SOS Feuer an Bord

Cary Grant & Jean Arthur star in this Howard Hawks adventure film from 1939. Arthur is between cities finding herself in Peru where Grant runs a ragtag band of pilots ferreting mail from one dangerous locale to another. When one of his pilots buy it, a new one (who actually caused the death of a co-worker some time before) along w/his wife (an early turn by Rita Hayworth) enter the mix livening the atmosphere for the worse as suspicions mount & the increasing perils of the flight trade begin to take their toll on Grant & the men who look up to him. Now don't get me wrong, this is a good film but it could've been better if the obvious love triangle of Grant, Hayworth & Arthur were better delineated (Arthur sometimes disappears for stretches at a time) but even lesser Hawks is still Hawks. Look for Noah Beery Jr. as the first doomed pilot who would later gain fame as James Garner's dad on the Rockford Files.