The Last Flight

I have never seen a 1930's American film like this one! Perhaps this is because it was directed by German director William Dieterle when he was fresh off the boat. Apart from a slightly pontifical doctor musing about the difficulties of war-time flyers adjusting to civilian life near the beginning of the film, this is a subtle, evocative, under-stated and powerful depiction of this mal-adjustment. Following the end of World War One a group of American flyer buddies go on a six months long bender in Paris and Lisbon. They link up with a rich young woman, beautifully played by Helen Chandler, who drinks as hard as they do. They are all a little in love with death and wander from one meaningless adventure to another in pursuit of it. It is here that the film encounters some difficulties - making meaninglessness dramatically interesting is very difficult.

But the actors do an admirable job in suggesting the huge pain under the jovial partying. Richard Barthelmess was one of the greatest screen actors ever, and his talents are well utilised here. Johnny Mack Brown is a revelation as the rougher Bill - who knew this cowboy star was such a fine actor? David Manners is also a surprise, much better here than in "Dracula", he proves to be capable of doing great emotional work. Elliott Nugent as the heavily traumatised Francis is unforgettable, and Walter Byron is fine as an unscrupulous hanger-on.

This is not a perfect film, but it is a brave one, and is absolutely essential to an understanding of the mood after World War One. It is no surprise that the writer was also responsible for "Wings" (1927) - his understanding of the relationships between men in and after wartime is phenomenal. Make sure you see it.

WOW.... this film is excellent. The best "lost generation" film I've seen... perfectly captures the Hemingway/Fitzgerald feeling of hopelessness after WW I. It also boasts several terrific performances. Richard Barthelmess stars with the fragile Helen Chandler, Johnny Mack Brown, David Manners, Elliott Nugent, and Walter Byron as a group that boozes its way from Paris to Lisbon following the war.

Each has his/her wounds (physical or emotional) as they try to get their balance after the hideous war. Chandler's remark whenever she's confused is "I'll take vanilla." The film is full of wry humor and a deep sadness that is palpable.

Barthelmess is solid as always; Brown and Chandler are nothing short of superb. This is the first American film for German actor/director William Dieterle.

A must see film.

Although the story is derivative of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises", novelist and screenwriter John Monk Saunders brings his own style and a better plot to this study of the "Lost Generation" wandering Europe during the 1920's.

The male characters desperately cling to drinking and all-night frivolity as a means of forgetting the terror of war, and they meet a similarly lost, though full of life, alcoholic woman played superbly by the under-rated Helen Chandler. Chandler's performance is so effortless that she seems to be playing herself, a woman living an independent, wild life with an unknown reason for also wanting to forget and escape. Watch her scene with Richard Barthelmess as they have a drink at a cafe during a rain shower before visiting a cemetery, and you'll see her longingly trying to imagine a simpler, happier life.

Barthelmess provides another expert performance to the film, as one of the saner, less-hard-drinking characters who half-heartedly tries to escape from the others on several occasions, but is always drawn back because of his love and friendship for the others.

See this film if you can - it's unlike any other.

I came across this unheralded early William Dieterle film a while back and it blew me away. Quite an astonishing film for a 1931. I believe it was Dieterle's first Hollywood outing. It's a "Sun Also Rises"-like story of several ex-WWI American fliers living, relaxing and drinking in Paris and the wacky, free-spirited woman they "adopt" into their group. A truly unusual film--the dialogue is almost entirely in non sequitors which gives it an almost ahead-of-its time feel. The editing and the frenetic energy of it all are spectacular. It offers an accurate and immediate picture of post-war disillusionment of its time, the confused emotional/psychological state of the characters, much the same way Henry King's 1957 "Sun Also Rises" captured 1950s post-WWII mentality.

Dieterle is a talented stylist, and it shows all the way through, using fast-moving and inventive camera work. And it's beautifully photographed in that "German-looking" Expressionism early-1930s style.

The performances are top-notch. Richard Barthelmess is excellent as Cary Lockwood. Helen Chandler is quite distinctive as the leading lady Nikki. And I especially like David Manners in this film. He's one of the forgotten leading men of the 30s. Manners is best known today for his appearances in the Universal horror films, but he made a wide range of films--one of my favorites is his scrupulous secretary in love with a glamorous Kay Francis in Dieterle's other unheralded classic of the early 30s, "Man Wanted."

Four former flying aces, scarred both physically & emotionally, make THE LAST FLIGHT through the bars of Paris & Lisbon with an eccentric American girl.

Well-crafted & poignant, this film tells the sad tale of American World War One buddies whose lives are essentially over with the cessation of the conflict. Aimless & drifting, but seemingly very well financed, they stagger from bar to bar, looking for the forgetfulness that comes with drunken oblivion. If not for the noble loyalty they feel for each other their story, and the sundering of their quartet, would be almost unremittingly lugubrious.

Director William Dieterle was given fine service by his cast: silent screen star Richard Barthelmess, leader of the band, as a pilot sensitive about his burned hands; gunner David Manners dealing with a nervous tic in his left eye; country boy Johnny Mack Brown letting high jinks and alcohol define his new existence; and sharpshooter Elliott Nugent, shell-shocked into extreme lethargy.

Helen Chandler is remarkable as the highly unusual young woman who is allowed to become an essential part of the fliers' lives. Her kooky vagueness and affection for pet turtles is most endearing. Walter Byron gives an effective performance as a caustic reporter who tags along with the others for his own motives.

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At one point in the story Mr. Barthelmess & Miss Chandler visit the cemetery of Père-Lachaise in Paris, where he tells her something of the history of the tragic lovers Pierre Abélard (1079-1142) and Héloïse (1098-1164), who lie interred there. Barthelmess mentions the terrible revenge visited upon Abélard by the Canon Fulbert, the uncle of Héloïse, without actually saying what it was. Even with Pre-Code liberality, forced castration was not a subject to be broached lightly.