Fugitive in the Sky

There's a lot going on aboard this particular air flight from one undefined location to another. That's not just because reporter Warren Hull is trying to pitch some woo at stewardess Jean Muir. There's also a punchdrunk boxer and his manager, a daffy old lady who tries to draw everyone's horoscope, and, oh yeah, a dangerous killer who's carrying a gun and will shoot up the pilot and everything. All this despite a title at the beginning informing the audience that air travel is safe.

A lot of the stuff going on in this Warner's B directed by Nick Grinde is old hat by the standards of 1936, but there's such an awful lot of it that it keeps the viewer pleasantly dizzy with variety for the 58 minutes it takes to sit through. Grinde and DP Ted McCord show you don't need a lot of scenery to make a movie, just two sets, a variety of camera angles, andenough special effects to put the stratosphere in a window. With Carlyle Moore Jr, Wini Shaw, Mary Treen, John Litel, Nedda Harrigan, and Charley Foy.

The setting; A 1930's airliner (a classic Ford Tri-Motor!) on a cross-country flight.

The weather grows worse, with a mid-west dust storm threatening to bring down the aircraft.

Suddenly, the situation becomes much worse with two further complications:

1) A passenger is stabbed to death--while all are sleeping! Whodunit?

2) A notorious gunman, "Killer Madsen" is in disguise on board and fleeing from the law!

The crew and passengers must keep their cool as the weather gets worse and the desperate gunman takes over the aircraft, threatening everyone!

The kicker; The hard-as-nails, gun-pointing 'Killer Madsen' claims that he is NOT the murderer of the passenger !

So the question remains; Who killed the passenger?... ....And Why??

A fast-paced little film with sly, slick and sharp dialogue, great atmosphere, and a LOT of Fun !

This is a worthwhile comedy-mystery "B" film. I'd give a 6.5. The only caveats I have are 1) the leading villain's performance is a bit over the top (though remarkable in another sense) and 2) the biplane stock footage near the end doesn't match the monoplanes subsequently shown landing.

All the other actors do a good job, their banter is excellent, as is the picture's pace. Familiar faces abound. They include Mary Treen (218 credits), John Litel (216 credits), "Wild" Bill Elliott of "B" cowboy fame (277 credits), John Kelly (165 credits), Charley Foy (of the Seven Little Foys' theatrical family), and Spencer Charters (225 credits). Who the murderer is, is not not easy to figure out, and, for the time, the special effects are well done.

What the midwestern "dust bowl" of the 1930s was like will probably come as a shock to younger viewers. After seeing this film's depiction of a typical dust storm, however, it is easy to understand why the "Okies" began migrating to California. (see The Grapes of Wrath, 1940.)

Even the featured plane is interesting. The Ford Trimotor plane ("The Tin Goose"), with its corrugated skin, was based on the German Junkers' design. That is why fans of World War II films will find it very familiar. (It closely resembles the Nazis' Junkers Ju 52 transport.) And in 1929 it was involved in, what was at that time, the worst plane disaster ever. In New Jersey, 14 people died when two of a "goose's" engines failed.

Fugitive In the Sky is an hour of non-stop thrills delivered by the 'B' team at Warner Brothers. Heck, with no stars worth mentioning and director Nick Grinde behind the camera, it's the 'B' team's 'B' team at that. Nonetheless, thanks to some outstanding miniature work, good set design, a game cast, an exciting screenplay, and some ridiculous but vastly entertaining plot twists, this remains one of the most enjoyable bill fillers of the period. Howard Phillips does a nice job as psycho 'Killer' Madsen, Jean Muir is fine as self assured stewardess Rita Moore, and watch out for those disguises! Besides being one of the first films--if not THE first--to establish many of the plot devices and cliches that would be further developed in films from Zero Hour (1957) to Airport 1977 (1977), Fugitive In the Sky also features cross-dressing, a bleak Dust Bowl farm straight out of the Universal horror playbook, and the best cockpit set this side of Plan 9 From Outer Space. An unusual and surprisingly satisfying effort.

Fair action drama that although involves a death in the air cannot really be termed a mystery. The plot is more concerned with the attempt of "Killer" Madsen to evade the law and the romance of the two actors than with solving the murder. Good technical effects of dust storm but the interior of the aircraft is much larger than in real life. Shots of landing in Albuquerque, New Mexico were obviously filmed elsewhere. How the plane lands safely is something only Hollywood could invent. Some unusual twists to the plot and interesting exterior shots of old airplanes make this worth your time only if there is nothing else available. Oh yes, at the end the murder is solved.