|
|
|
|
 |
|
The Movie:
Warner Archives have dug into their vaults and released a
fun, enjoyable film about the pilots in the US Navy, The
Flying Fleet (1929).
Staring the always attractive Ramon Novarro and the equally
ravishing
Anita Page, this George Hill directed film is a light but entertaining
flick
with some great flying scenes. The aerial
scenes alone make this a must-buy for early aviation fans.
Six buddies who have made it through the Naval Academy
together make a vow to all become pilots and fly for the Navy. It doesn't quite work out that way, with one
after another washing out of the program for one reason or another. Soon there's only two left, Tommy Winslow
(Ramon
Novarro) and Steve Randall (Ralph Graves).
They may be best friends, but they're both very competitive,
each trying
to be the best pilot the Navy has and vying for the affections of an
attractive
girl, Anita (Anita Page). Their friendly
competition turns ugly however when the chance to fly a new plane all
the way to
Hawaii comes up, and only one of them can go.
The real stars of this movie, made with the full cooperation
of the Navy, are the planes and the flying.
The plot is pretty thin but the aviation sequences more than
make up for
that. At the time this film was made
bi-planes were state of the art and it's amazing to see the ground crew
hand-cranking the engines to get them started.
Even the advanced plane that is to be flown to Hawaii is a
four-person
twin engine craft with open cockpits.
The crew has to communicate by passing hand written messages,
the
navigator takes sightings with a sextant, and the communications
officer sends
updates in Morris Code. It seems so
primitive from this point in time.
Aviation fans with enjoy the frequent flying scenes
too. The sight of a dozen planes taking
off across a weed-covered field and taking off together is fun to see,
and the
scenes of the fleet flying in formation on maneuvers is pretty
impressive. This isn't a war film, so
there aren't any
combat sequences but planes do perform loops and rolls and there is a
mock dog
fight that's entertaining.
There are some good scenes on the ground too. Most
of these involve the love triangle and
seeing Steve constantly tricking Tommy out of spending time with Anita
is
almost a running gag. Of course there's
never really any doubt as to who will end up with whom (I wonder who is
going to
get the girl, the star or the unknown?), but that plot was played out
nicely
and never seemed to drag.
The actors were all good, though there really wasn't much enough
plot for them to really show off their acting chops. Navarro and Page
were both
very magnetic and had a lot of screen presence so watching them was
always a
pleasure.
Director George Hill, who would make his best known movie, The
Big House, right after this one, did
a very good job, balancing the time in the air and on the ground nicely
so that
neither one dominated the other.
The DVD:
This DVD-R is made on demand by Warner Archives and includes
a color cover as well at generic disc art.
Audio:
The back of the case touts that the movie includes a "new
original music score" but I wonder about that.
I believe that this is an old synchronized sound score that was
used for
a reissue of the movie in the early sound years. There
are a couple of reasons for this: no one
is credited with the score, it more
elaborate than most contemporary silent film scores (more on that
later), and
there's a slight hum in the background.
I can't imagine a newly created score being recorded with
background
noise. I could be wrong, but I'd be very
surprised.
The full orchestra score was very good. It
was scene specific naturally, with Taps
being played when a trumpet was sounding on screen for example, but it
went
above and beyond just nice music. There
were vocal segments when people were singing at the graduation and many
sound
effects. Not only knocking on doors, but
the roar of plane engines were included, starting out low, gaining in
volume as
a plane zipped past, and then fading into the distance.
Overall it was an impressive and fun score,
only marred by the slight background hum.
Video:
This disc was mastered from a good, but not perfect,
unrestored print. The level of detail
was usually fine, as was the contrast, but there were a lot of spots
and
scratches throughout the film. Details
tended to disappear in black or white areas, but the blacks were solid
and the
film could have looked much worse.
Overall it's a fine looking disc, taking the film's age into
account,
but not spectacular.
Extras:
Unfortunately there are no extras included.
Final Thoughts:
I found myself really enjoying this film. The
aviation scenes were great and there was
just enough plot to keep the movie interesting and moving.
Novarro is always a joy to watch on screen,
and he does an adequate job in this film, as does his costar Anita Page. While the video is filled with scratches and
spots it is definitely a solid transfer.
This film gets a very strong recommendation,
especially for aviation buffs.
|
|
|
|
| Special Offers
|
|
|
| DVD Blowouts
|
|
|
| Special Offers
|
|
|
|
Buy: