The Last Flight

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Movie
Original title The Last Flight
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1931
length 76 minutes
Rod
Director William Dieterle
script John Monk Saunders
production First National and
Warner Brothers
music David Mendoza
camera Sid Hickox
cut Alexander Hall
occupation

The Last Flight is an American film drama directed by the German director William Dieterle , who made his debut in an English-language film production. The 1931 film is based on the novel Single Lady by John Monk Saunders , who also wrote the screenplay. In the past few decades, the long-forgotten Last Flight was rediscovered by film critics, today it is seen as one of the most important cinematic testimonies of the Lost Generation and one of Dieterle's best films.

action

After the end of the First World War , the American pilots Cary Lockwood, Shep Lambert, Bill Talbot and Francis stranded in Paris . For months they have spent their time there visiting various cafes and bars, always accompanied by lots of alcohol. The pilots are amazed both mentally and physically by the war, they feel that they are no longer made for civilian life and that they have no future. They are therefore more and more hesitant to return to the United States. One evening the men meet Nikki in a nightclub, an American from a wealthy family, who wanders through her life just as aimlessly as the former soldiers, although at least she exudes a zest for life to the outside world. The men take Nikki into their circle of friends.

The group continues drinking in Nikki's luxurious hotel room. The American reporter Frink, a friend of the men, is also there. Frink thinks the soldiers are failures and makes intrusive advances to Nikki, which she rejects. Nikki, on the other hand, feels drawn to Cary, the most sensible member of the men's group, who has burned his hands in the war and is ashamed of them. Nikki and Cary go to the Père Lachaise Cemetery , where they visit the grave of Heloisa and Abelard . Cary tells her the sad story of the lovers and Nikki is genuinely touched, but then drops the comment that she has now found names for her two turtles. Cary, who actually likes her too, is disappointed with her reaction. He decides to leave the destructive group and head for Portugal . The three other pilots, Nikki and Frink, join him.

Even on the train ride, there were complications when Nikki was sexually harassed by Frink, but the other men were able to come to her aid in good time. In Lisbon , the men attend a bullfight . Bill, who grew up in the Alabama countryside with large animals, makes big sayings, longs for great danger, and suddenly steps into the arena. Bill is seriously injured by the bull and dies of his injuries a little later in the hospital. The rest of the group goes to a carnival. At a shooting range there is an argument between Cary and Frink, in which the reporter suddenly pulls his pistol. Francis, the silent one from the group of soldiers, draws his gun and shoots Frink. Francis then escapes. Frank, Nikki and the always melancholy Shep remain, but the latter was also shot by a bullet from Frink. Shep hides his injury and dies a little later. As he dies, he expresses that he has never felt better.

Cary and Nikki travel back to Paris together. Cary sums up that even the camaraderie, which seemed to be the only thing left after the end of the war, is now lost. Nikki asks that she can stay with him, and he eventually agrees.

Production background

Richard Barthelmess

Richard Barthelmess read a number of stories by the author John Monk Saunders under the title Nikki and Her War Birds in Liberty magazine. These stories were also published in novel form under the title Single Lady . Saunders was a pilot in the US Air Force during World War I, but was not stationed in Europe and therefore not involved in war missions. Barthelmess had been a great Hollywood star since the early 1920s and his contract with Warner Brothers or their subsidiary First National gave him a comparatively high degree of freedom of choice in his film projects. He was "touched, amused and moved" by the work and bought the film rights. Initially, the project was called Silent Bullets . Films about the First World War were in great demand at this time anyway, so Monk Saunders had worked as a writer on the successful war films Wings and Start into the Twilight (the latter also with Barthelmess in the leading role). However, a film about the time after the end of the war was the exception.

William Dieterle

William A. Wellman , who was himself a highly decorated pilot in World War I and had won an Oscar with Wings three years earlier, was supposed to be the director . Finally, Wilhelm “William” Dieterle took over the direction, who had emigrated from Germany to the United States only a year earlier. After his arrival in Hollywood, Dieterle had made a few version films in German, with which he convinced the managers of Warner Brothers of its quality, so that they entrusted him with his first English-language film production with The Last Flight . Dieterle was to become one of the most important directors at Warner Brothers during the 1930s.

The film was shot in April 1931 in just 17 days at Warner Bros. Studios Burbank. Jack Okey designed the buildings. It premiered on August 19, 1931 at the Strand Theater, New York. The general release was on August 29, 1931.

In addition to the consequences of the war, The Last Flight also addresses the destructive effects of alcohol. John Monk Saunders knew this, in 1940 he committed suicide after years of alcohol and drug addiction suicide . The careers of actors Helen Chandler and Elliott Nugent were also destroyed by their respective drinking problems.

In connection with The Last Flight , a Broadway version of Saunders' tales also premiered in September 1931 under the title Nikki as a musical. While Fay Wray - at that time the wife of Saunders - was seen as Nikki, was a little-known Archie Leach the male lead of Cary Lockwood . Leach liked the first name of his character Cary so much that he chose this as his artist's first name when he began his Hollywood career a little later: Archie Leach became Cary Grant .

reception

Barthelmess called The Last Flight in the press the "most unusual flick I've ever made". He predicted that the film would either be a big draw or a definite flop - in the end, The Last Flight received a positive response from critics, but fell short of expectations at the box office. Mordaunt Hall wrote in the New York Times on August 20, 1931 that The Last Flight was a "curious but often brilliant study of post-war psychology" on four soldiers.

In the 40 years after its release, the film remained almost unseen. It was not until the 1970s that film was rediscovered, and since then it has enjoyed a reputation among film critics and film historians as one of “the unrecognized great films of the thirties”. Bertrand Tavernier and Jean-Pierre Coursodon wrote, for example, that Dieterle's first real American film would remain “one of his best and perhaps also the most original”.

The film critic Dennis Schwartz described The Last Flight as a “rarely seen treat” and considered it “the best film Dieterle has ever made”. The film is visually excellently staged, has a good tempo and offers “great biting banter” between the characters. This way, the dialogues would not seem awkward like in many other films of the early sound film era. Helen Chandler is particularly outstanding among the actors.

Critics repeatedly pointed out that The Last Flight was one of the few cinematic depictions of the Lost Generation . Neil Sinyard writes that comparisons with Ernest Hemingway's novel Fiesta (The Sun Also Rises) are inevitable for literary scholars because of the numerous similarities within the plot. But in contrast to Hemingway, who captures the cynicism of the situation with clarity and seriousness, there is a “brittle comedy” in the air with The Last Flight that is “entertaining and unsettling” at the same time. Famed film historian William K. Everson wrote that Dieterle's film translates " Fitzgerald Hemingway Fever and the Tragedy of the Lost Generation" much more memorable and convincing than any film he could remember personally. The Last Flight is clearly superior between Madrid and Paris , the later adaptation of Hemingway's Fiesta .

Time Out calls the film a "little masterpiece" with sparkling dialogues, which is strongly reminiscent of the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. The All Movie Guide saw The Last Flight as "dark and nihilistic, without ever becoming pretentious or nervous." Most of the characters in the melancholy film would inexorably stride towards self-destruction and were subconsciously shaped by a longing for death, but the film itself would never become one Become an ordeal, because you empathize with the characters and in the end swing between sadness and joy for their respective fates. The conclusion: "Dieterle directs with extreme sensitivity and taste: it is by far his best work and makes you wish he had shot more works in the same direction."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Manners - THE LAST FLIGHT. Retrieved July 10, 2020 .
  2. ^ The Last Flight (1931) - Articles - TCM.com. Retrieved July 11, 2020 .
  3. ^ M. Spiering, M. Wintle: Ideas of Europe since 1914: The Legacy of the First World War . Springer, 2002, ISBN 978-1-4039-1843-7 ( google.de [accessed on July 11, 2020]).
  4. ^ Wilhelm (William) Dieterle - actor, director . In: CineGraph - Lexikon zum Deutschsprachigen Film , Lg. 22, F 13
  5. ^ Judy Cornes: Alcohol in the Movies, 1898-1962: A Critical History . McFarland, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4766-0736-8 ( google.de [accessed July 11, 2020]).
  6. ↑ The Broadway League: Nikki - Broadway Musical - Original | IBDB. Retrieved July 11, 2020 .
  7. ^ The making of Cary Grant | Sight & Sound. Retrieved July 11, 2020 .
  8. ^ Judy Cornes: Alcohol in the Movies, 1898-1962: A Critical History . McFarland, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4766-0736-8 ( google.de [accessed July 11, 2020]).
  9. ^ The Last Flight (1931) - Articles - TCM.com. Retrieved July 11, 2020 .
  10. ^ Film podium: The Last Flight. Retrieved on July 11, 2020 (Swiss Standard German).
  11. ^ M. Spiering, M. Wintle: Ideas of Europe since 1914: The Legacy of the First World War . Springer, 2002, ISBN 978-1-4039-1843-7 ( google.de [accessed on July 11, 2020]).
  12. ^ Film podium: The Last Flight. Retrieved on July 11, 2020 (Swiss Standard German).
  13. ↑ LAST FLIGHT, THE - Dennis Schwartz Reviews. Retrieved July 11, 2020 (American English).
  14. ↑ Pendo, Stephen. Aviation in the Cinema . Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. p. 12
  15. ^ M. Spiering, M. Wintle: Ideas of Europe since 1914: The Legacy of the First World War . Springer, 2002, ISBN 978-1-4039-1843-7 ( google.de [accessed on July 11, 2020]).
  16. ^ The Last Flight (1931) - Articles - TCM.com. Retrieved July 11, 2020 .
  17. ^ The Last Flight. Retrieved July 11, 2020 .
  18. ^ The Last Flight (1931) - William Dieterle | Review | AllMovie. Retrieved July 11, 2020 (American English).