The Sky Pilot

Heavy-handed but well-mounted, this early King Vidor film would have us believe that all that is needed to bring Christianity to cattle rustlers is to win their respect. Vidor mixes sentimentality and excitement a little ham-handedly, as when Colleen Moore regains the use of her legs so she can drag the unconscious John Bowers from the burning church. On the other hand, some of the scenes -- as when John Bowers stands off a herd of stampeding cattle so they won't trample the obvious dummy standing in for Colleen Moore stand up very well. David Butler, later to be a major director of musical comedies, has the second lead and Miss Moore never looked lovelier.

What a delightful actor that John Bowers was! He shines in his role as the gentle minister who finds that sermons and hymns alone cannot convert an unruly, godless populace to Christianity in the cold wilderness of the Canadian Rockies. He finds he has to lead by example. David Butler, who starts off fighting with him, but who eventually respects him, is super as the friend who encourages him. For some reason he reminded me of the goofy soldier in The Big Parade with John Gilbert. Don't know why, they really didn't look much alike.

The print of The Sky Pilot that I saw was kind of jumpy and the musical accompaniment wasn't appropriate for the action, but these two faults aside, the film itself was dramatic and moving. Colleen Moore was ok, but she's never been a favorite of mine.

This is the second John Bowers film I have seen and in both this one and Lorna Doone a year later John has scenes where he is braving rapids, trying not to drown! Once more I got the willies, since he died by self-imposed drowning in real life.

I am sure he would have made an excellent character actor in talkies if only the studios had given him half a chance. Cruel Hollywood.

Young director King Vidor knew he had a great gig in his working relationship with First National Pictures. The company, impressed by Vidor's earlier movies, hired him in late 1919 and funded his very own production studio in Santa Monica, California, naming it 'Vidor Village.' His April 1921 "Sky Pilot," starring Colleen Moore, was a culmination of small, yet successful movies that were made mostly inside his cozy studio building. But to film "Sky Pilot," a picture about a minister who arrives at a hostile Western town to begin a church, required shooting in the High Sierra mountains.

The movie proved to be much more expensive than Vidor's other projects, causing studio executives to raise their eyebrows. When the cost overruns ate into its profits, First National decided to cut ties with the director. Vidor became a free-lancer once again. But the studio's severance didn't stop what turned out to be one of the longest Hollywood careers in history. Vidor directed movies for 67 years, was nominated for the Academy Awards five times, and received an honorary Oscar for his body of work.

Named after his uncle, King Wallis, the Galveston, Texas, 1894-born lad witnessed the 1900 destructive Galveston Hurricane, destroying much of the town. He later put his memory of the storm to good use when he directed the tornado scene with Dorothy and Toto in 1939's 'The Wizard of Oz.' King was given a heavy dose of Christian Science religion by his mother early on, a faith that touched many of his movies. At 18, after working for a Houston, Texas film production company, he headed out to California with his newlywed, actress Florence Cobb Vidor. While Vitagraph Studio hired the two in 1916 to act, King's passion was scriptwriting and directing. After directing a moralistic film series, he gathered ten doctors to finance his first feature movie, 1919's 'The Turn in the Road.' An instant financial success, the movie's tidy profit gave the doctors the impetus to form a film production company backed by young Vidor's directorship.

The Sky Pilot was an important film for director King Vidor in 1921 (along with Love Never Dies, which also survives). I was asked for a copy of this film and barely remembered it so I re-watched yesterday.

Vidor had been directing films left and right from the mid-teens but by 1921 he had started to develop his own pace and visual style. He was also well enough established that he started getting good stories and good actors.

The Sky Pilot (slang for preacher) arrives from Montreal in the Canadian Rockies where he attempts to set up a parish. The greenhorn (John Bowers) is befriended by a local ranch foreman (David Butler) who tries to help him set up shop in the local saloon. It's a disaster and Bowers is run out of town.

But the men reconcile and Butler gets Bowers a job on the ranch where both men are rivals for Colleen Moore. There's lots of trouble from a local bandit and his men, but after Bowers is rescued from a spectacular fall off a gorge bridge, things settle down until Moore falls off her horse during a stampede and is crippled.

The winter scenes are quite stunning so that when Bowers opens his church (apparently built by Butler but is burned down), the flaming church against the fresh snowfall is memorable. As is the redemptive ending.

The use of location shooting is terrific here for Vidor. This is also the only time Moore worked for Vidor although they were lifelong friends. Indeed, Moore was part of Vidor's quest to solve the murder mystery surrounding William Desmond Taylor. Vidor and Moore planned to produce a film about this famous murder but it never happened.

Bowers is very good here. He was a fairly big star in silents, but flopped in a few talkie attempts. His final film was a western in 1931. He committed suicide by walking into the Pacific in 1936, an event that supposedly influence the ending of A Star Is Born in 1937. He couldn't find work in Hollywood despite having appeared in more than 90 films.

Moore has a smallish role here but just a few years from her career-making role in Flaming Youth it's easy to see why she became one of the biggest stars of the silent era.

The real surprise here is David Butler, an actor I'm not familiar with. Never really a star, he made his last film in 1929 and then turned to directing full time. He directed until the late 60s. He's excellent here as the caring cowboy and is in many ways the center of this film.

My one gripe is that this film, released on VHS by Critics Coice Video contains an annoying music track by David Schimmel on which he hums and sings several times. The churchy-sounding music is OK in and of itself, but there's something innately wrong with a silent film accompanied by singing.

The tiny western settlement of "Swan Creek" is assigned a preacher from Montreal, idealistic John Bowers (as Arthur Wellington Moore). He arrives on a dry day, with an open umbrella and a mule. Since the Godless community has no place to worship, Mr. Bowers sets up his first sermon at the local watering-hole. In the saloon, Bowers meets rowdy ranch foreman David Butler (as Bill Hendricks). The men have a wild brawl and wind up wrestling on the floor. It turns out to be classic male-bonding. Afterwards, Bowers gently wipes the blood from Mr. Hendricks' cheek and all is forgiven...

Shortly thereafter, when Hendricks cradles Bowers head after taking him to bed, you wonder what is going on between the men; director King Vidor shoots this like it's a love scene. The men look like they're about to kiss. Probably, they're just dealing with some latent issues. Both also seem attracted to pretty Colleen Moore (as Gwen). Sporting her pre-flapper Mary Pickford hair, Ms. Moore is the most fetching female on film. She suffers a mishap, but Christian love may provide a cure...

For those unfamiliar with the old titular term, or the 1968 anti-war anthem "Sky Pilot" by Eric Burdon & the Animals, "The Sky Pilot" is a minister who provides guidance for your trip to heaven. This film has a good lead with Bowers, and Mr. Vidor ramps it up with interesting direction and good-looking production values. Moore is sweet, but Butler steals the performance honors as second lead. Oddly enough, it looks like Bowers would rather be with Butler than Moore. Bowers' final scene with Moore reveals he's not at all satisfied with his partner. Just look at that man's confused and wary face...

******* The Sky Pilot (4/17/21) King Vidor ~ John Bowers, David Butler, Colleen Moore, Harry Todd