''Emergency Landing'' (a.k.a. ''Robot Pilot'') is a 1941 American aviation spy-fi romantic

screwball comedy film Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristi ...

directed by

William Beaudine William Washington Beaudine (January 15, 1892 – March 18, 1970) was an American film actor and director. He was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors, turning out films in remarkable numbers and in a wide variety of genres. Life and car ...

. The film stars

Forrest Tucker Forrest Meredith Tucker (February 12, 1919 – October 25, 1986) was an American actor in both movies and television who appeared in nearly a hundred films. Tucker worked as a vaudeville straight man at the age of fifteen. A mentor provided fund ...

in his second film and in his first leading role with co-stars Carol Hughes and

Evelyn Brent Evelyn Brent (born Mary Elizabeth Riggs; October 20, 1895 – June 4, 1975) was an American film and stage actress. Early life Brent was born in Tampa, Florida, and known as Betty. When she was age 10, her mother Eleanor (née. Warner) died, ...

. ''Emergency Landing'' features much mismatched

stock footage Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...

of various types of aircraft.

Plot

Arizona inventor "Doc" Williams (

Emmett Vogan Charles Emmett Vogan (September 27, 1893 – October 6, 1969) was an American actor with almost 500 film appearances from 1934 to 1954, making him, along with Bess Flowers, one of the most prolific film actors of all time. In 1913, Vogan ...

) has invented a wireless

remote control In electronics, a remote control (also known as a remote or clicker) is an electronic device used to operate another device from a distance, usually wirelessly. In consumer electronics, a remote control can be used to operate devices such as ...

that can pilot an aircraft. Despite his efforts and those of his friend, pilot Jerry Barton (Forrest Tucker), they can not interest anyone in the invention. Barton has found a job as a

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testing ...

for a millionaire named George Lambert (William Halligan) with his own aircraft company. When Doc brings a model of his invention, the two send their model aircraft to buzz Lambert on the golf course. Lambert is fascinated and arranges a test, but his daughter Betty is not, especially when the model lands in a puddle and drenches her. When the time comes for a test of the device installed in a real aircraft, Jerry takes the aircraft up and switches to remote control.

United States Army Air Forces 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 ...

observers are skeptical that Jerry is flying the aircraft himself so Jerry parachutes out of the aircraft. The device, however, is not perfected and the aircraft crashes. The event is observed by foreign agents working undercover at Lambert Aircraft. Doc and Jerry return in failure to Arizona to perfect the device. At the same time Betty announces she wishes to go to Hollywood, with her Aunt Maude. When their vehicle runs out of petrol near Indian Springs, Arizona, the girls decide to steal petrol from an

aerodrome beacon An aerodrome beacon or rotating beacon or aeronautical beacon is a beacon installed at an airport or aerodrome to indicate its location to aircraft pilots at night. An aerodrome beacon is mounted on top of a towering structure, often a control ...

but are caught by Jerry who tows their car to Doc's house. As Jerry is a local

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

official, he has the authority to arrest the girls until Judge Gildersleeve comes. The girls hear tales of his imaginary severe sentences. Jerry telegraphs George Lambert about what they have done and asks his permission to teach the haughty Betty a lesson. The girls have to do housework but Maude later overhears the boys' scheme and wins them over by saying it is a great idea, as Betty spoiled since childhood, needs a comeuppance. Meanwhile, the two enemy agents hijack a new Lambert-designed bomber being tested at Lambert Field. When the bomber crashes nearby with one agent ( I. Stanford Jolley) surviving, he makes his way to Doc and Jerry's house, pretending he has been in an automobile accident. When Doc and Jerry learn the truth, the agent hijacks Doc's aircraft with the two girls as hostages. Doc's aircraft, however, has the remote control device installed that now works and Doc and Jerry are able to land the aircraft and capture the agent. The real Judge Gildersleeve (

Billy Curtis Billy Curtis (born Luigi Curto; June 27, 1909 – November 9, 1988) was an American film and television actor with dwarfism, who had a 50-year career in the entertainment industry. Career The bulk of his work was in the western and science fict ...

), a

midget Midget (from ''midge'', a tiny biting insect) is a term for a person of unusually short stature that is considered by some to be pejorative due to its etymology. While not a medical term like "dwarfism", a medical condition with a number of ca ...

, appears and fines the girls.

Cast

as Jerry Barton * Carol Hughes as Betty Lambert *

as Maude Marshall *

as "Doc" Williams *

William Halligan The Hallicrafters Company manufactured, marketed, and sold radio equipment, and to a lesser extent televisions and phonographs, beginning in 1932. The company was founded by William J. Halligan and based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. In ...

as George B. Lambert * George Sherwood as Jones * Joaquin Edwards as Pedro * I. Stanford Jolley as Karl *

Stanley Price Stanley Price (December 31, 1892July 13, 1955) was an American film supporting actor who appeared in over 200 films between 1922 and 1956. He was a charter member of the Screen Actors Guild. Career Price was an actor whose artistic career sp ...

as Otto *

Jack Lescoulie Jack Lescoulie (November 17, 1912 – July 22, 1987) was a radio and television announcer and host, notably on NBC's ''Today'' during the 1950s and 1960s; a newspaper source lists his date of birth as May 17, 1912. Lescoulie was also known for h ...

as Captain North * Paul Scott as Colonel Lemon *

as Judge Gildersleeve

Production

Principal photography for ''Emergency Landing'' took place from late March to early April 1941. After a stint in Great Britain, director William "One Shot" Beaudine returned to America in 1937 but had trouble re-establishing himself at the major studios. After working at

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...

, Beaudine found work on

Poverty Row Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. Although many of them were based on (or near) today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did n ...

, working for studios specializing in low-budget films, such as

Monogram Pictures Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...

and

Producers Releasing Corporation Producers Releasing Corporation was the smallest and least prestigious of the Hollywood film studios of the 1940s. It was considered a prime example of what was called "Poverty Row": a low-rent stretch of Gower Street in Hollywood where shoest ...

. Beaudine became a specialist in comedies, thrillers and

melodrama A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exces ...

s making dozens for these studios. By the 1940s, Beaudine had a reputation for being a resourceful, no-nonsense director who could make feature films in a matter of days, sometimes as few as five.

Reception

Shortly after release, ''Emergency Landing'' was re-titled ''Robot Pilot''. Merely a

B film A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

, ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' felt the film's major asset was "sex appeal".Pendo 1985, p. 21.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Marshall, Wendy L. ''William Beaudine: From Silents to Television''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2005. . * Pendo, Stephen. ''Aviation in the Cinema''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. .

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Emergency Landing 1941 films American war drama films 1940s English-language films American black-and-white films Producers Releasing Corporation films American aviation films American spy films Films directed by William Beaudine 1940s war drama films 1941 drama films 1940s American films