like this. The biggest problem is the budget as the majority of the film appears to be shot on just a couple sets and you can tell this is a film that needs to be expanded a bit to fully get everything it's going for. Still, if you're a fan of the cast or director Lew Landers then you'll want to check this out.