This one wore surprisingly well. It starts off in a fairground with an aeroplane ride in which the cockpit can rotate in all directions and which would never meet today's health and safety standards. The character in it is a rather unpleasantly aggressive barnstorming pilot, who having knocked down two people who get in his way, is dragged off to the police court. The case in front of his is a rich young girl being done for doing 80mph in a 20mph zone. She gets bail; he talks his way into being acquitted, at the same time being rude and abusive to the girl. A couple of weeks later they are going steady and agree to marry. Her father owns a bank, and not wishing to have a pilot son-in-law, gives him a job - the fade from tapping his fingers saying he will never work in a bank to tapping his fingers on a plus adder was cleverly done. His manager, realising he will never learn banking, desperately tries to get him promoted, but it's always into a job in his command. Still fretting to fly, the ex-pilot tries to persuade the bank to invest in his old employer's project to use amphibians to collect mail from incoming ships and bring it to land more quickly than waiting for the ship to dock. The bank, however, doesn't do aeroplanes, so our hero flounces out, and tries to help his old employed to raise the money from other sources. Then the bank's vice president agrees to go to South America to investigate some under-performing bonds just as the auditors are about to come in. On the way to the boat, he calls in at the airfield and deposits ten grand of his own money into the mail project, which our hero deposits in another bank. It then appears that ten grand is missing from the bank, and guess who is the first suspect! However, it is quickly discovered that even more money is missing, and the finger of suspicion turns to the VP, now on a boat with his floozy, who wants to go to the fleshpots of Shanghai, probably a stupid place to go at the time! In order to clear his name, our hero has to get the VP back, so rushes down to the airfield, grabs an amphibian and flies out to the ship and pretends to crash land. The ship stops and picks him up, but the captain, not unnaturally refuses to hand over a passenger without proper authority. Our pugnacious pilot then knocks the VP out, tips him overboard, pulls him into the plane, and flies back to justice. Everybody is waiting for him at the airfield, where he dumps the thief, changes planes and flies off to Yuma(?) for a quickie wedding with his girl. Lots of splendid (unidentified) biplanes which gaily fly around with no evidence of any air traffic control. Gabby Hayes had a bit part, but I didn't recognise him.
5 Reviews
Airplane Acrobatics
kidboots17 December 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Even though most of the audience felt Carole Lombard should have got her "buddy" in "Safety in Numbers"(1930) - it was easy to see why Kathryn Crawford won through in the end. In those singie mad days she was the only girl in the cast (apart from Louise Beavers) who could put over a song. But she had a tough chorus girl look about her so after a few westerns, by the time she made "Skyway" a strictly "B" movie with "funny man" Ray Walker as the star, her movie career was just about over.
Playing pretty much his stock in trade, Walker is Robert Norris, a cocky, brash, pretty obnoxious pilot who is hauled into court for making a monkey out of a policeman. He also makes his presence felt on flighty rich girl Lila (Crawford) - "keep your legs covered, you ain't on the witness stand now"!! They meet again when she decides to take a joy ride and he is even less charming than previously - he pulls out all stops to take the joy out and put the terror in!! Any normal girl would run a mile but as this movie is just over an hour they soon fall in love.
He is soon working at her father's bank having been sacked from the flying school because of hot headedness but even in this orderly environment he is transferred from department to department because of flying fists!! Meanwhile he lands in Baker's accounts department but Baker (Jed Prouty) has a few secrets - he has been embezzling from the bank for years and sees Robert as an easy target. When Robert's old boss (Gabby Haynes) comes to the bank for an investment loan and is knocked back, Robert leaves and gets behind the idea - of flying planes out to pick up the mail on anchored off shore ships. Suddenly auditors are called in and Baker prepares to flee to South America while Norris is left holding the bag.
Once you get over Walker's irritating personality the movie is entertaining enough with plenty of airplane acrobatics which may have looked pretty impressive to 1933 cinema patrons.
Playing pretty much his stock in trade, Walker is Robert Norris, a cocky, brash, pretty obnoxious pilot who is hauled into court for making a monkey out of a policeman. He also makes his presence felt on flighty rich girl Lila (Crawford) - "keep your legs covered, you ain't on the witness stand now"!! They meet again when she decides to take a joy ride and he is even less charming than previously - he pulls out all stops to take the joy out and put the terror in!! Any normal girl would run a mile but as this movie is just over an hour they soon fall in love.
He is soon working at her father's bank having been sacked from the flying school because of hot headedness but even in this orderly environment he is transferred from department to department because of flying fists!! Meanwhile he lands in Baker's accounts department but Baker (Jed Prouty) has a few secrets - he has been embezzling from the bank for years and sees Robert as an easy target. When Robert's old boss (Gabby Haynes) comes to the bank for an investment loan and is knocked back, Robert leaves and gets behind the idea - of flying planes out to pick up the mail on anchored off shore ships. Suddenly auditors are called in and Baker prepares to flee to South America while Norris is left holding the bag.
Once you get over Walker's irritating personality the movie is entertaining enough with plenty of airplane acrobatics which may have looked pretty impressive to 1933 cinema patrons.
Sometimes a temper can be a necessary evil.
mark.waltz15 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This low budget mixture of rough and tumble comedy, big business and some dynamic flight sequences is a big surprise for how good it is. Ray Walker plays a hot-shot (and equally hot tempered) pilot in love with banking kingpin Claude Gillingwater's daughter Kathryn Crawford. She wants to help him along in his career which means getting him out of his chosen profession and into her father's business. But his heart is not in it, and even though he goes through the motions to learn the banking business from the ground floor up, he longs to return to the air field. Sensing his naivete, bank executive Jed Prouty sets up Walker on an embezzlement charge, and it's up to Walker and his trusty flying skills, to bring Prouty back to expose the corruption and clear his name.
Watching bad tempers flare isn't often amusing, but in this case, it is, especially when he tries to suppress it and is confronted by someone even more hot tempered than himself. Sparing us the Edgar Kennedy slow burn, Walker huffs and puffs inside as he does Crawford's bidding to remain calm, but gets the last laugh. The banking scenes are intriguing as well, and the last reel (while totally preposterous) is amusing as Walker flies towards the cruise ship Prouty and his mistress "Maizie" (Alice Lake) is on to literally kidnap him and bring him back. One odd moment has Walker calling Crawford and the dumb maid making it appear that he is downstairs waiting for her. Monogram had some real losers in its time, as well as some surprises now considered classics. This is one of those unknown B films with forgotten B stars that ends up being a leader in the pack of one of the great poverty row studios of Hollywood history.
Watching bad tempers flare isn't often amusing, but in this case, it is, especially when he tries to suppress it and is confronted by someone even more hot tempered than himself. Sparing us the Edgar Kennedy slow burn, Walker huffs and puffs inside as he does Crawford's bidding to remain calm, but gets the last laugh. The banking scenes are intriguing as well, and the last reel (while totally preposterous) is amusing as Walker flies towards the cruise ship Prouty and his mistress "Maizie" (Alice Lake) is on to literally kidnap him and bring him back. One odd moment has Walker calling Crawford and the dumb maid making it appear that he is downstairs waiting for her. Monogram had some real losers in its time, as well as some surprises now considered classics. This is one of those unknown B films with forgotten B stars that ends up being a leader in the pack of one of the great poverty row studios of Hollywood history.
Eagle In A Teller's Cage
boblipton19 February 2024
Ray Walker is a daredevil carny pilot, helping George Hayes, who thinks there's big money to be made in air transport. Before any of their plans come through, Walker and Kathryn Crawford fall in love. She makes him retire from the skies and take a job at the bank owned by her father, Claude Gillingwater. Walker is a poor fit for the business. He also doesn't know he's being set up as a patsy.
It's a cheap second feature from old Monogram, but the script by Albert DeMond from a story by Paul Franklin gets the details right. Also, director Lewis Collins has some good comedy, both in the meet cute between Walker and Miss Crawford, and Walker's fouling up under the despairing eye of Lucien Littlefield. Collins never got out of the Bs, and in the thirty years before his first directorial credit and his death in 1954 at the age of 55, he was in charge of almost 130 movies, mostly westerns. Judging by this one, he could have directed some fine comedies. With Arthur Vinton, Tom Dugan, and Jed Prouty.
It's a cheap second feature from old Monogram, but the script by Albert DeMond from a story by Paul Franklin gets the details right. Also, director Lewis Collins has some good comedy, both in the meet cute between Walker and Miss Crawford, and Walker's fouling up under the despairing eye of Lucien Littlefield. Collins never got out of the Bs, and in the thirty years before his first directorial credit and his death in 1954 at the age of 55, he was in charge of almost 130 movies, mostly westerns. Judging by this one, he could have directed some fine comedies. With Arthur Vinton, Tom Dugan, and Jed Prouty.
Why would ANY woman what THAT man?!
planktonrules28 April 2018
When the film begins, Flash Norris (Ray Walker) ends up getting in a couple fights and punches people. While the folks seem like they deserve it, you soon realize that Flash is ALWAYS punching someone and he's a menace. Oddly, when he meets Lila (Kathryn Crawford), she falls for him. I say oddly because quite frankly, Flash is a real jerk. But she plans on remaking him--by getting him a job in her father's bank and civilizing him. But little does Flash know that one of his bosses is NOT a particularly nice guy...and sets him up to be accused of embezzlement.
There is one HUGE problem with this film....you are bound to hate the main character. Flash is an angry, slap-happy guy whose first reaction to nearly EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is to start hitting people....hardly the stuff of heroes! Plus believing that Lila or ANYONE would fall for Flash seems ridiculous! Add to that some, at best, mediocre acting by this leads and you've got a film that isn't especially memorable.
By the way, Flash's partner is played by George Hayes...later known as 'Gabby' Hayes and sporting a beard. He played in a lot of B-movies before moving on to westerns.
There is one HUGE problem with this film....you are bound to hate the main character. Flash is an angry, slap-happy guy whose first reaction to nearly EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is to start hitting people....hardly the stuff of heroes! Plus believing that Lila or ANYONE would fall for Flash seems ridiculous! Add to that some, at best, mediocre acting by this leads and you've got a film that isn't especially memorable.
By the way, Flash's partner is played by George Hayes...later known as 'Gabby' Hayes and sporting a beard. He played in a lot of B-movies before moving on to westerns.
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