West Point of the Air

Blink an eye and you'll miss Robert Taylor. He only appears 30 minutes into the film and you'll barely recognise him. For someone who has such a stern demeanour and a strong presence, he barely shows up in this film. He is there as a pilot, but for some reason he has no personality or presence in this film. I had to watch it a second time, rewinding and fast- forwarding before I could see him. He sounds and looks like Robert Young and so I just thought it was Robert Young until I got to the end of the film and realised I didn't see Taylor. It is one of those odd films where a major talent in the early part of their career is a bit of an empty space until they come into their own. There is nothing in Taylor's performance in this film that indicates he will become a star.

This one has some things going for it. I think it was probably meant to be a B film, but there are two stars who have good careers later that show up in almost throwaway roles - Rosalind Russell and Robert Taylor.

Plus you have some veteran actors - Lewis Stone as the general in charge of "West Point of the Air" and James Gleason who is always great as the wise guy plays good friend to Beery's "Big Mike" Stone. Then there is Wallace Beery, who is actually the star of the film, as a guy who never makes it past sergeant but is dedicated to the Army's aerial force from its infancy. Poor Beery. Sound was the best thing that ever happened to his career with his great growly voice and the production code was the worst thing that ever happened to it, with him being forced out of the "bad guy who may or may not want to make good" roles into gentler parts that just did not play to his strengths.

There are actually two male leads here - Beery as Big Mike and Robert Young as his son, little Mike. The film starts out as the army experiments with different plane designs. Skip (Maureen O'Sullivan), and Phil (Russell Hardie), are the children of Lewis Stone's character, who thus grow up with Big Mike's son, Little Mike (Robert Young). Of course, children play these parts in the beginning, not the actors I have just mentioned.

Well the story skips up to present day and Little Mike has turned into a cocky self-important pill. He is a hero on the football field in college, and just assumes that will translate into being a hero in the Army air corps. Actually it translates into tragedy after tragedy as he ignores the rules and gets people killed, badly injured, and even manages to foul up dad's career. Then something worse than being a pill happens to "Little Mike". He becomes paralyzed with fear after all of the things that happen and tells dad he will never fly again. Unfortunately the air corps are on maneuvers and are counting on him to fulfill an important job when he makes this unilateral decision. The other complicating factor is that Skip loves Little Mike although Mike only has romantic eyes for Russell's character, a party girl who encourages Mike to stay up late, drink, etc.

I'll let you watch and see how this one turns out. It was probably made just to see how some of this new MGM talent would do in a production that probably didn't matter much to MGM's bottom line, but it has pretty good action scenes, good performances, and is the first blush of what will become a staple later on in the late 30's and throughout the 40s - films that celebrate the military. They become much more common after Hitler becomes a tangible threat to the United States and the rest of the world for that matter.

Every aviation drama you've ever seen must have stemmed from films like WEST POINT OF THE AIR which has Robert Young declaring many times, "I'll never fly again!" after seeing his comrades crash their planes.

His father is a rough talking' U.S. Army Sgt. played in gruff and sentimental style by WALLACE BEERY, who keeps reminding his son that he's got to be a man and get back in that plane again before he loses his nerve.

From the sidelines, MAUREEN O'SULLIVAN and ROSALIND RUSSELL watch nervously as various young men appear to be losing the controls while flying those dangerous machines--and there are plenty of aerial scenes, all well staged, to keep viewers watching the painfully predictable story unfold. Before the final reel is over, Young saves his father from a crash scene by diving under water and dragging him to the surface. After that brave deed, he returns to the arms of Maureen O'Sullivan for a final clinch.

Have you seen this before? You 'betcha! But it's all done up in patriotic style with an Army band playing brassy marching tunes until the fadeout.

Trivia note: Young ROBERT TAYLOR looks handsome in uniform but has what amounts to a bit part, listed low in the credits, during a year when he went on to bigger roles almost immediately.

Wallace Beery's role as BIG MIKE inspired me to overcome a recent challenge.Robert Young as Little Mike, the son,played the very human young soldier facing life altering decisions.The propeller plane air force was very interesting in light of today's SSTS,Stealth bombers & the like.Rosalind Russell & Maureen O'Sullivan gave quality performances as women on the opposite ends of the moral scale.Wallace Berry's strength of character,& admirable rectitude dominated this film.Big Mike has become a hero of mine.

Wallace Beery and Lewis Stone have both risen as far as they can in the Army, Stone's a general and Beery a top sergeant. Since Stone has a daughter who grows up to be Maureen O'Sullivan and girls did not aspire to such strictly male things as a military career back in the day, both old guys hope that Robert Young who is Beery's son succeeds.

Young as Beery's son gets a legacy appointment to West Point in West Point of the Air and upon graduation joins the Army Air Corps. Can he measure up is the burning question.

Wallace Beery adds to his repertoire of scene stealing old codgers again in this film. Imagine Judge Hardy in the military and you've got Lewis Stone's performance. Between the two of them they make West Point of the Air passably good entertainment.

Though Robert Young and Maureen O'Sullivan are the two young leads, MGM was giving some exposure to two of its younger contract players who went on to have bigger careers than the leads. Rosalind Russell plays the typical bad girl divorcée who seduces Young and move him from the straight and narrow path of duty. She's good, but no trace of the sparkling Roz of The Women or His Girl Friday.

And Robert Taylor has a small role as another of the young flying cadets with Young. One look at him and you knew that man was going to be a star and he has a death scene that I'm sure made a lot in the audience write to MGM and ask who this handsome devil was.

West Point of the Air was nice, but nothing terribly special except as a training ground for future stars.