Air Hostess

Evalyn Knapp is Kitty King, air hostess. Her dad was an ace pilot who cracked up in the war and so now all the airport crew think she belongs to them and want to protect her—especially from any new fellows around who might try to get fresh. "Say, listen," Kitty finally tells one of them, "I've never been alone long enough with any man to see how it feels to get properly insulted."

Enter James Murray as Ted Hunter, hot shot daredevil pilot who was once great but drank himself out of the flying profession. All of the airport crew hold him in scorn…so naturally Kitty falls for him.

Evalyn Knapp is the best thing going for this occasionally exciting but frequently dreary melodrama. Knapp is bright, cute—and just walks the line between naive kid and focused, determined adult.

The plot is pretty so-so….Ted the pilot has an idea to build a super-duper plane and attempt the first trans-Pacific crossing, but he can't find a backer to help pay for the thing. Kitty keeps her job as air hostess to put food on the table, against his wishes. Can he raise the money? Can he stay sober? Will Kitty's stubborn faith in his essential goodness be rewarded?

Thelma Todd is devilishly wicked as a publicity crazy rich divorcée who proposes to finance Ted's project but instead seduces him with liquor and other temptations. She really gives no hint of Thelma the great comic actress here—this Thelma is all dark side, and she's convincingly dangerous.

A genuinely thrilling climactic chase sequence does partly make up for the slow-moving middle section....Overall, aside from a few exciting moments, I'm afraid it's pretty mediocre—although the flying sequences do add some interest, presumably, for fans of early airplanes.

Air Hostess (1933)

** (out of 4)

Boring "B" movie from Columbia about air hostess Kitty King (Evalyn Knapp) who is protected by everyone who works in the aviation field because of her father's heroic work during WWI. This protection at times is too much and this here sends her into the arms of a man (James Murray) who might not be the best thing for her and especially after he starts to see a rich woman (Thelma Todd) who might be able to help him with his dream. AIR HOSTESS is a pretty bland and boring picture that manages to make the viewer incredibly tired through its 67-minute running time but I'd say the picture is still worth watching thanks to a few factors that I'll get to in a moment. The biggest problem with this film is its rather bland screenplay, which offers up the typical story of a good girl caught between two men and of course she picks the bad one, which means the viewer has to sit through countless scenes where she feels sorry for herself. This entire concept was pretty boring even by 1933 standards and the problem here is that there simply isn't anything fresh or original done. Had the screenplay at least given the viewer a few twists or turns then perhaps we could have put up with things but that never happens. There are a few good things going for the film and this includes the performance of Knapp who has been forgotten by most people but she's quite charming here. She's certainly cute to look at but she manages to take a blandly written character and bring her to life. I also thought Todd was very good in her role as the sexy other woman. Murray really doesn't do much in his role nor does Arthur Pierson. What makes the film worth watching is that we get to see some pretty good airplanes from the era and we also get a rather amazing stunt at the end of the picture. This stunt involves a couple planes trying to stop a train and I won't ruin what happens but it's quite thrilling.

Aside from supporting performances by Thelma Todd and Jane Darwell, very few today will recognize the actors in this B-film from Columbia Studios. Likewise, it seems to be the sort of old fashioned film that few would watch today. However, me being an airplane buff and B-movie fanatic, it's a natural I'd see this film.

Although the film begins in WWI, it soon switches to the present (1933) and features folks working with the early airlines. I loved seeing all the great old planes, such as the Ford Tri-Motor, as this is a period in aviation history that it almost forgotten today.

Cute Evalyn Knapp stars as the daughter of one of the pilots killed in the prologue. Now a decade and a half later, she's working as an air hostess (flight attendant) for one of these airlines founded by pals of the dead pilot. The men have sort of adopted Knapp--keeping an eye out for her and protecting her at every turn. Eventually, a bad boy (James Murray) turns up and Knapp marries him--mostly to spite her protectors. The new couple struggle to make ends meet and Evalyn is forced to return to her job as an air hostess. Unfortunately, Murray ends up spending much of the marriage feeling sorry for himself because he is having trouble making a go of his new business idea as well as falling under the influence of the evil vamp (Thelma Todd). Will the marriage last through these strains or will Murray and Todd hurt poor little Knapp? See this one for yourself to find out what happens next.

Overall, this isn't a terribly great film. The plot is awfully familiar and there's not much to make it stand out--unless, as I said above, you are an aviation nut (like me). Not bad, but not especially noteworthy--that is until the dopey ending. In a very contrived twist, the two men who love Knapp have to work together to save her life--she's on a train bound for a bridge that has just washed out and there isn't a second to lose!!! This ending loses a point from the overall score.

By the way, at the beginning of the film you see some footage of WWI air combat. I am not sure which, but the film clips were lifted from either "Hell's Angels" or "Wings" (I am inclined to think "Hells Angels"). I recognized these clips--particularly the scene with the pilot bleeding from the mouth. If anyone can figure out which of the films it was from, drop me a line.

Note--About halfway through the film, Murray gives Knapp a playful little smack on the rump. Such goings on could not have occurred in this film had it come out a year later--after the toughened Production Code was enacted.

The film opens with the words "Somewhere in France..." showing us where we are, and an aerial dogfight going on. One airman tells another that he will go lookup the other's daughter after the war. Then we are "Somewhere in America....". Kitty the air hostess (the beautiful 25 year old Evalyn Knapp) makes a date with a pilot, but has to break it when the rest of the airport workers scare him off. They have been keeping an eye out for her, scaring off men that try to get near her. In the meantime, we are treated to some air stunts by the dashing James Murray as Ted Hunter. He's a loud, outspoken showoff, so we know there will be trouble ahead somewhere down the road. Pretty good photography and sound quality, considering it was the early days of talkies (and flying too!) They pack a lot in this short, pre-code adventure-drama (67 minutes). Good acting and good story, except for the ending, which gets a little hokey. In real life, it didn't end well for Murray -- he drowned in NYC at 35, only three years after this film. Directed by Albert Rogell, who had started in silent movies in 1920. Original story written by Grace Perkins, who had just written "Night Nurse", made into a film starring B Stanwycke.

The b-level programmers of Columbia Pictures during the 1930's are often quite exciting and well-paced. The studio's assembly line produced audience-satisfying product quickly and inexpensively. And, in this case, with a director like Albert Rogell, veteran of dozens of fine b-westerns in the silent era and who would continue working in bread-and-butter product through the 1950's, AIR HOSTESS (not the most exciting title!) has all the elements of a textbook example of the exciting, efficient b-movie. Daring stunt flier James Murray (of King Vidor's THE CROWD, who would die a few years later due to alcohol) sees his friend and mentor get killed during WWI and helps watch over the friend's young daughter over the years. The film soon switches to the early 30s, where the daughter (played by the perky Evalyn Knapp, perhaps best-known today for starring with John Wayne in the long-time public domain, dollar-rack favorite HIS PRIVATE SECRETARY in 1933) is a grown up airline hostess and Murray is a pilot who is still a daredevil but also an inventor of aviation technology looking for an investor to help see his plans to fruition. Needless to say, they fall in love, a number of problems arise, Thelma Todd appears (looking especially regal!!!!) as "the other woman", and the film ends up with an amazing train-plane sequence. Knapp is quite appealing (although a few flubbed lines are left in, reminding us that Columbia was NOT a major studio in 1932!), and James Murray shows the charisma that made him a star in THE CROWD. He has a brash quality, and had he lived, he surely could have made a career of playing wisecracking newspaper reporters and leads in b-action films. Interestingly, his character is drunk in about 1/3 of the film--one wonders if that was written into the film to capitalize on the bad publicity Murray had received for his drinking problems, or if he actually was drunk on the set and the writers quickly decided to play along with it (I'm betting the former). In any event, he is quite impressive and this is a major role for him, though the movie was undoubtedly a bottom-of-the-bill product that vanished quickly from theaters. In less than 65 minutes, we laugh, we cry (the scene where the WWI flier has his daughter's letter read to him is a real tearjerker), we feel for the characters, we cheer them on, we worry about them, and we are brought to the edge of our seats in a nail-biting climax. What today's directors could learn from a film like this and a director such as Albert Rogell. Also, it's not every film that's set in Albuquerque (at least half of it is!). Finally, those who collect films with spanking scenes can put this one on their lists, although it's a brief one. Highly recommended to lovers of classic fast-moving early 30's b-movies.