13 Hours by Air | |
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Directed by | Mitchell Leisen |
Written by | Kenyon Nicholson Bogart Rogers |
Based on | Wild Wings by Bogart Rogers, Frank Mitchell Dazey |
Produced by | E. Lloyd Sheldon |
Starring | Fred MacMurray Joan Bennett |
Cinematography | Theodor Sparkuhl |
Edited by | Doane Harrison |
Music by | Heinz Roemheld (composer) Irvin Talbot (conductor) |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 77 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
13 Hours by Air (also known as 20 Hours by Air) is a 1936 American drama film made by Paramount Pictures and directed by Mitchell Leisen. The film stars Fred MacMurray and Joan Bennett. The screenplay was written by Kenyon Nicholson and Bogart Rogers, based on story Wild Wings by Rogers and Frank Mitchell Dazey. 13 Hours by Air was also the forerunner of the disaster film, a genre featuring a complex, heavily character-driven ensemble cast, exploring the personal dramas and interactions that develop among the passengers and crew as they deal with a deadly onboard emergency.
Airline pilot Jack Gordon (Fred MacMurray) on a flight from New York to San Francisco, is immediately attracted to beautiful passenger Felice Rollins (Joan Bennett). Known as a "lady's man", he bets stewardess Vi Johnson (Ruth Donnelly) that he will take Felice out to dinner that evening. A jewel robbery is in the news and a beautiful blonde is implicated, with Jack suspecting that Felice may be the culprit. On a stop over in Chicago, Jack learns instead that his passenger is a wealthy socialite at odds with another passenger, Count Stephani (Fred Keating). Jack worries that he may have a crisis involving the Count when he finds Stephani has a gun aboard. Other passengers include Dr. Evarts (Brian Donlevy) and Curtis Palmer (Alan Baxter), both of whom seem to be harboring a secret.
Felice is trying to get to San Francisco in order to prevent her sister from marrying the Count's brother, but the flight runs into bad weather. Jack and Freddie Scott (John Howard), his co-pilot, are persuaded to fly on, but are eventually forced to make an emergency landing. Dr. Evarts tells Jack he is a federal agent pursuing Palmer, a notorious criminal. Palmer shoots Freddie and Dr. Everts and hijacks the aircraft. Jack manages to overcome Palmer, and with the help of Felice, is able to take off and fly to San Francisco. When the flight lands, he is able to have his dinner with Felice, collecting his bet, knowing that he will need the money for a marriage license.
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Created under the working title 20 Hours by Air, the pace set in 1933 for transcontinental passenger flights, the production updated its name to match the recent exploits of Wiley Post, Jimmy Doolittle, and Roscoe Turner. The picture was filmed at the Alhambra Airport, California, in Cleveland, Ohio, and Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, using United Air Lines Boeing 247 airliners. Second unit filming involved a flight from Newark to Los Angeles to obtain footage to be used in the film. An aircraft assigned to the production was involved in a minor accident. [1]
The pairing of MacMurray and Bennett brought together two dependable leads who worked as Paramount Studios contract players. They were sometimes loaned out to other concerns, and steadily advanced from films like13 Hours by Air to more prestigious fare. [2]
Film reviewer Frank S. Nugent, in his review for The New York Times , called 13 Hours by Air "pleasant". "... there is no disputing the liveliness of the melodrama. The device of tossing a miscellany of humans and motives together on a bus, plane, train or airliner and letting them work out their destiny is as formular[ sic ] as the Bartender's Guide and has been used as often, but Bogart Rogers's and Frank Mitchell Dazey's story has been screened with a shrewd sense of pace, with a purposeful preservation of suspense and a knack for comic interlude." [3]
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Death Flies East is a 1935 American mystery film directed by Phil Rosen and starring Conrad Nagel, Florence Rice and Raymond Walburn. The action takes place on an airline flight with a murderer aboard. The film was an early example of the aviation "disaster film" genre.
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Alhambra Airport also called the Western Air College Airport was an airport in Alhambra, California from 1928 to 1946. The Airport was founded by the Western Air Express on 157-acre of land. The airport had a single 2,830-foot asphalt northeast–southwest runway. The Western Air Express built a unique hangar, that was a 44-foot hexagonal shape able to work on 6 aircraft at once. Western Air Express also build an air terminal building and a conventional hangar. Western Air Express at the opening operated Fokker F-32 from the airport. Western Air Express held a large dedication ceremony on April 17, 1930 for the new air terminal. The US Forest Service operated a patrol aircraft out of the airport to keep an eye out on the nearby San Gabriel Mountains. Just one year after the dedication ceremony, both Western Air Express and Transcontinental, which also had flights out of the airport, moved to the Burbank Airport and Glendale Grand Central Airport. With no scheduled flights, the Alhambra Airport became a private airport. A Western Air College flight school opened at the airport and some other small commercial operations. With Hollywood only 15 miles away the Alhambra Airport became a popular spot to shoot movies. The 1936 movie 13 Hours by Air directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring Fred MacMurray and Joan Bennett was shot at the airport. In 1939 the film Danger Flight was shot at the airport, directed by Howard Bretherton, starring John Trent as Tailspin Tommy Tompkins, Marjorie Reynolds, Milburn Stone and Jason Robards Sr. The film featured young aviation enthusiasts in a model club. The four-seat cabin monoplane, Harlow PJC-2 designed by Max B. Harlow was built at the Alhambra Airport in 1937. To support the build-up of the World War 2 effort, the Alhambra Airport was used as a depot for Lockheed Corporation military airplanes, many P-38 Lightning fighters aircraft came, were packed and departed the depot on the Lend Lease Program. In 1941 the Flying Wild and They Met in Bombay were shot at the airport. In 1942 the movie Flight Lieutenant was shot at the airport. In 1943 the airport was sold to the city. Harlow Aircraft Company purchased the airport in 1945. Harlow Aircraft Company had been building small aircraft at the airport since 1936 in small qualities. In 1946 Harlow Aircraft Company sold the airport to real estate developers, the north part of the site is now commercial property and the remaining is houses. The Airport was located at what is now Valley Boulevard to the north, New Ave to the east, Almansor Street to the west and the Interstate 10 to the south. Western Air Express later became part of Western Airlines. Western Air College Airport also operated out of the Rosemead Airport for some years. Western Air Express operated out of the Vail Airport in Montebello before moving its operation to the Alhambra Airport.