The Eagle and the Hawk *** (1933, Fredric March, Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Jack Oakie) – Classic Movie Review 7200

Directors Stuart Walker and Mitchell Leisen’s 1933 The Eagle and the Hawk is a modest but decent World War One war action melodrama, starring Fredric March as Jerry Young, a Royal Air Force squadron flier who goes to pieces and to the bottle, continually seeing his fellow pilots killed. Luckily, his co-aviator Henry Crocker (Cary Grant) is able to save his reputation.

[Spoiler alert] But he is not able to save his life. Leisen recalled: ‘When March commits suicide, Cary Grant gives him a Viking funeral by putting him in the plane and make it look like he’s been shot down in action. March becomes a hero in spite of himself.’

March is excellent and Grant is not far behind him in this high-flying movie, with a good script and production, though admittedly the airspace is overcrowded with such films so there are few surprises. Unfortunately, Carole Lombard has little to do as March’s lovely socialite love interest, whom he meets while on leave back in England.

Bogart Rogers and Seton I Miller’s screenplay is based on the story Death in the Morning by John Monk Saunders.

Leisen revealed that the film’s ending was changed, which diluted its anti-war purpose. He said: ‘The whole reason I wanted to do the script so much was for the end.’

[Spoiler alert] Leisen recalled: ‘Originally, we pulled back from the plaque in March’s hometown, until we see Cary Grant, walking by with a bottle in a paper bag. He has become a bum, and he will regret all his life the mockery he made of March’s death.’

Also in the cast are  [Sir] Guy Standing, Jack Oakie, Forrester Harvey, Douglas Scott, Kenneth Howell, Dennis O’Keefe, Leyland Hodgson, Virginia Hammond, Adrienne D’Ambricourt, Russell Scott, Yorke Sherwood, Lane Chandler, Paul Cremonesi, Olaf Hytten, Crauford Kent, Robert Manning, Jacques Jou-Jerville and Frank Tomick.

It was available on video in the Eighties and Nineties.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7200

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