NIGHT FLIGHT (1933)

[drednm]

Out on Netflix, this all-star film from MGM is certainly a strange movie. Taken out of circulation in the early 40s as per contract with author, the film finally was shown again at the TCM film festival.

Stark and stunning photography almost steals the thunder of the stars: John Barrymore, Clark Gable, Helen Hayes, Lionel Barrymore, Myrna Loy, and Robert Montgomery. Sort of a "Grand Hotel" set up as the characters hardly ever meet up or share a scene together yet they are all linked by a night flight from Santiago across the Andes to Rio de Janeiro with the serum or some such. The film also bears a resemblance to "Strange Interlude" as the stars ramble on, revealing their thoughts.

I thought Hayes looked dreadful and acted badly. Everyone else was good.

Has anyone seen this one?

[greta de groat]

I thought it was interesting, and the photography was beautiful. This is the first movie i've liked Clark Gable in in a long time--curiously my favorite parts were silent, when he took off his helmet and just loved sitting in the open air. Clarence Brown was an interesting directorial choice for this, i would have thought they'd pick someone like Howard Hawks or Victor Fleming. But for me Brown was just the right choice in bringing out the pictorial beauty and the human costs. It didn't play like an adventure film. It has a lot of negative reviews on IMDB and i think that may be part of the reason.

greta

[drednm]

Yes a someone noted Cedric Gibbons had no part, rare for an MGM film of the time.

John Barrymore was very controlled even if his giant map of South America was over the top.

[dr.giraud]

The pre-revival word was mostly negative, so I was surprised when I liked it so much.

I too enjoyed all of the performances--Montgomery, Loy, the Barrymores, Gable, etc--and found Helen Hayes the least effective. It certainly doesn't help Hayes that she's followed by Loy.

[R Michael Pyle]

I bought the release from Warner Archive Collection, and I thought it a wonderful film, if a tad chopped up editorially. Gable had the best part, but Barrymore was superb. A couple of the parts seemed so snipped I was surprised, but overall I liked the film. I DIDN'T think it the greatest film I'd ever seen, though, especially with that cast, the novel on which it's based, and the potential. I'd certainly watch it again, but I'd rather watch the film with its close title, "The Last Flight" from 1931, Barthelmess and Chandler doing John Monk Saunders doing his best to emulate the era of his friend, F. Scott Fitzgerald - and that one more faithful to the original than Oliver H. P. Garrett is to Saint-Exupery.

[drednm]

I love The Last Flight. It's a hugely underrated film with great performances by Barthelmess, Brown, and especially Chandler who seems so fragile and wistful.

[Roseha]

I love The Last Flight also. What a sad sense of post WWI loss. Recommend it strongly.

Will have to rent Night Flight, especially as I'm a Barrymore fan.

[Jack Theakston]

http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.p ... 19&p=49157" target="_blank

[Wm. Charles Morrow]

I saw Night Flight last weekend, courtesy of Netflix. There are some memorable sequences, and I wasn’t bored, but ultimately found it odd and unsatisfying. As others have noted the major characters don’t interact much, so what was the point of MGM putting so many top stars into it? Viewers inevitably expect an aviation-themed Grand Hotel, they set us up to expect it, but it was never that kind of story to begin with, and only suffers in comparison.

Beautifully filmed, yes, and I agree that John Barrymore gives a strong performance (in a highly unsympathetic role), but what was up with Lionel? I mean, must his character have eczema, and scratch himself constantly? Was anyone else grossed out by this? When Jack finally tells him to stop scratching himself I detected an undertone of genuine, actor-ly resentment: “Stop upstaging me, you old ham!”

Clark Gable and Helen Hayes are a married couple but have no scenes together, which is good, because we wouldn’t buy it; Myrna Loy should have been his wife. (MGM made up for the miscasting with Test Pilot a few years later.) The other characters such as Robert Montgomery have some good moments but no one has a through-line that makes sense, or resolves in a satisfying way. In Grand Hotel, think of the Garbo, Beery, and John & Lionel Barrymore characters: they each arrive at the hotel wanting something, they each have life-changing experiences, and everything is different for them when they leave -- or are carried out, in Jack’s case. But in Night Flight? Two characters get killed, but for most everyone else life goes on as always. When the “End’ credit appeared it seemed to me as if the last reel was missing.