LEGION OF LOST FLYERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 18, 27 October 1939, Page 33

LEGION OF LOST FLYERS

(Universal) Without Andy Devine this would be just another aeroplane picture. With him it gets up on the crown of the road. Richard Arlen, crack pilot, turns up at Desert Field, Alaska, where disgraced airmen hide away from the bogy of lost reputations and ride the northern storms on various important missions. But Arlen has no intention of staying in Coventry, or Dachau either. He’s there to loop up his side-slipped honour. It costs Universal four ruined aeroplanes (how plentiful they are in Hollywood!) but he manages it and, sure enough, at the end we all see what Anne Nagel was in the cast for. As entertainment goes this is all very well, but it is Andy-* teamed," as they would say of Charles Boyer and Norma Shearer, with a fat Eskimo lady-who makes it not only all very well but also all very fine. Aeroplanes go up, babies grow up; they all crash sooner or later, despite Hollywood’s attempts to keep them up or down, as the case may be; but simple humour keeps healthy all the time and this time Hollywood has kept simple without being sickly. You're safe to see this one. Incidentally, its preview screening was attended by a trailer which seemed to foreshadow the introduction of another Shirley Temple, with a round face, a voice, personality, and some of the stars from the "Three Smart Girls" pictures. At present it’s called "Under Puppy." But be patient.