''Border Flight'' is a 1936 American

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Otho Lovering Otho Lovering (December 1, 1892 – October 25, 1968) was an American filmmaker with about eighty editing credits on feature films and television programs. Biography Born in 1892, he was the son of Frank Lovering, a stenographer, and Georgie Lov ...

and written by Stuart Anthony, Arthur J. Beckhard and Ewing Scott. The film stars

Frances Farmer Frances Elena Farmer (September 19, 1913August 1, 1970) was an American actress and television hostess. She appeared in over a dozen feature films over the course of her career, though she garnered notoriety for sensationalized accounts of her l ...

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...

Roscoe Karns Roscoe, also spelled Rosco or Roscow, may refer to: People * Roscoe (name) Places United States * Roscoe, California (disambiguation) *Roscoe Township (disambiguation) * Roscoe, Georgia, an unincorporated community *Roscoe, Illinois, a village * ...

Robert Cummings Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings (June 9, 1910 – December 2, 1990) was an American film and television actor who appeared in roles in comedy films such as '' The Devil and Miss Jones'' (1941) and ''Princess O'Rourke'' (1943), and in ...

Grant Withers Granville Gustavus Withers (January 17, 1905 – March 27, 1959) was an American film actor who acted under the screen name Grant Withers. With early beginnings in the silent era, Withers moved into sound films, establishing himself with a lis ...

and

Samuel S. Hinds Samuel Southey Hinds (April 4, 1875 – October 13, 1948) was an American actor and former lawyer. He was often cast as kindly authority figures and appeared in more than 200 films until his death. Early years Hinds was born in Brooklyn, New Y ...

. ''Border flight'' was based on the exploits of the

US Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...

pilots, based in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. In ''Aviation in the Cinema'' (1985), aviation film historian Stephen Pendo considered ''Border Flight'', a drama that "detailed the aerial activities of the United States Coast Guard fighting a gang of smugglers."

Plot

Lieutenant Pat Tornell (

) and Lieutenant Bob Dixon (

) are sworn into the United States Coast Guard Air Patrol, West Coast division. Pat hates to follow rules, but works with his former rival from school, Lieutenant Dan Conlon (

). Pat starts flirting with Dan's beautiful girlfriend, Anne Blane (

). Former ace pilot Calico Smith (

), intervenes between Pat and Dan. When Commander Moseley (

) is criticized for having allowed fur smugglers elude the Coast Guard, he sends his men out to bring the smugglers in. Dixon is shot in the attempt, and goes down with his aircraft. The Coast Guard then arms their aircraft with machine guns. During gunnery practise, Pat flies dangerously. Reprimanded by Moseley, who warns both men to end their rivalry, but Pat doesn't listen. On another patrol, Dan is able to shoot down a smuggler's aircraft. On the day that Anne is expected to return from a short trip, Pat as officer of the day, tells Dan that he can leave his post early. The real reason for this gesture is that Pat leaves a welcome home message in the sky to Anne over her ship When Pat buzzes the ship, the captain calla Moseley to complain. Pat's antics finally force to asks for Pat's resignation. Pat quits and begins flying for the smugglers while continuing to pursue Anne, who believes that he is actually working undercover for the Coast Guard. Pat and Anne are kidnapped by the smugglers who take them to their hideout. Anne, whom Dan has taught to use a short-wave radio, manages to get loose from her restraints and calls Dan, alerting him to their location. Dan flies out to rescue her, and Calico follows, determined to help. When Dan arrives, the smugglers are on a boat off the beach, and fire upon him, wounding him in the leg and blowing up his aircraft. Dan tells Pat and Anne to escape in Pat's plane, but Anne vows to stay by Dan, while Pat takes off. Pat realizes that he can still make everyone proud. After sending a farewell message to Anne, he crashes into the smugglers' ship, destroying the ship, the smugglers, his aircraft and himself.

Cast

as Anne Blane *

as Lt. Dan Conlon *

as Calico Smith *

as Lt. Bob Dixon *

as Lt. Pat Tornell *

as Commander Mosely *Donald Kirke as Heming *Matty Fain as Jerry *

Frank Faylen Frank Faylen (born Charles Francis Ruf, December 8, 1905 – August 2, 1985) was an American film and television actor. Largely a bit player and character actor, he occasionally played more fleshed-out supporting roles during his forty-two ...

as Jimmie *Ted Oliver as Turk *Paul Barrett as Radio Operator

Production

The aircraft used in ''Border Flight'' included Stearman C3R,

Curtiss Fledgling The Curtiss Fledgling, known internally to Curtiss as the Model 48 and Model 51 was a trainer aircraft developed for the United States Navy in the late 1920s and known in that service as the N2C. Design and development The Fledgling was designe ...

c / n 69, NC465K and a

Lockheed Vega The Lockheed Vega is an American five- to seven-seat high-wing monoplane airliner built by the Lockheed Corporation starting in 1927. It became famous for its use by a number of record-breaking pilots who were attracted to the rugged and very l ...

5C c / n 171, NC965Y. Principal photography took place at Burbank's United Air Terminal, where

Paul Mantz Albert Paul Mantz (August 2, 1903 – July 8, 1965) was a noted air racing pilot, movie stunt pilot and consultant from the late 1930s until his death in the mid-1960s. He gained fame on two stages: Hollywood and in air races. Early years Ma ...

's company, United Air Services, was based. Filming started February 1936. It lasted four weeks. Although not listed in the credits, Mantz and Frank Clarke, his collaborator and competitor, did the flying in ''Border Flight''.Santoir, Christian
Review: 'Border Patrol' (1936)".
''Aeromovies'', October 19, 2010. Retrieved: May 26, 2019.

was a gifted pilot, having had his first flights in 1927 as a teenager. Flying both privately and as a commercial pilot, Cummings enrolled at

Carnegie Tech Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, Pennsylvania for courses in mechanical engineering with the goal of a degree in aeronautics. The 1929

Wall Street Crash The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

ended that effort, but he continued to fly throughout his life. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Cummings helped organize California’s first

Civil Air Patrol Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is a congressionally chartered, federally supported non-profit corporation that serves as the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force (USAF). CAP is a volunteer organization with an aviation-minded mem ...

, which he later commanded. He became a flight instructor in the

U.S. Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

. Many of his later films and television work featured aviation.

Reception

''Border Flight'' was released on May 29, 1936, by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

Frank Nugent Frank Stanley Nugent (May 27, 1908 – December 29, 1965) was an American screenwriter, journalist, and film reviewer, who wrote 21 film scripts, 11 for director John Ford. He wrote almost a thousand reviews for ''The New York Times'' before lea ...

, film reviewer at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

,'' criticized the plot as formulaic. Aviation film historian James M. Farmer in ''Celluloid Wings: The Impact of Movies on Aviation'' (1984), had a similar reaction, saying that ''Border Flight'' was "... (a) routine" melodrama.Farmer 1984, p. 296.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Farmer, James H. ''Celluloid Wings: The Impact of Movies on Aviation''. Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: Tab Books Inc., 1984. . * Orriss, Bruce W. ''When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Years Between the Wars 1920–1941.'' Los Angeles: Aero Associates, 2015. . * Pendo, Stephen. ''Aviation in the Cinema''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. .

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 0027383, Border Flight 1936 films American aviation films American black-and-white films Films about the United States Coast Guard Films directed by Otho Lovering Paramount Pictures films American drama films 1936 drama films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films