Films about alcoholics are usually not my cup of tea, but The Last Flight is different. These men are all buddies who are shell shocked from World War One, and they are unable emotionally and physically to make the transition from war to peacetime, or to go home to America and try to find humdrum jobs after dramatic lives as wartime air pilots and bombers in Europe. They only have each other.
So they travel together from bar to bar in Paris for months after 1918 and the end of the war, and then move on to Lisbon's bars. Along the way we are treated to strange hotel bedroom scenes with turtles in the bathtub, a scene in a cemetery where two characters discuss the infamous lovers Heloise and Abelard, a bullfight, a carnival, and an unusual train scene. The Last Flight is wacky and fun and has the oddest dialog of any early 1930's sound film. "I'll take vanilla." O...k...
The ensemble cast are all terrific. Richard Barthelmess as Cary, the pilot with the burned hands, David Manners as Shep, whom Cary rescued from their burning plane, and who now has a nervous tic he can only control through drinking, Johnny Mack Brown as Bill, who likes to grab onto horses and bulls, and Elliot Nugent as Francis, who is quietly psychotic, but in a very friendly, dedicated way, of course. Walter Byron plays Frink (read: fink), really very much an outsider to the group, because he seems able to hold his liquor and is judgmental of the other fellows who can't.
And best of all we have Helen Chandler in one of her most endearing 1930's roles as Nikki, kooky, spaced out, prone to tears at the drop of a hat, attractive even though she has that crooked tooth which makes her unable to kiss a man (and notice she doesn't kiss any of the men all through the picture). She falls in with their crowd because she's rich, she likes champagne, she has a closet filled with hundreds of pairs of shoes, and she has nothing else better to do. "I can walk faster in red shoes." :)
I hope TCM airs this film again soon. I keep requesting they do so, but they keep ignoring my requests. Since we are in the midst of a war today the subject matter in this 1931 film would be very contemporary for our boys returning home.
Update: they finally aired it again and it's great to have a good print finally. Way to go, TCM!
Update again: Warner Brothers has released the film on DVD at their Archive web site. It's a nice print with good contrast. Go get it!
9 out of 10.
So they travel together from bar to bar in Paris for months after 1918 and the end of the war, and then move on to Lisbon's bars. Along the way we are treated to strange hotel bedroom scenes with turtles in the bathtub, a scene in a cemetery where two characters discuss the infamous lovers Heloise and Abelard, a bullfight, a carnival, and an unusual train scene. The Last Flight is wacky and fun and has the oddest dialog of any early 1930's sound film. "I'll take vanilla." O...k...
The ensemble cast are all terrific. Richard Barthelmess as Cary, the pilot with the burned hands, David Manners as Shep, whom Cary rescued from their burning plane, and who now has a nervous tic he can only control through drinking, Johnny Mack Brown as Bill, who likes to grab onto horses and bulls, and Elliot Nugent as Francis, who is quietly psychotic, but in a very friendly, dedicated way, of course. Walter Byron plays Frink (read: fink), really very much an outsider to the group, because he seems able to hold his liquor and is judgmental of the other fellows who can't.
And best of all we have Helen Chandler in one of her most endearing 1930's roles as Nikki, kooky, spaced out, prone to tears at the drop of a hat, attractive even though she has that crooked tooth which makes her unable to kiss a man (and notice she doesn't kiss any of the men all through the picture). She falls in with their crowd because she's rich, she likes champagne, she has a closet filled with hundreds of pairs of shoes, and she has nothing else better to do. "I can walk faster in red shoes." :)
I hope TCM airs this film again soon. I keep requesting they do so, but they keep ignoring my requests. Since we are in the midst of a war today the subject matter in this 1931 film would be very contemporary for our boys returning home.
Update: they finally aired it again and it's great to have a good print finally. Way to go, TCM!
Update again: Warner Brothers has released the film on DVD at their Archive web site. It's a nice print with good contrast. Go get it!
9 out of 10.