Air Hostess

The film opens with the words "Somewhere in France..." showing us where we are, and an aerial dogfight going on. One airman tells another that he will go lookup the other's daughter after the war. Then we are "Somewhere in America....". Kitty the air hostess (the beautiful 25 year old Evalyn Knapp) makes a date with a pilot, but has to break it when the rest of the airport workers scare him off. They have been keeping an eye out for her, scaring off men that try to get near her. In the meantime, we are treated to some air stunts by the dashing James Murray as Ted Hunter. He's a loud, outspoken showoff, so we know there will be trouble ahead somewhere down the road. Pretty good photography and sound quality, considering it was the early days of talkies (and flying too!) They pack a lot in this short, pre-code adventure-drama (67 minutes). Good acting and good story, except for the ending, which gets a little hokey. In real life, it didn't end well for Murray -- he drowned in NYC at 35, only three years after this film. Directed by Albert Rogell, who had started in silent movies in 1920. Original story written by Grace Perkins, who had just written "Night Nurse", made into a film starring B Stanwycke.

Scanning a list of pre-code films, you probably wouldn't move a film starring Evalyn Knapp, James Murray and Arthur Pierson to the front of the queue, but Knapp, whose acting career eventually petered out, and Murray, whose career quickly tanked due to alcoholism, were big names at the time. (Pierson is kind of generic.)

The film turn out to be an action-packed aviation drama, back when aviation was a daring and romantic subject and apparently pronounced with a short a in the first syllable. Some stock footage of air stunts from old movies, but also some original and exciting original stunt scenes.

But it's not all just action. Two of the era's recurrent themes, Prohibition and protecting the heroine's virginity, move the plot about a stewardess whose father was a pilot killed in WW I. Exactly how she was brought up and what happened to her mother are glossed over, but she seems to be the pet of every flyer and mechanic at the Glendale CA airport and they seem to have nothing else to do besides keeping her from going out with men of any description.

Enter Ted Hunter (Murray), an old comrade of her father's leading a daredevil life and contemptuous in a friendly way of the more mundane commercial airline pilots. Kitty King (Knapp), already chafing under her self-appointed chaperones, obviously has a crush on him. Hunter is also an aircraft designer seeking backing for a plane with retractable wings, an idea that hasn't caught on for some reason. And he's an alcoholic.

This is where the film may get confusing if you don't remember Prohibition is in effect. Among other things, poor Kitty hasn't had her first taste of alcohol. She and Hunter plan a getaway in his plane to Mexico where you can still get drunk legally, in a conversation with mild sexual undertones.

Once they've had a night on the town in Ensenada and Kitty turns up in some sexy nightwear in the hotel room, it turns out that drinking was all Hunter was planning to show her and they beat a hasty retreat to California, where to save Kitty's reputation Hunter ad libs that they plan to get married, which is fine with her.

Will Ted get backing for his experimental plane? Will he fall for the charms of rich seductress Sylvia Carleton (Thelma Todd)? Will Kitty ditch unreliable Ted for sober commercial pilot Dick Miller (Pierson)?

As so often in that era, there's more going on in this film than seems possible in 67 minutes, and we haven't even mentioned the climactic stunt-flying action sequence at the finale. Also as usual, there are bits that won't sit well with today's audience, like a husband spanking his wife, even if it's presented as fun for both parties.

A real sleeper for pre-code fans.

Evalyn Knapp is Kitty King, air hostess. Her dad was an ace pilot who cracked up in the war and so now all the airport crew think she belongs to them and want to protect her—especially from any new fellows around who might try to get fresh. "Say, listen," Kitty finally tells one of them, "I've never been alone long enough with any man to see how it feels to get properly insulted."

Enter James Murray as Ted Hunter, hot shot daredevil pilot who was once great but drank himself out of the flying profession. All of the airport crew hold him in scorn…so naturally Kitty falls for him.

Evalyn Knapp is the best thing going for this occasionally exciting but frequently dreary melodrama. Knapp is bright, cute—and just walks the line between naive kid and focused, determined adult.

The plot is pretty so-so….Ted the pilot has an idea to build a super-duper plane and attempt the first trans-Pacific crossing, but he can't find a backer to help pay for the thing. Kitty keeps her job as air hostess to put food on the table, against his wishes. Can he raise the money? Can he stay sober? Will Kitty's stubborn faith in his essential goodness be rewarded?

Thelma Todd is devilishly wicked as a publicity crazy rich divorcée who proposes to finance Ted's project but instead seduces him with liquor and other temptations. She really gives no hint of Thelma the great comic actress here—this Thelma is all dark side, and she's convincingly dangerous.

A genuinely thrilling climactic chase sequence does partly make up for the slow-moving middle section....Overall, aside from a few exciting moments, I'm afraid it's pretty mediocre—although the flying sequences do add some interest, presumably, for fans of early airplanes.

...are what make this film interesting, not the rather pedestrian plot that could probably be seen as the backbone of hundreds of B programmers in the 30's and 40's.

The plot involves a corp of WWI flyers who stick together through the founding of aviation as a major means of transportation. One member of the group dies during the war and leaves behind a little daughter, Kitty. The group bands together to be a kind of "group dad" to the girl (Evelyn Knapp), going to the extreme of keeping her from dating anybody, though. Fast forward to the early 30's and the girl is now an "air hostess" - what is now called a flight attendant - onboard planes landing and leaving from the same airfield at which the old flying corp now works as mechanics and pilots.

Two pilots show up at the airfield at about the same time - Dick Miller (Arthur Pierson) and Ted Hunter (James Murray). Dick is the good guy, Ted is the bad boy. Kitty, being overprotected by her "group dad" is naturally intrigued by the bad boy, and a hasty marriage between the two ensues. Ted's big dreams, a lusty divorcée (Thelma Todd), and a daring train/plane race all figure into the plot from this point forward.

None of this by itself would make this film more than about 5/10. What raises it a couple of notches are two specific matters of interest. First, there is the chance to see commercial aviation as it was practiced in 1933. At this time, most people are still taking trains for cross-country journeys. You even get a shot of an early passenger plane galley.

Secondly, there is the matter of the fates of the three stars of this film - Evelyn Knapp, James Murray, and Thelma Todd. Evelyn Knapp had the kindest of the unkind fates. She was chosen by Warner Bros. to be built up as one of their early talking film stars in 1930 after starring in a series of comedy shorts for Pathe. You only have to see her first starring feature role in "Sinner's Holiday" to figure what is to come - Evelyn and Grant Withers have the picture stolen out from underneath them by the gritty James Cagney and Joan Blondell. Two years later Evelyn's time on the A-film circuit is over. Thelma Todd, whose career was doing fine at the time, was found dead in her garage in 1935 at age 30, and her death has always remained a mystery. James Murray had the saddest fate of all. Brought out of obscurity in 1928 to star in King Vidor's silent masterpiece "The Crowd" as an every-man whose life hits the skids, his life pretty much imitated art. He became a hopeless alcoholic in the 30's and was found dead in a river in 1936.

The b-level programmers of Columbia Pictures during the 1930's are often quite exciting and well-paced. The studio's assembly line produced audience-satisfying product quickly and inexpensively. And, in this case, with a director like Albert Rogell, veteran of dozens of fine b-westerns in the silent era and who would continue working in bread-and-butter product through the 1950's, AIR HOSTESS (not the most exciting title!) has all the elements of a textbook example of the exciting, efficient b-movie. Daring stunt flier James Murray (of King Vidor's THE CROWD, who would die a few years later due to alcohol) sees his friend and mentor get killed during WWI and helps watch over the friend's young daughter over the years. The film soon switches to the early 30s, where the daughter (played by the perky Evalyn Knapp, perhaps best-known today for starring with John Wayne in the long-time public domain, dollar-rack favorite HIS PRIVATE SECRETARY in 1933) is a grown up airline hostess and Murray is a pilot who is still a daredevil but also an inventor of aviation technology looking for an investor to help see his plans to fruition. Needless to say, they fall in love, a number of problems arise, Thelma Todd appears (looking especially regal!!!!) as "the other woman", and the film ends up with an amazing train-plane sequence. Knapp is quite appealing (although a few flubbed lines are left in, reminding us that Columbia was NOT a major studio in 1932!), and James Murray shows the charisma that made him a star in THE CROWD. He has a brash quality, and had he lived, he surely could have made a career of playing wisecracking newspaper reporters and leads in b-action films. Interestingly, his character is drunk in about 1/3 of the film--one wonders if that was written into the film to capitalize on the bad publicity Murray had received for his drinking problems, or if he actually was drunk on the set and the writers quickly decided to play along with it (I'm betting the former). In any event, he is quite impressive and this is a major role for him, though the movie was undoubtedly a bottom-of-the-bill product that vanished quickly from theaters. In less than 65 minutes, we laugh, we cry (the scene where the WWI flier has his daughter's letter read to him is a real tearjerker), we feel for the characters, we cheer them on, we worry about them, and we are brought to the edge of our seats in a nail-biting climax. What today's directors could learn from a film like this and a director such as Albert Rogell. Also, it's not every film that's set in Albuquerque (at least half of it is!). Finally, those who collect films with spanking scenes can put this one on their lists, although it's a brief one. Highly recommended to lovers of classic fast-moving early 30's b-movies.