O Último Voo

I first read about The Last Flight maybe 20 years ago, in a book on movies by Tom Shales of the Washington Post. What I remember about his comments was that The Last Flight flopped at the box office and, as a result, movies of its type fell by the way side. In the Depression year of 1931, only MGM of the major studios turned a profit. Warner Bros. and its producing supervisor, the then-great Darryl Zanuck, did anything they could to attract paying customers, making some movies in two-strip Technicolor, some showing the dark side of life and giving a chance for their actresses to show as much skin as they could get away with. When The Last Flight finally made it to TCM last March 2004, I made sure to record it onto a DVDR. You would not know from looking at the movie it was made at Warner Bros., where the policy once filming started there were to be no script rewrites and few, if any, retakes to cut down on production costs (unlike MGM, whose Culver City studio had the nickname "retake valley"). From the montage at the start, showing through rapid cuts a well staged World War One battle, to the end, the pace almost never slackens. Sometimes, the message is heavy handed, as when the hospital officer physician describes the discharged aviator patients as "spent bullets." For the most part, though, the actions of the characters show the effects of the war trauma on their lives. Disabled veterans trying to make a go of their lives during peacetime is usually not a subject that was big box office except for the period right after World War Two. Richard Barthelmess usually played offbeat roles, in movies that did not score at the box office in the early thirties. By 1934, his relatively expensive Warner Bros. contract was up, and the studio released him.

Now, thanks to TCM, one of his forgotten pictures from the pre-Code era appears briefly from the film vault. Maybe The Last Flight did not do as well as expected at the box-office. This movie has one fine characteristic, it stands the test of time. To me, the movie seems to be a reflection of real people, even if their behavior is a little exaggerated to make a point. The Last Flight shows a world long gone, when the Hollywood dream factory could give the appearance of an effortless portrayal of people on the fringes of society. Whenever TCM shows this movie again, it is a must see.

This early talkie was an exciting experience. The script was charming, the performances intriguing. Author John Monk Saunders managed to combine just the right touch of whimsy with the desperation and hopelessness of post-war life. The story was fascinating, a look at what was to become known as "The Lost Generation," or maybe already was so known by 1931. I hope Turner Classic Movies will show this movie again, and I would like to have a recording. A great cast with an excellent script directed by a master made "The Last Flight" a superb motion picture. I was moved and charmed. And I'm grateful for the chance to have seen it.

German Director had just segued past the shores of The Statue of Liberty from his native Germany when he made this movie, thus its European movie. Some plot-driven cineastes may argue that nothing happens in this movie but that is exactly the point. It is what is potently called a character study in the grand tradition of "new wave". Richard Barthelmess headlines a cast of five friends who after the end of WWI, disillusioned bythe events and their injuries wonder aimlessly, lolling and cajoling in Paris. They run into a female character played by Helen Chandler who is much like them, except she has hope for life. The first act or first hour has the characters chatting away at night clubs, cafes, nightspots and anywhere else delivering some of the wittiest remarks I've ever heard on camera. The relationships though are set up by an opening montage which is pure silent cinema with its MTV-style cutting and reliefing of images in juxtapositionIt sets the tone for the rest of the movie. The dark shades worn by the one of the characters, day or night adds to the phantasm of the whole scenario. A love story emerges between Helen and Richard and not so unexpected tragic occur before the end. Someone, earlier has noted a similarity to Hemingway's "he lost generation" novella, THE SUN ALSO RISES which was made into a fairly staid affair in the fifties with Ava Gardner, but this make no mistake is much better and one of the unknown gems of thirties cinema.

Richard Barthelmess, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Elliott Nugent, and John Mack Brown star in this excellent psychological war drama directed by William Dieterle about a handful of WWI veterans who do nothing but drink booze and run around Paris with flapper, Nikki (Chandler, in an elegant and moving performance).

What makes this film so special is that it's mood of despair of hopelessness has held up very well over all these years. Plus, the movie's bleak atmosphere and subject matter helps. Sometimes the performances (David Manners) and dialogue comes off as a little dated, but that is to be expected from a movie this old. It is very easy to overlook; and that is really the only bad thing about the movie.

It's a shame that this movie isn't released on DVD or even VHS (thank goodness for TCM). It's a real forgotten gem of early 1930's cinema that hopefully won't remain forgotten for long.

**** out of ****

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.