Night Flight *** (1933, John Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy) – Classic Movie Review 6043

When there is an outbreak of polio in Rio de Janeiro, pilots offer to risk their lives in bad weather to fly the medicine over the dangerous Andes mountains. John Barrymore stars as Riviere, who operates a South American airline in the most un-airworthy sort of way, in MGM’s posh, entertaining, glossy vintage soap opera.

So, all aboard director Clarence Brown’s 1933 all-star adventure drama special, with the classy sextet of Clark Gable, Helen Hayes, Myrna Loy, Robert Montgomery and the Barrymore brothers Lionel and John (in their fifth and final pairing) in the first class passenger seats.

Oliver H P Garrett’s screenplay is taken from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s novel.

Other Barrymore pairings: Arsène Lupin, Dinner at Eight, Grand Hotel, Rasputin and the Empress.

Also in the cast are William Gargan, C Henry Gordon, Leslie Fenton, Harry Beresford, Frank Conroy, Dorothy Burgess, Irving Pichel, Helen Jerome Eddy, Buster Phelps, Ralf Harolde, Marcia Ralston, Maurice Black, Inez Palange, Louis Natheaux, Francis, McDonald, Michael Mark, Wallace MacDonald, George Irving, Otto Hoffman, Claire Du Brey and Edward Brady.

It is shot in black and white by Oliver T Marsh, Elmer Dyer and Charles A Marshall, produced by David O’Selznick, scored by Herbert Stothart and designed by Cedric Gibbons.

It is the first MGM film to have a producer credit – O’Selznick’s.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6043

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