Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1925
The Air Mail
Buy The Air Mail now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'The Air Mail' is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Irvin Willat and starring Warner Baxter, Billie Dove, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. It was produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures.DuVal 2002, p. 7. Filmed in Death Valley National Park and the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada, it was released in the United States on March 16, 1925.Garza, Janiss. [http://www.allmovie.com/work/air-mail-83338 "Review: 'The Air Mail'."] 'Allmovie' (Macrovision Corporation), 2009. Retrieved: March 22, 2017.
Plot
Russ Kane (Warner Baxter) gets a job as a pilot in Reno, Nevada, in order to steal cargo. However, after training he becomes dedicated to his work. After making a forced landing, however, at a "Ghost City" in the desert, he falls in love with Alice Rendon (Billie Dove) and decides to become law-abiding.
When her father (George Irving) needs medicine, he flies to get it, but on the way back is chased by smugglers in other aircraft trafficking narcotics and illegal immigrants across the Mexican border. As a result, "Sandy", Kane's friend (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), parachutes from Kane's aircraft with the medicine.
Meanwhile, escaped prisoners have invaded Alice's home. All is resolved when a sheriff's posse confronts the invaders and Kane destroys the bandit's aircraft. In the end, Sandy becomes a pilot.
Cast
* Warner Baxter as Russ Kane
* Billie Dove as Alice Rendon
* Mary Brian as Minnie Wade
* Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as "Sandy"
* George Irving as Peter Rendon
* Richard Tucker as Jim Cronin
* Guy Oliver as Bill Wade
* Lee Shumway as "Scotty"
* Jack Byron as Rene Lenoir
* John Webb Dillon as Donald McKee
* Lloyd Whitlock as Speck
Production
Writer Byron Morgan, himself a pilot, strived for authenticity in the story of 'The Air Mail'. To find out what air mail pilots were encountering, Morgan flew on an air mail flight from Reno, Nevada, to San Francisco. The hazards that were found along the route including flying over the Rocky Mountains and inclement weather.Pendo 1985, p. 61.
To make 'The Air Mail', the, Famous Players-Lasky company traveled by train to Beatty, Nevada, about east of Rhyolite, where it set up temporary headquarters on January 10, 1925. Aircraft used in the film such as the DH .4 and Catron & Fisk arrived from Reno via Tonopah.Beck 2016, p. 17. Stunt pilot Frank Tomlck was hired to do the actual flying in the film, eschewing the use of sound stages or studio effects.Wynne 1987, p. 39.
The filming was completed by the end of January.Patera, Alan H. "Rhyolite's demise and the rise and fall of Pioneer and Springdale." 'Western Places' (Lake Grove, Oregon), Volume 7, Issue 4, 2004, pp. 5051. ISSN 1092-8782. During the filming, Famous Players-Lasky restored the Bottle House, one of the deteriorating buildings in the ghost town.McCoy 2004, pp. 6062.
Reception
Critics deprecated 'The Air Mail' as an "... up-to-date western adventure", virtually ignoring its aviation theme. At the same time, other features based on flying air mail, 'Trapped in the Sky' (1922) and 'The Fast Mail' (1922) were characterized as basically inferior to the Paramount production.Paris 1995, p. 60.
Reviewer Mordaunt Hall, writing for 'The New York Times' in 1925, said that although Dove and Baxter in 'The Air Mail', "... deliver creditable performances", the story is "... only mildly interesting and often quite tedious". While he thought the scenes of aircraft taking off from the ground were "quite inspiring", he found the stock villains, Deadwood Dick adventures, and romantic conversations between a man at in the air and a woman on the ground to be improbable. "This picture ...", he concluded, "... is interesting because of the modern touch to an ordinary Western story, but the idea deserves to be more thoughtful and sincere."Hall, Mordaunt. [https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9E01E5DF143EE531A15754C1A9659C946495D6CF "Seven Chances."] 'The New York Times', March 17, 1925. Retrieved: March 22, 2017.
Only one-half (four of eight reels) of a single print of 'The Air Mail' exists today, stored at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Beck, Simon D. 'The Aircraft-Spotter's Film and Television Companion'. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2016. .
* DuVal, Gary. 'The Nevada Filmography: Nearly 600 Works Made in the State, 1897 Through 2000'. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2002. .
* McCoy, Suzy. 'Rebecca's Walk Through Time: A Rhyolite Story'. Lake Grove, Oregon: Western Places, 2004. .
* Paris, Michael. 'From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema.' Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995. .
* Pendo, Stephen. 'Aviation in the Cinema'. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. .
* Wynne, H. Hugh. 'The Motion Picture Stunt Pilots and Hollywood's Classic Aviation Movies'. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1987. .
Buy The Air Mail now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1925