Flight Angels

Lewis Seiler spent most of his career at Warner Brothers and this one is not one of his most important ones. It is fun, fast paced, cool to watch; the Warner Bros trademark, and the movies about airplanes were galore in the thirties and forties. This film is just common, but rather rare for movie goers, that's all. Action, romance, comedy and that's it. You have been warned. I am tired of this after forty years of oldies watching. I guess this film is easily available thanks to the public domain rights. For airplanes movies lovers only, and I suppose there are many of them. Entertaining light hearted drama.

Enjoyed this 1940 film starring Virginia Bruce, Mary Norvell) and Jane Wyman, (Nan Hudson) was are American Airlines Stewardesses and are Flight Angeles who fly from Points A to B to C & D. The pilots are Dennis Morgan, (Chick Farber) and Wayne Morris, (Artie Dixon) who have a good time with all the stewardesses and plenty of laughs. The stewardesses are a rough bunch of gals who can stand up to any man and between their flights they are gossiping and fighting with each other which makes for some good comedy scenes. Chick Farber works in between flights on a super secret aircraft as a test pilot and is married to Mary Norvell and the couple get along just fine. One day Chick decides to take this special aircraft up in the sky for a test flight and runs into different problems which changes the direction of this film and causes Mary & Chick to break up their marriage. This is a very entertaining B Film and it was great seeing how young Jane Wyman looked in this picture, Jane was once married to President Ronald Reagan. Enjoy.

This film is far better than the usual kind of fluff aviation film made during the late 1930's and into the late 1940's. I expected a light romantic comedy--"not that there is anything wrong with that!"--and was surprised that it is quite interesting on other levels. The plot involved all the predictable vicissitudes of a pilot trying to come to grips with losing his flight qualification due to failing eyesight, and the film does have its share of predictable situations and character foibles. But what is most interesting is how it accurately reflects the state of aviation at the time: the concern over furnishing more reliable and safe all-weather commercial aviation, the challenge and opportunity of developing long-range high-altitude "stratosphere" airplanes, and the behind-the-scenes concern of national security, namely the expectation that we might be eventually involved in the war in China (and of course we were, a year after this film came out, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor). The airplane star of the show is the relatively new Douglas DC-3 (then just 4 years in airline service), a 21 passenger airliner, but there are also very good in-flight visuals of the Lockheed Model 10 Electra, the "stratosphere ship" of the movie. Finally, the acting is better than one might expect--minimal histrionics, some genuine chuckles, and a dialogue that includes some interesting lines. Virginia Bruce is coolly luscious, Denny Morgan and Wayne Morris do a credible job as airmen, and Ralph Bellamy is appropriately "heavy" as their boss. (Incidentally, in the "real world," Morris was inspired by his role in this film to become a Navy pilot, flying Grumman Hellcats in the Pacific and shooting down 7 Japanese planes). A very enjoyable movie, particularly for anyone interested in aviation in the heyday of the propeller-driven airplane!

Chick and Art (dennis morgan, wayne morris) are pilots, working on some big, secret project. Ralph bellamy is the ground dispatcher. Mary and Nan (virginia bruce, jane wyman) are the flight attentdants, dealing with the flirtatious pilots and the demanding passengers. Dick Elliot (the mayor, on andy griffith) is the always laughing passenger. When the pilots have setbacks of all types, they have to deal with them on their own terms. It's pretty bland, a warner brothers shortie. Some big names though... bellamy and bruce were pretty huge by now. Morgan was just getting big with kitty foyle and later. Imdb says the airport scenes were filmed at burbank arrrrport. Directed by Lew Seiler. I guess in those days, since not many people flew around in planes, it was probably pretty exciting.

The Flight Angels are the stewardesses of American Airlines, here shown flying hither and yon from their airport base where they spend a lot of time gossiping and applying makeup. Virginia Bruce and Jane Wyman are the Angels we care about, but this being the 1940s, the action involves pilots Dennis Morgan and Wayne Morris, who are involved in the development of a super secret aircraft when they're not busy flying passengers from Point A to Point B. Flight Angels is nicely shot by cinematographer L. William O'Connell and features a vaguely provocative screenplay (one of the stewardesses actually gets away with saying the words 'sex appeal'), but ultimately doesn't rise above its second feature aspirations. Not bad, but predictable.