Cary Grant runs an airfield in South America. Fresh off the bananaboat comes dancer Jean Arthur. Also starring Rita Hayworth and Thomas Mitchell, directed by Howard Hawks.
I get a feeling of Milton Caniff from this film. Okay, there is no Terry or any pirates, but Grant plays a Pat Ryan or Steve Canyon kind of guy. It has some of the same spirit. All that is missing is a villain who talks of himself in the third person. It's a story about bravery and sacrifice, I guess. Jean Arthur is the Hawksian woman that prefers to hang out with the guys, and Grant gets to show that he can also look good in a leather jacket. It's old Hollywood at it's best.
I love that part where you see the plane going past the huge birds. They do a lot of those Milton Caniff expressions - so serious. It's also got kind of that George Herriman thing where you feel like the characters are trapped in that landscape and they all have roles they can't escape. I can't remember clearly but I think it was Faulkner who wrote that death scene where they count down to take off.
ReplyDeleteIt's a nice scene. Acoording to IMDB, it's taken almost word for word from a pilot's death that Hawks witnessed.
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