China Clipper is a 1936 American drama film directed by Ray Enright and starring Pat O’Brien, Ross Alexander, Beverly Roberts, Humphrey Bogart and Marie Wilson in a film from the pioneering era of long-haul flight.
One of the current movie posters advertised the film as follows: “It was only after America had crossed the world’s largest ocean that Warner Bros. could film this greatest of all aerial dramas! Head to the shores of China… or the bottom of the ocean… in this sensational drama about the war ace who broke all records for daring conquests in the air! Filmed with all the gory realism you expect from the producers, writer and star of Ceiling expect.”[1]
In the mid-1930s, Dave Logan became obsessed with the idea of flying to China in a passenger clipper without stopping. To do this, he is building an ocean-going flying boat that will make it from San Francisco to China because he has recognized that a commercial air service has enormous potential. He was inspired by Lindbergh’s non-stop flight across the Atlantic. Logan’s boss Jim Horn tries to dissuade Logan from his plan, as does his wife Jean. However, Logan is undeterred and hires the pilot Tom Collins, his buddy during the First World War, as well as the aircraft designer “Dad” Brunn, to set up an airline between Philadelphia and Washington DC.
Even the failures of their airline do not deter their founders. Although the company has expanded over the years, it has repeatedly faced resistance from regulators and lenders. They even set up another airline in Key West, Florida to deliver mail throughout the Caribbean. When the airline begins to prosper, Hap Stuart, a friend of Dave Logan, also joins it. The success of the new line further encourages Logan to fly across the Pacific. His old obsession comes back and makes life difficult for everyone around him, but especially for his wife and friends. Since Logan shows no insight and sticks to his plans regardless of the losses, this ultimately leads to his wife leaving him and Stuart quitting and withdrawing. To finance the Pacific flight, Logan takes out a mortgage on his South American line. His sacrifice impresses Hap Stuart so much that he returns and volunteers to pilot the new plane.
For Dad Brunn, the China Clipper becomes his last project; shortly after the plane takes off, he succumbs to heart disease. When the China Clipper gets caught in a severe typhoon off the Chinese coast, Logan wants to cancel the historic flight, but Stuart manages to land the large flying boat safely and with a minimal margin, which secures the company one of the company’s most important aviation contracts. For Logan it means that his work and actions are now evaluated in the way he always dreamed of. But the high costs that this success has brought him sober him up. And so he decides to take more care of his wife again and secure the future of his first global airline.
It is a First National Pictures production distributed by the parent company Warner Brothers. It was filmed at Warner Brothers Burbank Studios in Burbank, California in the USA. Fred Jackman, Willard Van Enger and Hans F. Koenekamp were responsible for the special effects in the film.
Martin M-130 during a flight.
For actor Henry B. Walthall, this was his last appearance in a film. He became seriously ill during filming and died during production. His illness and death were incorporated into the film.[2]
Screenplay writer Frank “Spig” Wead wrote his screenplay as a thinly veiled biography of aviation pioneer Juan Trippe, and in particular his life during the time Pan American World Airways was founded. Pan Am worked on the film, so current newsreel and production footage from the Martin M-130 is used throughout the film. The aim was to bring the story closer to Trippe’s real life. However, aviation historian Mark Carlson saw the film as a veiled advertisement for what was once one of the world’s largest airlines.[3][4]
The film’s flight sequences were shot with Paul Mantz, a famous Hollywood stunt pilot at the time, who worked with veterans Elmer Dyer and Hans F. Koenekamp to obtain realistic aerial shots. In some scenes, the plane can be seen flying over the unfinished San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which was still under construction at the time.[5]
James Cagney once told a friend that if you last seven years at Warner Bros. you can get through anything. In the 1930s and 1940s, Warner churned out movies until the talent was literally exhausted. Once those in power figured out what appealed to the public, their people worked until they dropped. Nevertheless, many artists managed to break through the assembly line work and create unforgettable characters. Humphrey Bogart, who seemed trapped in an endless loop of disposable gangster roles, is a prime example of this. Although he belongs China Clipper back to the supporting cast, but took the opportunity to play a good guy as best he could.[3]
Alan G. Barbour wrote in his Biography of Humphrey Bogartthat he temporarily left the field of crime for this film in order to portray a somewhat more honorable guy. Bogart has to play the “not exactly noble role of a loud-mouthed pilot who often gets into heated verbal battles with O’Brien.” China Clipper Although it is only an “artificially constructed drama”, it has “a certain value because current news and archive photos are displayed” that show real China Clippers in action. A “particularly exciting image” is “the mammoth aircraft flying over an as yet unfinished Golden Gate Bridge, whose gigantic arms jut out opposite each other in empty space” and “patiently wait for the last connecting links”.[6]
The film premiered on August 12, 1936 in New York, United States and opened nationwide on August 22, 1936. In the United Kingdom, the film was released in London on September 10, 1936, in Australia on February 12, 1937, in Finland on February 14, 1937, in France on March 5, 1937, in Sweden on March 5, 1937 and in Denmark on May 17, 1937. The film was first shown on television in Tucson, Arizona on October 27, 1956. The film was also released in Belgium, Brazil, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union and Venezuela.
Despite or because of the cast and plot typical of Warner Bros., the film was well received by audiences at the time, also because the packaging did not distract from a contemporary depiction of a transpacific flight. In his criticism for the New York Times Frank S. Nugent explained that Warner Brothers had brought aviation history to the big screen in connection with Pan American Airways China Clipper added another lively chapter. The film is a fascinating and surprisingly literal dramatization of the transpacific flight of the China Clipper last November and deserves respectful recognition both for its technical accuracy and for its rather astonishing refusal to describe the flying boat’s journey in the usual terms of an aerial melodrama. It is hard to believe, but it can be assured that the new film does not contain a single break. The film lets the Clipper’s magnificent flight speak for itself and spices its epic about commercial flight routes with a touch of melodrama. With their usual skill in these matters, Warner’s technical experts would have made the flight an experience of remarkable photographic beauty, tension and thrilling excitement. The cast fulfilled their task with commendable straightforwardness. Pat O’Brien contributed an exciting portrait of embodied energy. Humphrey Bogart and Ross Alexander as a pilot couple, the late Henry B. Walthall as a ship designer and Addison Richards as a stressed financier would also have to be put on the credit side of a thoroughly credible film.[7]
Paul Tatara wrote that the audience at the time was more interested in the flight footage or the newsreel footage that showed real clippers. Tatara pointed out that Monthly Film Bulletin I wrote at the time that part of the drama of the actual performance was lost in the constructed drama of the fictional plot. However, energetic direction with considerable emphasis on close-ups made up for the deficiencies and the flying was generally quite exciting. The film offers excellent entertainment. That was all that Warner Bros. wanted to achieve and it turned out to be sufficient.[3]
Frank Showalter contributed Frank’s Movie Logthat the script by former Navy pilot Frank “Spig” Wead shines in conveying the technical and logistical problems associated with large-scale aviation, but has problems telling the story in an understandable way. The film characters spoke in monologues full of explanations that seemed more like speeches addressed to the audience than conversations with each other. O’Brien’s robotic manner of speaking conveys the short-sighted obsession needed to persevere, rather than the innate passion. The result makes his character seem more stubborn than noble. The script also offers no scenes that show O’Brien’s love of flying; he seems more excited about owning an airline than being in the air. Beverly Roberts, Ross Alexander and Humphrey Bogart fared better than O’Brien in Showalter’s rating.[8]
- ↑ China Clipper Text im Original: „Not ’Til America Spanned the world’s greatest Ocean Could Warner Bros. film this Greatest of All air Drama! Hop off for the shores of China … or the bottom of the sea …… in this sensation-streaked drama of the war ace who had to break all records for daring conquests of the air! Filmed with all the blood-freezing realism you expect from the producers, author and star of Celling Zero.“ – Abb. Filmplakat in der IMDb
- ↑ China Clipper Trivia at TCM (English), tcm.com
- ↑ a b c Paul Tatara: China Clipper Articles & Reviews at TCM (English), November 24, 2003. Accessed on October 2, 2024.
- ↑ Mark Carlson: Fly on Film: A Century of Aviation in the Movies 1912–2012BearManor Media, 2012 (English); ISBN 978-1593932190.
- ↑ China Clipper Notes at TCM (English), tcm.com
- ↑ Alan G. Barbour: Humphrey Bogart. His films – his life. In: Heyne Film Library No. 32/1. 6th edition. Heyne, Munich 1973 (first German edition 1984); ISBN 3-453-86001-2, pp. 45–48.
- ↑ Frank S. Nugent: The Screen; Warner’s ‚China Clipper‘ at Strand Documents Dramatic Story of a Transpacific Flight
In: The New York TimesAugust 12, 1936. Retrieved October 2, 2024. - ↑ Frank Showalter: China Clipper franksmovielog.com (English). Retrieved October 2, 2024.
