Air Hostess

Evalyn Knapp is Kitty King, air hostess. Her dad was an ace pilot who cracked up in the war and so now all the airport crew think she belongs to them and want to protect her—especially from any new fellows around who might try to get fresh. "Say, listen," Kitty finally tells one of them, "I've never been alone long enough with any man to see how it feels to get properly insulted."

Enter James Murray as Ted Hunter, hot shot daredevil pilot who was once great but drank himself out of the flying profession. All of the airport crew hold him in scorn…so naturally Kitty falls for him.

Evalyn Knapp is the best thing going for this occasionally exciting but frequently dreary melodrama. Knapp is bright, cute—and just walks the line between naive kid and focused, determined adult.

The plot is pretty so-so….Ted the pilot has an idea to build a super-duper plane and attempt the first trans-Pacific crossing, but he can't find a backer to help pay for the thing. Kitty keeps her job as air hostess to put food on the table, against his wishes. Can he raise the money? Can he stay sober? Will Kitty's stubborn faith in his essential goodness be rewarded?

Thelma Todd is devilishly wicked as a publicity crazy rich divorcée who proposes to finance Ted's project but instead seduces him with liquor and other temptations. She really gives no hint of Thelma the great comic actress here—this Thelma is all dark side, and she's convincingly dangerous.

A genuinely thrilling climactic chase sequence does partly make up for the slow-moving middle section....Overall, aside from a few exciting moments, I'm afraid it's pretty mediocre—although the flying sequences do add some interest, presumably, for fans of early airplanes.

The most interesting part of Air Hostess (the term stewardess had apparently not come into use yet) is seeing all the early cinematography of passenger airliners and the surroundings. I took my first ride in an airliner as an infant in 1948 and the next one didn't come until the mid Sixties. It's fascinating to see what we take for granted even back then as compared to what the first airline passengers had to deal with.

Perky Evelyn Knight plays a character that if Air Hostess were an operetta, Jeanette MacDonald would have been cast. She's an air orphan who has grown up and around aviation since her dad who was a war ace was killed. Jeanette played just such a character in The Girl Of The Golden West.

She's got a couple of the pilots now who are checking her out, steady and reliable Arthur Pierson and daredevil stunt pilot James Hall. Hall has a scheme to become the Lindbergh of the Pacific and even has a ship designed for the trip if he can ever raise the heavy duty dough needed for it. Knapp winds up marrying Hall.

But a minx gets in the mix when rich playgirl widow Thelma Todd enters the film. The mantrap has it set for the glamorous Hall and he's needing her money real bad for his trans-Pacific voyage.

It's a formula plot despite all the aviation facade and that's where Air Hostess stumbles. The players do make it work, especially Todd who is so enticing.

In fact another thing about Air Hostess is the tragedy surrounding both the tempting and the tempted in this plot. Both James Murray of whom a brilliant career was predicted after his rave reviews in King Vidor's silent classic The Crowd and Thelma Todd would die within four years of this film. Knowing that lends a certain poignancy to their scenes together.

Air Hostess is a must film for aviation buffs, showing a picture of early airliners, for the rest of us it's an easy to take, but strictly formula plot.

Scanning a list of pre-code films, you probably wouldn't move a film starring Evalyn Knapp, James Murray and Arthur Pierson to the front of the queue, but Knapp, whose acting career eventually petered out, and Murray, whose career quickly tanked due to alcoholism, were big names at the time. (Pierson is kind of generic.)

The film turn out to be an action-packed aviation drama, back when aviation was a daring and romantic subject and apparently pronounced with a short a in the first syllable. Some stock footage of air stunts from old movies, but also some original and exciting original stunt scenes.

But it's not all just action. Two of the era's recurrent themes, Prohibition and protecting the heroine's virginity, move the plot about a stewardess whose father was a pilot killed in WW I. Exactly how she was brought up and what happened to her mother are glossed over, but she seems to be the pet of every flyer and mechanic at the Glendale CA airport and they seem to have nothing else to do besides keeping her from going out with men of any description.

Enter Ted Hunter (Murray), an old comrade of her father's leading a daredevil life and contemptuous in a friendly way of the more mundane commercial airline pilots. Kitty King (Knapp), already chafing under her self-appointed chaperones, obviously has a crush on him. Hunter is also an aircraft designer seeking backing for a plane with retractable wings, an idea that hasn't caught on for some reason. And he's an alcoholic.

This is where the film may get confusing if you don't remember Prohibition is in effect. Among other things, poor Kitty hasn't had her first taste of alcohol. She and Hunter plan a getaway in his plane to Mexico where you can still get drunk legally, in a conversation with mild sexual undertones.

Once they've had a night on the town in Ensenada and Kitty turns up in some sexy nightwear in the hotel room, it turns out that drinking was all Hunter was planning to show her and they beat a hasty retreat to California, where to save Kitty's reputation Hunter ad libs that they plan to get married, which is fine with her.

Will Ted get backing for his experimental plane? Will he fall for the charms of rich seductress Sylvia Carleton (Thelma Todd)? Will Kitty ditch unreliable Ted for sober commercial pilot Dick Miller (Pierson)?

As so often in that era, there's more going on in this film than seems possible in 67 minutes, and we haven't even mentioned the climactic stunt-flying action sequence at the finale. Also as usual, there are bits that won't sit well with today's audience, like a husband spanking his wife, even if it's presented as fun for both parties.

A real sleeper for pre-code fans.

Air Hostess (1933)

** (out of 4)

Boring "B" movie from Columbia about air hostess Kitty King (Evalyn Knapp) who is protected by everyone who works in the aviation field because of her father's heroic work during WWI. This protection at times is too much and this here sends her into the arms of a man (James Murray) who might not be the best thing for her and especially after he starts to see a rich woman (Thelma Todd) who might be able to help him with his dream. AIR HOSTESS is a pretty bland and boring picture that manages to make the viewer incredibly tired through its 67-minute running time but I'd say the picture is still worth watching thanks to a few factors that I'll get to in a moment. The biggest problem with this film is its rather bland screenplay, which offers up the typical story of a good girl caught between two men and of course she picks the bad one, which means the viewer has to sit through countless scenes where she feels sorry for herself. This entire concept was pretty boring even by 1933 standards and the problem here is that there simply isn't anything fresh or original done. Had the screenplay at least given the viewer a few twists or turns then perhaps we could have put up with things but that never happens. There are a few good things going for the film and this includes the performance of Knapp who has been forgotten by most people but she's quite charming here. She's certainly cute to look at but she manages to take a blandly written character and bring her to life. I also thought Todd was very good in her role as the sexy other woman. Murray really doesn't do much in his role nor does Arthur Pierson. What makes the film worth watching is that we get to see some pretty good airplanes from the era and we also get a rather amazing stunt at the end of the picture. This stunt involves a couple planes trying to stop a train and I won't ruin what happens but it's quite thrilling.

Aside from supporting performances by Thelma Todd and Jane Darwell, very few today will recognize the actors in this B-film from Columbia Studios. Likewise, it seems to be the sort of old fashioned film that few would watch today. However, me being an airplane buff and B-movie fanatic, it's a natural I'd see this film.

Although the film begins in WWI, it soon switches to the present (1933) and features folks working with the early airlines. I loved seeing all the great old planes, such as the Ford Tri-Motor, as this is a period in aviation history that it almost forgotten today.

Cute Evalyn Knapp stars as the daughter of one of the pilots killed in the prologue. Now a decade and a half later, she's working as an air hostess (flight attendant) for one of these airlines founded by pals of the dead pilot. The men have sort of adopted Knapp--keeping an eye out for her and protecting her at every turn. Eventually, a bad boy (James Murray) turns up and Knapp marries him--mostly to spite her protectors. The new couple struggle to make ends meet and Evalyn is forced to return to her job as an air hostess. Unfortunately, Murray ends up spending much of the marriage feeling sorry for himself because he is having trouble making a go of his new business idea as well as falling under the influence of the evil vamp (Thelma Todd). Will the marriage last through these strains or will Murray and Todd hurt poor little Knapp? See this one for yourself to find out what happens next.

Overall, this isn't a terribly great film. The plot is awfully familiar and there's not much to make it stand out--unless, as I said above, you are an aviation nut (like me). Not bad, but not especially noteworthy--that is until the dopey ending. In a very contrived twist, the two men who love Knapp have to work together to save her life--she's on a train bound for a bridge that has just washed out and there isn't a second to lose!!! This ending loses a point from the overall score.

By the way, at the beginning of the film you see some footage of WWI air combat. I am not sure which, but the film clips were lifted from either "Hell's Angels" or "Wings" (I am inclined to think "Hells Angels"). I recognized these clips--particularly the scene with the pilot bleeding from the mouth. If anyone can figure out which of the films it was from, drop me a line.

Note--About halfway through the film, Murray gives Knapp a playful little smack on the rump. Such goings on could not have occurred in this film had it come out a year later--after the toughened Production Code was enacted.