FLYING BLIND

US, 1941, 69 minutes, Black-and-white.
Richard Arlen, Jean Parker, Nils Asther, Marie Wilson, Roger Pryor, Eddie Quillan, Dick Purcell, Grady Sutton.
Directed by Frank Mc Donald.

Flying Blind is a strange concoction of 1930s screwball comedy elements along with 1940s wartime espionage. The screwball comedy dominates the espionage.

This is the second film that Richard Arlen and Jean Parker appeared in together in 1941 with aerial themes. The other was the much more serious Power Dive.

The aerial background is contemporary, commercial flights, pilots and flight attendants setting up their own companies, this time as a honeymoon company to take people to Las Vegas and back. There is a certain amount of bickering between the pilot and the flight attendant though romance is inevitable. There is a rival for affections but he is tricked into leaving California and going to work with a better salary New Jersey! There are various couples who go on their honeymoons but a lot of attention is given to Grady Sutton, a scout leader with a touch of the sissy as in all his films, and Marie Wilson with her verbal gaffes and dizziness, something she was to capitalise on over the next 10 years (as remembered in My Friend Irma).

As regards the espionage, one of the hero’s copilots loses his job, is approached by spies to get information about tests and to use the honeymoon company to fly him to Mexico and to hand over the information.

During the flight, there are certain amount of heroics, the plane landing, the scoutmaster lighting a fire, the pilot getting the plane going again, a fight with the villain – and safe landing.

The film was directed by Frank Mc Donald who made quite a number of thrillers at this time, often written by Maxwell Shane, but this is not one of his best.

Very much a take-it or leave-it, possibly the latter.