Well this was surprising little treat - a light-hearted '30s crime thriller with an appealing lead, a fun cast of supporting characters, a snappy pace, and a delightfully absurd second half that takes place on a rather fanciful mode of transport.
The film opens in New York on New Year's Eve, with penniless, out-of-work English showgirl Jennie Carr (winsome blonde Anna Lee) meeting lawyer Billy Cooper (James Pirrie) in a café, and accepting an invitation for dinner at his apartment. The evening doesn't go as planned, however, when criminal Hugo Brant (Francis L. Sullivan) turns up, forcefully ejects Jennie (chicken leg in hand), and then shoots Cooper for refusing to work for him any longer. Blissfully unaware of the murder, Jennie returns to England, where she is arrested on a trumped up charge of robbery.
When Jennie is released from prison, she reads about Cooper's murder in the paper, and discovers that a vagrant called Henry Abel has been wrongly convicted of the killing and faces the death penalty. Jennie tries to tell the authorities about the men who confronted Cooper in his apartment, but Brant (now in England) ensures that no-one believes her story. Desperate to save Abel's life, Jennie stows on board the Airline, a flying boat destined for New York.
Up to this point, the film has been fun, but nothing particularly special; however, when the Airline takes off, so does the film, Jennie's journey being hugely entertaining from start to finish, with a wonderfully eclectic selection of co-passengers adding to the enjoyment: London police inspector Jim Grant, con-artist Sam Pryor (Frank Cellier), young violin prodigy Arnold James (Desmond Tester) and his aunt veronica (Athene Seyler), and, of course, the wicked Brant, who will do anything to stop Jennie from testifying. The plane itself is also a major character: a massive double decker craft complete with dining room, bar, luxurious cabins, and - best of all - a balcony from which passengers can observe ships passing below!
Duplicitous Sam's plan to blackmail Brant involves plucky young Arnold getting in over his head, lucky Jim becomes romantically involved with Jennie, and Brant leaves the plane mid-flight courtesy of Aunt Veronica's parachute, the fiend having killed the pilot. In the film's incredible climax, heroic Jim Grant has to climb over the top of the plane's exterior as it plunges towards the ocean, a wonderfully bonkers moment that really has to be seen to be believed.
