Sky Liner

When Sky Liner came out in 1949 this was Lippert Pictures trying to take advantage of current headlines involving espionage in the State Department. Joe McCarthy was a year away from his famous accusations in Wheeling, West Virginia about the Communists in government. But in 1949 Secretary Of State Dean Acheson was defending himself against right wing attacks about the Red Menace invading our State Department. Also remember that the Hiss case was coming to a head as well.

So what we have in Sky Liner is spy Rochelle Hudson, secretary to a State Department bigwig apparently ready to defect. A Communist takes her boss's place after killing him and the two are on the way to a conference. You have to believe there's going to be a defection because once they discover the real boss's body, it's all over. And that's supposing no one at the conference will realize there's a phony planted among the delegates.

Never fear because the FBI in the person of Richard Travis has her in his sights for a while and he also might get a twofer because foreign agent Stephen Bekassy is also on this transcontinental flight. It turns out as films in this era always did with the FBI protecting us from Red secretaries.

Sky Liner is one of the dumbest films from the Cold War I've ever seen and one of the dumbest from Lippert studios. And that is going some.

At least the movie never drags. Considering almost the entire time is confined to the passenger cabin, that's a genuine accomplishment on director Berke's part. The plot concerns foreign intrigue and a killing aboard the plane. It's not really a whodunit since the culprit's pretty obvious. Too bad the script didn't play up the whodunit potential since that would have generated more suspense, especially in such close quarters. This is another Lippert quickie, though more imaginative than most. Too bad, male lead Richard Travis couldn't get more interested in his part. Even though he looks the G-man part, Travis basically walks through the role. Note too presence of 1930's favorite Rochelle Hudson (Amy Winthrop). Unfortunately, she doesn't get much chance to shine. I suspect the film's airline motif was aimed at a US public just then getting used to affordable cross-country flights. One way or the other, we certainly get a lot of real airliner shots. Anyway, it's an okay little 60-minutes of the sort that would soon migrate to TV.

To start with I think the original run time was supposed to be 61 minutes but ended up actually being only 49 minutes. That's definitely the shortest run time of any film I've ever seen. Still, it wasn't half bad. Most of the action takes place on a plane, which provides an interesting and fun take on those early days of commercial flying. Most of the performances are passable but none really memorable. As for the story, it's not bad for such a brief window of opportunity. I thought Sky Liner was (just) fine and worth a viewing if your curious.

I am sure that in time the overall rating of this film will change, but for now it's only 4.8. You'd think this would indicate that the movie is rather poor, though I thought the film was actually a bit better--and well worth seeing. However, one thing I need to point out is that although it's now on a DVD entitled "Forgotten Noir", this is really not an example of film noir--nor are many films in this series. It lacks the camera-work, dialog and grittiness you'd expect in noir. Instead, it's a rather straight-forward example of a crime film.

The film is set aboard an airliner (a Lockheed Constellation, if you really care). According to IMDb, the markings on the plane kept changing--a silly mistake but it didn't exactly ruin the film. A federal agent is on the plane--following a woman who is involved in some sort of espionage. However, when a dead body is found aboard, it's obvious that there is a killer on the plane! Who did it and how must be discovered before the killer is able to escape.

The film is enjoyable...even if the actual murder weapon is a bit far-fetched. Well-paced, interesting and a very good time-passer.

Yet another gem in the Forgotten Noir Collection Vol. 4 DVD set. I'm quickly becoming a fan of the late director William Berke. Although he worked mostly in B-movies, he was one of the better directors in that field. He has a knack for pacing and getting the best out of actors, in this case no name thespians. These films are usually short, some just over an hour and others just under an hour, but Berke makes the best of low budgets and fast pacing. This film involves espionage in the air, on the Sky Liner of the title. It's definitely not typical noir, but it is decent little film. Richard Travis plays a sky marshal for the government tailing a spy network and the story goes on from there. The cast of no names is pretty good led by Rochelle Hudson, the always steady Herbert Evans, Steven Geray and others. The script is good so credit should be given Maurice Tombragel and John Wilste. At less than 50 minutes long, this is a surprising little treat.