Wolkenstürmer

It's a squadron of Navy Hell Divers in training. Steve Nelson (Clark Gable) is the hot shot new arrival. Squad leader Windy Riker is concerned with the new challenger. Steve has girlfriend Ann Mitchell.

I love the planes and I really love the early aircraft carrier and I really really love the planes landing on the aircraft carrier. As for the actors, this has Clark Gable and I'm sure the others are well known at the time. The story needs the girl in a love triangle with the two guys. I'm not in love with either guy or the relationship or the plot in general. It's all about the aerial visuals. I have to assume that the planes would be interesting for the audience of its day but the aircraft carrier would be truly eye-opening. Landing on one was probably something not seen by the general public. There are some great flying footage and real shooting from battleships. That stuff is all amazing. They do use miniatures and projection background but that's to be expected. Just watch for the real thing because it's great. The other stuff is rather boring.

Wallace Beery hams it up mercilessly as a 'loveable slob' of a Navy Chief Petty Officer on the USS Saratoga. His lofty position is soon challenged by a hard-nosed and far more competent young chief played by Clark Gable. Beery, rather than bring his own standard up, seeks to sabotage Gable, leading to several confrontations where Beery is ultimately outclassed. The film concludes with a sentimental but well-played ending.

The movie has many charms to offset its drawbacks. There is a lot of footage of the USS Saratoga, the Navy's first big carrier, built on the hull of a cancelled battlecruiser. The Saratoga footage alone, along with that of other circa-1932 warships, makes this a must-see for naval buffs. This is also an early starring role for Gable, who plays his part well and looks every inch the young, dashing, competent CPO. Beery himself exudes charm despite overplaying his part. Look also for the ex-Mack Sennett bathing beauty Marie Prevost as the worldly Lulu.

Despite its uneven mix of comedy and drama, not to mention a boatload of Navy cliches, this movie is well worth watching, especially for Navy buffs.

Clark Gable's on-screen persona was becoming more popular in his second year in Hollywood with each movie he appeared. He reached new heights by sharing top billing with MGM's highest paid actor, Wallace Beery, in January 1932's "Hell Divers." In this United States Naval aviation action film, Beery and Gable play rivals as aerial gunners in the Navy's Squadron One Battle Force. The flying squadron, stationed on one of the newer aircraft carriers at the time, the USS Saratoga, was made up of Curtiss F8C-4 bombers, nicknamed "Helldivers." The Navy fully cooperated with MGM, giving cinematographer Charles Marshall as much access he needed to film the aviators flying the Helldivers throughout the San Diego North Island Naval Air Station vacinity.

"Hell Divers" was the second film between Beery and Gable, who later admitted he hated working with the seasoned actor. The film's similar storyline to "What Price Glory?" shows the pair's characters first at odds with one another, then bonding in the concluding scenes. Gable experienced two enduring qualities that he came to appreciate from the film: the larger part further elevated his visibility with the public, and his drinking habits changed by introducing him to gin with a wedge of lemon, a favorite beverage for the Navy men whom he associated with while making the film. After seeing the fliers sucking a slice of lemon between gulps, he adopted this method for the remainder of his life.

"Hell Divers" was George Hill's second to last film he directed before an auto accident in 1934 cut his life short. He had a string of hits throughout his career, becoming more successful when talkies arrived, including 1930's "The Big House" and 1931's "Min and Bill." His marriage to screenwriter Frances Marion in 1930 ended in divorce three years later. Hill directed one more film after "Hell Divers" in 1933 before he was assigned to Pearl Buck's book adaptation in "The Good Earth." Severe injuries he sustained from a 1934 car crash made him so despondent that he was found with self-inflicted gunshot wounds inside his Venice, California, beach house in August 1934. He was 39 years old.

Any time you have two fantastic actors of the calibres of Wallace Beery and Clark Gable playing against each other, it's worth a look. Beery was the highest paid actor in the world when this movie was shot, and he was certainly the most interesting to watch. It's obvious, though, that MGM was using this picture to build up their popular new romantic lead, Gable, even if it had to be at their top star's expense. If you like this one, I recommend a better seafaring film with Beery and Gable, 1935's "China Seas." That one's a real spectacular, one of those movies, like "Dancing Lady," with everything the studio could think of thrown in.

This typically polished MGM effort features one of its established actors – Beery – opposite new kid on the block Gable (before he was old enough to grow a moustache). It's one of few films the pair made together, reportedly because they never really hit it off (Beery is said to have even turned down a role in MGM's Mutiny on the Bounty because he didn't want to work with Gable). Then again, Beery, a lovable old lug on the screen, was a fairly unpleasant character in real life, with rumours of manslaughter, meanness and abuse of women and children surrounding him to this day.

The film's plot could take place anywhere and at anytime really. That was the beauty of the studio product in the 30s: they could just keep churning out the same story with a different cast set in a different period and the masses would happily pay the money to watch them all. This one features some terrific aerial shots of old biplanes and some truly bizarre heroics (Gable hanging upside down from a plane with one hand holding a bomb to prevent it from exploding when the plane lands for instance). There are a few funny moments too, the best of which is the incidents that lead to Beery and Gable duking it out just minutes after having finally made friends.