Frank Wead, on whose story this is based, is familiar to us from Hawks' Ceiling Zero (and, by inspiration, Only Angels Have Wings) and Ford's They Were Expendable - in fact Ford made a biopic of him, The Wings of Eagles - more later. Vincent Lawrence and Waldemar Young's screenplay is fast and friendly, also tense and tragic. Great MGM star power in teaming of Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy, showing early promise in great reaction shots, who all call each other and everyone else 'Pal'.
Mixture of good special effects with somehow charming shots of model planes racing each other against back projections. Features some amazing Slavko Vorkapich montage work. Shot by Ray June.
With Lionel Barrymore, Samuel S Hinds, Marjorie Main, Ted Pearson, Gloria Holden, Louis Jean Heydt.
 |
Gable was a lifelong friend of Barrymore, was signed to MGM by Thalberg in 1930, became a star with Red Dust in 1932. Married his beloved Lombard in 1939. After her death he flew bomber missions in Europe for three years. MGM didn't renew his contract after, and he never quite achieved star status again.
No comments:
Post a Comment