Absolute Quiet

Absolute Quiet (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Semi-rip of The Petrified Forest has a plane full of people crash landing on the field of a man (Lionel Atwill) being held captive by a couple robbers. There are a few good laughs here but the direction is so strange that it's hard to really get caught up in the film. There's very little suspense in the movie but there are a couple nice laughs, which help the movie move along. Wallace Ford playing the tough guy was a bit hard to believe and led to several unintentional laughs. J. Carroll Naish and Irene Harvey turn in good performances as does Atwill.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then this film full-fills it's designs. It is useless to write even a bare bones synopsis of it, for it copies from ever classic or trite pot-boiler of the 'Golden Age' of Hollywood. A true example of a throw-away programmer that any of the major studios churned out to fill their production obligations of fifty (50+) plus features a year.

The cast, all first rate character actors or middle-tier stars perform their obligations well. Each fulfilling a specified characterization. Lionel Atwill, driven and vindictive business tycoon no doubt a R.I.N.O, Raymond Walburn, corrupt Governor (in Illinois that's expected), Stuart Erwin, obnoxious reporter (is there any other type), Louis Hayward, washed up actor (which he would become post WWII). Added too this is Wallace Ford and Bernadene Hayes as 'Jack and Judy' (Bonnie & Clyde) plus Irene Hervey and Ann Loring for the 'Damsels In Distress' (D.I.D.).

They are all thrown together in a plot that includes a isolated ranch substituting for the 'old dark house'. Romantic liaisons gone wrong, a airplane crash with gangsters on the loose. Too bad they did not have a sandstorm to go with it, but you cannot have everything. I liked it and with a running time of only 70" you cannot go wrong to give it a try.

The top billed stars in Absolute Quiet are Lionel Atwill as Gerald Axton (Atwill appeared in many murder mysteries and horror films) and Irene Hervey as Laura Tait (Destry Rides Again), but the real stars here are reporter Oscar Rudd (played by Stuart Erwin) and a political bigshot played by Raymond Walburn. Two crooks on the run interfere with an airplane trying to land, but things are complicated because there are political bigshots and reporters on that airplane. Viewers will also see character actor Edwin Maxwell from His Girl Friday, Shop around the Corner, and Cecil DeMille's Cleopatra. Director George Seitz had been writing and directing in Hollywood since 1914, for the silent films. Original story by George Worts. Fun suspense thriller; most of it takes place in one room on the ground, or in the air, so it has the feel of a talkie play, but it's an entertaining film. Lionel Atwill was born in England, and Louis Hayward was was born in S. Africa and raised in England, so there are some accents going on here. Screenplay is pretty whitewashed, but it only costs about an hour and a half to watch it. I get the feeling the original script was a little more naughty...

This minor movie is worth watching but a bit corny by modern standards. It has a funny scipt and it is well acted by its little known cast. It is kind of hard boiled and cynical. It is a send up of American politics and society of the time when the film was made, and it gives some perspective for the present day.

There are some first-rate performances packed into this surprisingly entertaining "B" movie. Taking it from the top, there's Lionel Atwill as a high-powered tycoon whose doctor orders him to rest his nerves at his ranch out west. That's not easy when Wallace Ford and Bernadene Hayes turn up as a vaudeville act wanted for murder. And when a fog-bound plane crashes, they're joined by Louis Hayward as a fading movie idol whose face is scarred in the accident, Stu Erwin as a wise-guy newspaperman and Raymond Walburn as a blustering politico. Throw in Irene Hervey as the secretary Atwill is trying to bed and J. Carroll Naish as a sly Mexican ranch hand and it's fun watching "Absolute Quiet" just to see who'll try to steal the spotlight from who. My bet goes to Hayes and Ford as the serial killer love birds who insist that they really slayed 'em in vaudeville.