Ceiling Zero *** (1936, James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, June Travis, Stuart Erwin, Barton MacLane) – Classic Movie Review 8965

Director Howard Hawks’s robust 1936 black and white civil aviation romantic adventure drama Ceiling Zero stars the ever bouncy James Cagney as a daredevil womanising pilot called Dizzy Davis, who pretends to have a heart attack to be with his girl Tommy Thomas (June Travis), leading to the death of Texas Clarke (Stuart Erwin), the man who stands in for him.

The acting of Cagney as Dizzy Davis and his real-life pal Pat O’Brien as Jake L Lee, Dizzy Davis’s war veteran buddy and the ground controller and operations manager of an airline company, plus Hawks’s action sequences and taut direction of the drama offer solid old-fashioned excitement, despite a sometimes static and finally slushy yarn.

Pat O’Brien, Martha Tibbetts, James Cagney, June Travis and Stuart Erwin.

Ceiling Zero is based on Frank ‘Spig’ Wead’s Broadway hit stage play of the same name, with a screenplay by Wead, blending drama with light comedy. The play on 10 April 1935 and ran for 104 performances at the Music Box Theatre. In 1957, US Navy aviator turned screenwriter Wead was portrayed by John Wayne in John Ford’s biopic of him, The Wings of Eagles.

Made on a limited budget, it was shot entirely in the Warner Bros studio and the backlot.

Warner Bros remade it with a topical World War Two wartime spin as International Squadron in 1941.

The title refers to the moments when the sky is so thick with fog that navigating an aircraft is nearly impossible.

Also in the cast are Henry Wadsworth, Isabel Jewell, Barton MacLane, Martha Tibbetts, Craig Reynolds, James H Bush, Robert Light, Addison Richards, Richard Purcell, Bill Elliott, Pat West, Edward Gargan and Garry Owen.

Ceiling Zero is directed by Howard Hawks, runs 95 minutes, is made by Cosmopolitan Productions, is released by Warner Bros, is written by Frank ‘Spig’ Wead, based on Frank ‘Spig’ Wead’s play, is shot in black and white by Arthur Edeson, is produced by Jack L. Warner, Hal Wallis and Harry Joe Brown, and is scored by M.K. Jerome, Bernhard Kaun and Leo F Forbstein.

After the 1993 VHS release, legal complications led this film to be taken off the market, which also prevented International Squadron being shown on cable TV, VHS or DVD. However, Ceiling Zero is available to view on the Internet.

Cagney and O’Brien re-teamed for another 1935 aviation-themed film Devil Dogs of the Air.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8965

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