Thirteen Hours by Air

Pilot Fred MacMurray likes the looks of Joan Bennett (which is the last plot point of this movie I enjoyed). He takes her flight to San Francisco. But there's been a jewel robbery, and she's tried to pay for her ticket with a ring. There are people who want the plane to get to San Francisco and people who don't and are willing to get mean about it. And pretty soon I didn't care much either way.

It's an okay flick directed by Mitchell Leisen, who was always good at the visuals in a movie, and could get a decent performance out of Fred MacMurray. Anyone could get a decent performance out of Fred MacMurray, since except for two movies directed by Billy Wilder, he played the same character in 86 movies and almost four hundred episodes of MY THREE SONS. The problem is that this movie reeks of it being Hollywood Danger During The Code Era, which means that good will triumph, everyone will live and MacMurray will get Joan Bennett. So since there are no good jokes -- Zasu Pitts is aboard the plane and I usually love her, but she's so annoying and whiny and futile that I was hoping she'd get shot -- I didn't care. We've seen the heroic people stranded in a plane a hundred times. John Farrow liked to make that movie a lot. We've seen Hollywood Danger and it's real, where people actually die -- think ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS. There the stakes are high and real. But this is only Hollywood Danger, so I didn't really care.

"Thirteen Hours by Air" is a fun little movie that's quick, surprising, and doesn't overstay its welcome. Mitchell Leisen, an underrated director, is usually associated with screwball comedy or romantic melodrama, and there's a little of each in this film, but it's a pleasant surprise to see that he can handle a brisk thriller as well. Like most movies featuring airplane trips, it includes a hodgepodge of characters involved in separate plots, but they blend together nicely, and the script includes a few neat twists that are bound to surprise anyone expecting the usual cliches. MacMurray and Bennett make an appealing team, ZaSu Pitts is, as usual, a joy, and the various airports are designed in an eye-catching art deco style. It's not a classic, but it's certainly a much better film than I expected, and it deserves to be rescued from whatever deep, dark closet it has been hidden in for too many years.

The title 'Thirteen Hours by Air' seems vaguely science-fictionish, because in 1936 it was simply impossible for an airplane to cross the United States in 13 hours. (Sixteen was more like it.) But this movie seems to be presenting itself as cutting-edge rather than futuristic.

Fred MacMurray, slightly less bland than usual, stars as the pilot of the fastest transcontinental 'ship' available. He's heading from New York to California, and he's all set for chocks-away when along comes blonde Joan Bennett as an heiress who's eager to hop aboard. She hasn't a ticket, so she hands him a diamond ring the size of a doorknob.

All the passengers aboard the flight are very obvious 'characters', ranging over a wide gamut of types. This sort of thing works very well if the film is a murder mystery, and we've got to guess which of these suspects is the killer. (In fact, an airplane in flight would be the perfect setting for a 'locked-room' mystery: Agatha Christie used this in one of her novels, but has anyone ever used it in a movie?) There is just a touch of a mystery here, but it isn't a murder. After the 'plane is in flight, MacMurray learns that some jewel thieves are on the lam: a blonde and her two henchmen. Could Bennett be the blonde? It would explain how she got that diamond ring.

Among the passengers aboard the flight are a bratty little boy named Waldemar (whom I was hoping would turn out to be a midget police officer, working undercover) and his nursemaid, played by ZaSu Pitts. I can tolerate Pitts in small doses, but in this movie her character gets airsick in flight ... giving Pitts an excuse for an overdose of her annoying fluttery gestures. I was hoping MacMurray would throw her out of the 'plane over the Rocky Mountains.

Oh, yeah. Among the merry passengers is a gun-toting European nobleman, played by Fred Keating with a bad accent. There are no end of high-flying high jinks along the way, some of them more plausible than others. There's an exciting sequence in which the 'plane makes a forced landing in a blizzard. MacMurray's beleaguered pilot gets some help from an unexpected source ... although, if you read this review carefully, you'll know who I'm talking about. Ruth Donnelly is quite good, as usual ... but there ought to be a law against Brian Donlevy and Dean Jagger ever appearing in the same movie. Both of these actors had about as much screen presence as a block of wood. Put them both in the same movie, and they resemble the Petrified Forest. 'Thirteen Hours by Air' is about as implausible as 'Airport', but -- like that extremely manipulative movie -- it manages to be quite entertaining without ever being realistic. I'll rate this movie 8 out of 10, and I enjoyed the flight.

"!3 Hours by Air" is an early Fred MacMurray comedy that combines drama and a good touch of mystery. He is a senior airline pilot, Jack Gordon, who's boarding a transcontinental flight from New York to San Francisco. This was in the days when such a flight was made in legs between stops for fueling. The stops on this one were Chicago, Omaha and Salt Lake City. It was also the time that some of us remember before there was airport security that has been standard since the early 1970s. The mystery involves a couple of men boarding the plane with hand guns.

The comedy here is mostly in the dialog between Gordon and some passengers. Joan Bennett co-stars as Felice Rollins whom Gordon is attracted to right away. But, as the saying goes about sailors, Gordon seems to have a girl in every port - in this case, airport. The rest of the cast include some familiar faces and names, especially from comedy films through the mid-20th century. Ruth Donnelly is Vi Johnson, a stewardess. Zasu Pitts is a passenger, Miss Harkin, who has young Waldemar Pitt in tow. And a young Brian Donlevy is Dr. James Evarts. He's an undercover federal agent following another passenger, Curtis Palmer (played by Alan Baxter). Dean Jagger has a small part as Hap Waller, an airline employee who meets Jack's plane at Salt Lake City.

This is a fine little comedy mystery and romance that is made interesting mostly by the complex array of characters. And this plane had fewer than a dozen people on board. Here are some favorite lines from the film.

Curtis Palmer, "How come he had a gun?" Jack Gordon, "On account of they told him there were Indians in Omaha."

Jack Gordon, "Of course, it isn't any of my business, but that guy Stephani, well he doesn't seem like a... he doesn't seem like a very.." Felice Rollins, "He isn't." Jack Gordon, "I didn't think he was."

Jack Gordon, "Of course, it isn't any of my business." Felice Rollins, "No, it isn't." Jack Gordon, "But why should a nice girl like... well, why should a nice girl like you..." Felice Rollins, "It still is none of your business." Jack Gordon, "Okay, you win. But if you need any help, just holler."

Jack Gordon, "Whadda ya think?" Co-pilot Baker, "I think it's snowing." Gordon, "Prophet, huh?"

Miss Harkins, "Well, then we're lost?" Jack Gordon, "Oh no, we're not lost." Count Stephani, "No, we're not lost. We just don't know where we are." Gordon, "Bright boy."

Miss Harkins, "I'm so nervous I could jump right out of my skin." Jack Gordon, "Go ahead, lady, and we'll make a rug out of it."

I've a soft spot for this one – it was one of the first films I saw on my brand new cable TV in 1993, and was unexpectedly impressed with it. However it's essentially primitive set aboard a primitive "aeroplane" and some would say with primitive acting too. Youngsters might also ask based on this how did powered flight ever take off? But it's still engrossing and I think surprisingly satisfying bearing in mind all the technical limitations.

United Airlines pilot Fred Macmurray is looking and chasing after blonde with a secret Joan Bennett - while minding his own business - partly to win a bet he made partly because he has the hots for her. She has to get to San Francisco asap for some flighty reason and some other guy's trying half heartedly to stop her, while doctor Brian Donlevy and a dodgy character make evil eyes at each other and a spoilt brat and his keeper Zasu Pitts slapstick about. Take my word for it that the dialogue is snappy and almost screwball, of the time and occasionally hilarious – why can't modern movies have endless clean smart ass one liners like this one? Why can't the heroes in modern movies be too gentlemanly to utter the word "toilet" to the heroines like in this one?

It's a well scripted inconsequential little melodrama and if you can get past it being a whodunit set on a papier-mâché plane and with cardboard sets you should have a very pleasant 77 minute journey.