Dirigible (1931)

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

At a negative cost of one million dollars (and that's in 1931 money), Dirigible still rates as a mighty impressive aerial spectacular. Aside from the obvious use of a hand-cranked camera in some of the location scenes, it is beautifully made by director Frank Capra, no less, from a first-class shooting script by Jo Swerling. Admittedly, Fay Wray is not as attractive;y made up or costumed as she was in her later encounter with King Kong, but nevertheless, some of her close-ups are very appealing. It's also good to see Jack Holt as the number one star. Under Capra's direction, he is far less wooden here than in many of his later 1930's vehicles. He's not the hero, of course. That role is ably undertaken by the now unjustly forgotten but highly personable Ralph Graves. True, this is not a typical Capra outing, but I found it just as interesting and absorbing as his better-known movies.

I kind of enjoyed this, despite the stagy performances at the beginning, the ligneous leading man, and the period visual effects. It was written by Spig Wead, the protagonist of John Ford's "The Wings of Eagles", and directed by Frank Capra before he became warm and populist. Fay Wray is a cute and unwittingly sexy as she was in the same year's "King Kong," even if she does keep her dress on this time around.Ralph Graves is a hot-shot aviator in the 1932 US Navy. You ought to see him do outside loops and laughing at orders not to do it. Jack Holt is his superior officer who is committed to the giant dirigibles that fly out of the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Graves is married to Fay Wray, whom Holt loves from afar, in a gentlemanly kind of way. Graves doesn't take Wray seriously when she complains that he's more interested in headlines and aviation trophies than he is in her. He placates her with lines like, "Say, honey, you must know nothing means more to me than you." He thinks he's smart but he's pretty dumb.Graves is chosen to pilot a flight over the South Pole and dropping a flag on it. He decides to land the airplane and plant the flag in person, the happy-go-lucky lug. Well -- maybe not so lucky. He cracks the plane up. Two of the four-man crew wind up dead. And Graves carries the third guy until he collapses from exhaustion, hunger, and cold, abjectly accepting death. But before they can snuff it, the two men are rescued by a dirigible flown by Holt.The first part is a little goofy. The actors speak as if they're on a stage and have to shout to reach the balconies. But the last two thirds of the film are packed with action scenes, and fairly convincing, considering the year. The suffering undergone by the crash survivors isn't stiff-upper-lip stuff either. Roscoe Karns is a wisecracking radioman on the crew. Usually these characters survive and sometimes they're given the final witticism as the film closes on the lovers kissing. But when his foot is injured and he's being hauled along on a sled, he breaks down and shouts with pain, squealing, "I don't want to cry! I don't want to cry!" It's a little horrifying. It's done with such artlessness that it's believable, and the cure turns out to be worse than the disease.It's a commercial enterprise, not a masterpiece. Capra uses some stunning shots from high up in the rafters of the dirigible hangars but aside from that it's a straightforward and somewhat familiar adventure story. It will likely sweep you along by sheer momentum after you're through the initial exposition. Interesting to note that even in 1932 radio operators used speed keys.

Okay, I know, they are not blimps. They are Zeppelins. "Airships" was the preferred term by the U.S. Navy.This is a very exciting action film for 1931. Apparently made with quite a high budget. I saw model shots, large sound stages filling in for Antartica, thousands of extras, real airships, and a gigantic ticker tape parade shot on location in New York City. All of these things cost much money. The U.S. Navy's use of airships was so brief that this film also marks one of the few stories about this chapter in our military history.This film proves that Capra was also adept at high intensity action directing (for 1931) as well his usual character-driven morality plays that he became so well-known for.The one thing that is the most striking to me about (some) early talking pictures, of which this is one, is that they have hardly any music score. This is true here, and only adds to the isolated feeling in the scenes of the doomed expedition struggling to escape from the frozen tundra. Plenty of sound effects in the scenes of the doomed Pensacola going down, but no music. In fact, the film even uses a few silent film style narration cards.Anyway, in spite of this film dating from 1931, it has aged really well and doesn't seem too dated at all. A nice action/adventure film. The print they showed on TCM on television was in very good shape, even the sound was strong in most places. Yes, the love story seemed tacked on, but there are thousands of films in the history of Hollywood that could have survived artistically with their romantic subplots (probably inserted at the insistence of cigar-chewing studio bosses to get "the female market") jettisoned. In any case, this movie is quite entertaining and Worth checking out.

I liked this film for it conveys a can-do-attitude that was so prevalent in America at that time. This movie was made (1931) in a time when man was just beginning to test the limits of himself, machine, and the elements (it was only 5 years earlier in 1927 that Limbergh crossed the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis.) This movie focused on the race to the south pole and it made for good entertainment. The special effects for the time were very good.The human interest aspect of the film showed the negative side of ambition (how it affected a marriage and a friendship)this I found interesting. The character development in the one, Frisky, was especially satisfying.I would recommend this movie to anyone--however do not compare it to the movies of our time--that would be a disservice to the movie.