Last night, for our first movie of the year, we saw "Atlantic Flight"(1937), purportedly about the aviation exploits of Dick Merrill, who in 1936 became the first pilot to make a round-trip transatlantic crossing. I say "purportedly" because I was expecting a lot more flying in this 59 minute film. Instead, the first fifteen minutes is made up of male/female rom-com antagonism, as Merrill (who plays himself under the name "Dick Bennett") and his mechanic "Bill Edwards" (Weldon Heyburn) trade witty put-downs with a hotshot female pilot named "Gail Strong" (Paula Stone). This is of course a prelude to romance. Edwards falls in love with Strong, not knowing that she's engaged to the wealthy "Baron Hayygard" (Ivan Lebedeff). Hayygard is a pilot himself, with plans to enter a world-cup air race. The problem for him is that there's no way he's gonna beat Merrill, who's also entered and who holds every air speed record at the time. Hayygard resorts to sabotage, but that doesn't happen until later in the movie. The middle half hour is kind of a mish-mash between the romantic subplot and the daredevil parachute jumps of Bill Edwards, who holds his own free fall record of waiting til the last second to pull the ripcord. Gail Strong, who by now is two-timing the Baron, asks Edwards to teach her how to skydive. This takes several minutes and is a further diversion from the plot.
Things do kick into gear, though, in the final fifteen minutes, when something happens (can't say what or to whom), and Bennett is forced to fly to England and back in record time. According to IMDB, this is a re-creation of his 1937 transatlantic round trip, and his skills are tested to the limit. It's exciting, given that a model airplane was used for the exteriors. There's plenty of tension inside the cockpit, as he and his co-pilot "Jack Carter" (Jack Lambie) encounter a mid-ocean storm. I was gonna write the movie off as the first act played out, because a quarter of the way in, there was very little flying for a film with "Flight" in the title. But it was more than made up for with the parachuting sequences, taken from stock footage of real daredevil jumps, and last quarter of the film, which also includes the air race. I was reminded of an air race Dad took my brother and I to in 1971, at Brown Field in San Diego. At the time, I'd never heard of an airplane race, and wondered how they were done. I remember asking Dad, "how do they know the course, if there's no track like in an auto race?" Dad said, "there are pylons they have to fly around". Well anyway, we were excited to go. There were all kinds of different planes entered, all propeller-driven, no jets. The race got off to a great start, unfortunately, it was marred by a crash. We witnessed it. Everyone there saw the plane go down, it had caught fire twenty or thirty seconds earlier. We all knew that the pilot was killed, it was a sickening, very depressing feeling. One minute he was racing, the next minute he was dead. The race was stopped, then called off and we went home. No one said much. It was very sad.
This movie, because of it's air race, caused me to Google the race that we went to. I wanted to find out the name of the pilot who was killed. At first, I got the year wrong. I thought it was 1970, which I entered with "Brown Field" + "Air Race" + "Plane Crash". Nothing conclusive came back, so I tried the same search terms with 1971, and there it was, in a thread on an aviation buff message board. The air race we saw was the United States Cup 1000, on July 18, 1971. It was only the second time that race had been held. The pilot who was killed was named Mike Geren. You can read about him (and there's also a video) if you Google the words that I listed.
At any rate, "Atlantic Flight" gets Two Solid Thumbs Up, but a high recommendation for what flying and parachute scenes it does have. I thought there'd be more, but it's still very much worth a watch. The picture is a little soft, but not bad. ////
The previous night on New Year's Eve, after a fruitless half hour search, I finally chanced upon a noir called "Two Dollar Bettor". John Litel stars as "John Hewitt", a happy-go-lucky guy who's never seen a horse race in his life. Then one day he visits the track with some friends. They cajole him into betting a couple bucks for the fun of it. On his first try he scores a windfall at 100-to-1 odds. His two bucks nets him 200. All at once he's hooked.
As you can imagine, his arc describes the lures and perils of gambling. On the advice of a friend, he connects with a bookie, following a low risk system of betting on a jockey instead of different horses. His winning streak continues and the bookie gets nervous. So, he sends a gal out to see Mr. Hewitt. "Mary Slate" (Marie Windsor), is trained to "play" newcomers. She sweet talks Hewitt into going back to longshots, suggesting she can give him tips where "the fix is in". Hewitt is a credulous rube in this regard, a family man with no experience in the world of crime. When he starts losing, he doubles down to regain momentum. But he's gotta settle up with his bookie first. To do so, he embezzles funds from his bank, where he's the manager.
One day he finds himself thousands of dollars in the hole. We know Marie Windsor has been leading him down the garden path the entire time. Now, she and her boyfriend are set to launch a plan of their own, apart from the bookmaker, to extort from Hewitt one final jackpot. He's desperate at this point, and ready to kill. What's different about the story, from a stylistic point, is that the betting theme is portrayed through the standard film noir formula, while Hewitt's home life - which is given equal screen time - is delivered like an "Ozzie and Harriett" sitcom, complete with lively orchestration. It's a weird juxtaposition, because of the "gee whiz" domesticity, to go from watching Hewitt the Dad, fawning over his daughter (whose boyfriend is played by Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer), to seeing him cringe at the racetrack as his horse is losing another race. Some fans at IMDB found this off-putting. Me, I thought it was an eccentric but interesting approach.
Imagine my surprise at the end of the film when the credits said "written by William Raynor". It's really weird, because it's like he wanted to get the last word in at the end of the year. I'm telling you I searched and searched for a movie that night, and I couldn't find anything. I even started watching two other films, but turned each one off due to fuzzy prints. And then, I saw this title on somebody's list : "Two Dollar Bettor". It wasn't even a Youtube recommendation. Because it was getting late I said "what the hell" and pressed play. Then, at the end : "Bill Raynor". I know he must have done it; he wanted me to watch his film. It's a Reseda Thing, doncha know. Thanks, Bill Raynor! You made my New Year's Eve. Say hi to Mr. Reeves if he's around.
For this reason, and because it a good film, "Two Dollar Bettor" gets Two Big Thumbs Up. The print, like that of "Atlantic Flight", is somewhat grey and soft, but watchable. Keep in mind, regarding print quality, that I turn off unwatchable prints - I know the difference (who wouldn't) - and I would never recommend any movie, no matter how good, if the print was beyond repair. "Two Dollar" is thus very highly recommended. ////
And that's all I know for tonight on this first blog of 2022. Keep swirling the numbers.
I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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