Flight for Freedom

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Movie
Original title Flight for Freedom
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1943
length 102 minutes
Rod
Director Lothar Mendes
script Oliver HP Garrett ,
SK Lauren
production David Hempstead for RKO Pictures
music Roy Webb
camera Lee Garmes ,
Frank Redman
cut Roland Gross
occupation

Flight for Freedom (title in Austria Flucht in die Freiheit , also known as Stand to Die ) is an American drama directed by Lothar Mendes from 1943. The leading roles are starring Rosalind Russell , Fred MacMurray and Herbert Marshall .

Film historians and biographers of Amelia Earhart are of the opinion that the film partially depicts the life story of the aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, who was reported missing in the Pacific Ocean in July 1937 and declared dead on January 5, 1939.

Horace McCoy's adaptation of the story on which the script is based is based on a model by Jane Murfin . The film was nominated for an Oscar in the category “Best Production Design in a Black and White Film”.

action

When Tonie Carter, an aviation pioneer, was on her first solo flight in 1932, she almost collided with Randy Britton's plane. Britton is a celebrated pilot who believes that women shouldn't be behind the controls of an airplane. Carter, apologizing to Britton for her mishap, taps a white lie that Britton is in the back room of a nightclub that only male pilots are allowed into, and claims she has an appointment with Britton. The pilot is fascinated by her and invites her to go to Delaware for a mussel meal. He also suggests that Tonie spend the week with him while his plane is being repaired. Although Tonie isn't sure how to react at first, the two spend the night together. The next morning Randy gives Tonie a cigarette case with a map of the world on the beach, the jewel of which marks Virginia Beach, the location of their first night together.

After Carter's plane is intact again, he takes off on a test flight to California and then to South America. Tonie, who has fallen seriously in love with Randy, watches from the beach with tears in her eyes as his plane disappears into the distance. She then returned to New York to continue working for her flight instructor Paul Turner.

Two years have passed. Randy has returned from South America and asks Turner if he knows anything about Tonie's whereabouts, but Turner says no and later informs Tonie about it. He also asks the young woman to fly a prototype plane from New York to Los Angeles in the coming week. It is a race whose prize money would enable Turner to open up new possibilities in aircraft construction for him. Desperate to win the race, Tonie flies the plane at 20,000 feet to take advantage of the tailwind. There she passes out because she cannot take in enough oxygen. When her plane is already in the descent, she comes to and manages to get the machine under control, but finishes last in the race because it was off course.

Meanwhile, Randy has managed to get in touch with Tonie with the aim of continuing their romance. Although Tonie still has the gift cigarette case with her, she refuses. She has made the decision to break the existing world record and fly back to New York in less than twelve hours. Without letting anyone know, Tonie picks up the phone while Randy and Paul argue about them and actually manages to break the record. For Tonie that means fame and Paul also benefits from her performance.

Shortly thereafter, Paul Turner asks Tonie to become his wife and retire from flying. Tonie gives him her yes, but makes it a condition to fly around the world alone beforehand. Randy follows Tonie's flight and reports that he saw a submarine base while flying over the Japanese islands. However, the Japanese have banned air traffic over their islands, so Admiral Graves fears difficulties. At the same time, Tonie's flight also gives him the idea of ​​how it would be possible to circumvent the flight ban. He therefore orders Carter to abort her flight to come to Washington and talk about a secret government mission. Tonie received the message during a layover in Honolulu. When she faces Graves in Washington, he suggests that the security of the country depends on her mission and tells her to resume her solo flight and to send an emergency call as soon as she approaches the Japanese islands. As soon as her distress call came, she was to land the machine on the tiny coral reef of Gull Island , where she and her navigator would then be picked up by a Navy ship. Tonie's disappearance, he explains, gives the navy surveillance planes the opportunity to fly over the Japanese islands without the Japanese protesting, largely thanks to Tonie's fame. Tonie then flies from Miami to New Guinea and meets the navigator in a small hotel who is supposed to ensure that the islands are reached. To Tonie's surprise, the man is Randy. The result is a debate that eliminates some misunderstandings, but does not change the fact that Tonie is now engaged to Paul, whom she definitely does not want to disappoint.

When Tonie receives secret information about military installations from Mr. Yokahata in the hotel lobby, she realizes how important her task is, so she decides to fly to the South Seas by herself the next morning . That same evening, she confesses to Randy that she loves him and together they imagine what their future might look like. When Randy wakes up the next morning, Tonie is already gone, she only left the cigarette case with the map and marked Gull Island with an "X". Randy tracks her flight over the radio that reports on Tonie. Then the news comes that Tonie's fuel supply is running out. Shortly before she reached Gull Island, Tonie made an emergency call that her machine was about to fall into the sea. In a panic, she lets the plane soar to an altitude of 20,000 feet, causing her to suffer from a lack of oxygen and crashing the plane into the sea. When Randy carried out an American bombing mission in the Japanese islands, he took out Tonie's cigarette case and marked the target with a tick.

production

Production notes, filming

The shooting in Chicago , Illinois under the working title Stand to Die began at the end of August and ended at the end of October 1942. The overwater aerial shots were mainly made here because the Atlantic and Pacific coasts were closed to filming due to the war. A few more scenes were shot in early December 1942. The film was produced by RKO Pictures , whose studio boss Floyd Odlum was married to Jacqueline Cochran , a close friend of Amelia Earhart and a well-known aviator herself. It was rumored that the film was based on a script submitted by Amelia Earhart's husband, George P. Putnam. The characterization by Rosalind Russell shows a "Lady Lindbergh" who has set numerous aviation records, but also sketches from the actual life of the aviator.

The opening scene of the film shows American combat squadrons speeding towards the Japanese islands in 1943. The voice of a narrator can be heard across the picture, pointing out that a spirited American woman risked her life to obtain strategic information about secret Japanese combat bases on these islands. In June 1942, RKO extended the film's production date to take advantage of recent U.S. victories at Midway Island . In early September 1942, Frank Redman took over the camera from Lee Garmes after he received a call back from 20th Century Fox to film China Girl .

background

The film supports the belief that Earhart spied on the Japanese in the Pacific at the request of the Franklin Roosevelt administration. Many reviews emphasize the strong parallels between the life of the aviator Amelia Earhart and the character Tonie Carter. According to the Hollywood Reporter , in retrospect there has been much speculation about the time that Earhart's disappearance was staged during her circumnavigation in 1937. Putnam, Earhart's widower, is said to have approved the film only on condition that the name of his late wife was not mentioned. Fred MacMurray is on loan from Paramount.

The Hollywood Reporter said that the proceeds from the premiere went to charities. Rosalind Russell repeated her role in a Lux Radio Theater performance in September 1943. Randy Britton was given by George Brent .

In an NBC television film from 1976 entitled Amelia Earhart , directed by George Schaefer with Susan Clark and John Forsythe , the fate of the aviator is presented biographically.

history

Amelia Mary Earhart (around 1928)

Amelia Earhart (* 1897 - lost in the Pacific Ocean in 1937, pronounced dead on January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and suffragette. Earhart was the daughter of a German-American lawyer who was alcoholic. She dropped out of her medical degree. Her path was marked out in 1920 when she was allowed to fly on an airplane for the first time. She achieved international fame in June 1928 with a 20-hour flight in which she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic non-stop. In 1932, five years after Charles Lindbergh , she was the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a solo flight. With her daring flights, she also wants to prove that women are just as capable of top technical performance as men are. She used her popularity to stand up for her feminist goals.

Shortly before her 40th birthday, she set herself the goal of being the first person to circle the earth at the equator . With her navigator Fred Noonan (modeled after the character Randy Britton in the film) she started in Miami in May 1937. After completing three quarters of the route at the end of June, she started on July 2 from Lae in New Guinea to cover the last section - the Pacific. She wanted to make a stopover on Howland Island . She repeatedly reported that she was not receiving any radio signals, then apparently got increasingly into distress and wandered about the Pacific. After her navigator had given the flight direction at 8:40 am, contact was finally broken. The plane never made it to Howland Island. There are various hypotheses about their disappearance, see here → Hypotheses about Earhart's disappearance .

Music in the film

- Arrangement each Roy Webb -

publication

The film premiered on February 4, 1943 in the United States, where it was generally shown in theaters from April 15, 1943. It was also published in the United Kingdom in 1943, as well as in Mexico, Sweden and Portugal. It was shown for the first time in Spain (Madrid) in September 1946 and in 1948 under the title Escape to Freedom in Austria. It was published in Denmark and France in 1949. In Austria it was re-published in 1951. It was also published in Brazil, Greece, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands, there under the title Friheden har Vinger .

reception

criticism

Bosley Crowther of the New York Times said the film took endlessly before it took off, mainly because it couldn't break out of a conventional rut. For the most part, it is a routine story that shows a romance in which man and woman cannot come together. Rosalind Russell play her role with an excess of stars in her eyes and Fred MacMurray admit the gentlemen with an almost painful nonchalance. It is embarrassing when someone sits on a plane and pretends to be high in the air when it is obvious that the recordings were made in the studio. Herbert Marshall is another loyal friend who waits in vain and Edward Ciannelli is occasionally amusing in his role as a restaurant owner. The story itself is heavily exaggerated, the characters are only sketched superficially and the great victim climax, if you think about it logically, confusing.

The USCCB was of the opinion that the director succeeded in portraying the dramatic rise in the life of Amelia Earhart, even if the suicide mission disguised as patriotism sounded hollow. A lot got mixed up between suicide and romantic complications.

The Movie Scene page says there is a lot about the film that you might like, especially the last third. Russell did a wonderful job as Tonie Carter, but most of all the performances with Fred MacMurray as Randy Britton were unforgettable. It went on to say that Flight for Freedom probably worked much better when the film came out in 1943, largely because of the patriotism on display in the film.

Award

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Flight for Freedom see Notes at TCM - Turner Classic Movies (English)
  2. ↑ a b Flight for Freedom sS tvguide.com (English)
  3. ↑ Friheden har Vinger Ill . Title and back of the film program
  4. ^ Bosley Crowther : "Flight for Freedom", a Film Speculation on Fate of Woman Flier, with Rosalind Russell in Lead, at the Music Hall In: The New York Times . April 16, 1943 (English). Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  5. ↑ Flight for Freedom sS archive.usccb.org (English). Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  6. ↑ Flight for Freedom (1943) see themoviescene.co.uk (English). Retrieved January 3, 2019.