Air-Tight

Air-Tight (1931)

* (out of 4)

Absolutely horrendous entry in the "Boy Friends" series has the group at a launching field where Grady Sutton gets into a glider, which accidentally takes off and soon he's flying around while Mickey Daniels and David Sharpe try to figure out a way for him to get down. I don't think anyone would be shocked to learn that the Boy Friends series got third-rate screenplays that were obviously not good enough for Hal Roach's higher talent like Laurel and Hardy. The series was always up and down but I've never seen one as bad as this entry, which ranks as one of the worst shorts I've seen from this period. Not only is there not a single laugh to be found but the technical quality of the picture is downright poor and whoever saw the rushes of this thing should have canceled the production right there. The shocking this is that future Oscar-winner George Stevens directed this thing and you can't tell he was doing anything. I'm going to guess that a lot of the footage is either stock footage or clips from a silent picture. The majority of the "air work" is poorly shot and it's obvious Sutton isn't in the plane. The "humor" on the ground isn't any better as we get severals scenes of Daniels and Sharpe trying to teach him how to jump out of the glider.

This film is gets off to a predictable start, a runaway glider, but then pulls out all the stops with lots of great slapstick gags.

No, it's not a deadly serious work of art or comedic genius. But it has a lot of twists and turns to make it fun.

Just when you think you know what the next gag will be, they throw something entirely different in.

There's really not a wasted frame in this fine little comedy from a series that produced only a handful of films. This ranks as one of their best.

If you enjoy slapstick, you'll love this one. New prints of it are available at filmclassic.com for $185; too bad such a high price of admission is charged for this little gem, but it does show up on TCM from time to time.

It would be great if Hallmark would release all the Boy Friends shorts on DVD.

This is a FAR from a great short from Hal Roach Studio, and is another of a string of Boy Friends films. The Boy Friends series were akin to an older version of the Our Gang shorts and some of the actors were veterans of the other series (such as the be-freckled Mickey). At Roach, the Boy Friends were definitely lesser talents compared to Laurel and Hardy or even Charley Chase. As a result, their films generally are pretty forgettable and the laughs are fewer and father between. In fact, this one has among the fewest laughs of any Boy Friends films. This is because the film is all slapstick and absolutely no plot or characterizations. In many ways, it looks exactly like an old silent short but with a lot less energy or fun. The plot is exactly this--Alabama accidentally takes off in a glider and panics, so the gang does everything they can to rescue him. 'Nuff said about this sad and dull film.

Mary Kornman persuades Grady Sutton to take the glider the gang has built up. Unfortunately, they can't figure out how to get him down.

THE BOY FRIENDS can be thought of as "Our Gang Become Teenagers", and it was built around original Rascals Mickey Daniel and Mary Kornman. George Stevens got his promotion from cameraman to director Gertrude Messinger and Grady Sutton were added to the bunch, and the skilled Hal Roach writers went to work.... but it was never really a great series, alas,. Still, it's good, and Charlie Hall as the put-upon gilder pilot helps.