''The Air Mail'' is a 1925 American silent

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

Irvin Willat Irvin V. Willat (November 18, 1890 – April 17, 1976) was an American film director of the silent film, silent film era. A short biography reprinted from ''Blue Book of the Screen'' (1923). He directed 39 films between 1917 and 1937. Early i ...

and starring

Warner Baxter Warner Leroy Baxter (March 29, 1889 – May 7, 1951) was an American film actor from the 1910s to the 1940s. Baxter is known for his role as the Cisco Kid in the 1928 film ''In Old Arizona'', for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at ...

Billie Dove Lillian Bohny (born Bertha Eugenie Bohny; May 14, 1903 – December 31, 1997), known professionally as Billie Dove, was an American actress. Early life and career Dove was born Bertha Eugenie Bohny in New York City in 1903 to Charles and Ber ...

, and

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Douglas Elton Fairbanks Jr., (December 9, 1909 – May 7, 2000) was an American actor, producer and decorated naval officer of World War II. He is best known for starring in such films as ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937), '' Gunga Din'' (1939) ...

It was produced by

Famous Players-Lasky Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company—originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays—and ...

and distributed through

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 ...

. Filmed in

Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka ...

and the ghost town of

Rhyolite, Nevada Rhyolite is a ghost town in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada. It is in the Bullfrog Hills, about northwest of Las Vegas, near the eastern boundary of Death Valley National Park. The town began in early 1905 as one of several mining camps ...

, it was released in the United States on March 16, 1925.

Plot

Russ Kane (

) gets a job as a pilot in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

, in order to steal cargo. However, after training he becomes dedicated to his work. After making a forced landing, however, at a "Ghost City" in the desert, he falls in love with Alice Rendon (

) and decides to become law-abiding. When her father ( George Irving) needs medicine, he flies to get it, but on the way back is chased by smugglers in other aircraft trafficking

narcotics The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "to make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...

and

illegal immigrants Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwa ...

across the

Mexican border Mexico shares international borders with three nations: *To the north the United States–Mexico border, which extends for a length of through the states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. *To the southe ...

. As a result, "Sandy", Kane's friend ( Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), parachutes from Kane's aircraft with the medicine. Leader Theater, Sidney Lust LCCN2016839932 (cropped)

Leader Theater, Sidney Lust LCCN2016839932 (cropped)

Meanwhile, escaped prisoners have invaded Alice's home. All is resolved when a sheriff's posse confronts the invaders and Kane destroys the bandit's aircraft. In the end, Sandy becomes a pilot.

Cast

as Russ Kane *

as Alice Rendon *

Mary Brian Mary Brian (born Louise Byrdie Dantzler, February 17, 1906 – December 30, 2002) was an American actress who made the transition from silent films to sound films. Early life Brian was born in Corsicana, Texas, the daughter of Taurrence J. ...

as Minnie Wade * Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as "Sandy" * George Irving as Peter Rendon *

Richard Tucker Richard Tucker (August 28, 1913January 8, 1975) was an American operatic tenor and cantor. Long associated with the Metropolitan Opera, Tucker's career was primarily centered in the United States. Early life Tucker was born Rivn (Rubin) Ticker ...

as Jim Cronin *

Guy Oliver George Guy Oliver (September 25, 1878 – September 1, 1932) was an American actor. He appeared in at least 189 silent film era motion pictures and 32 talkies in character roles between 1911 and 1931. His obituary gives him credit for at l ...

as Bill Wade *

Lee Shumway Lee Shumway (March 4, 1884 – January 4, 1959), born Leonard Charles Shumway, was an American actor. He appeared in more than 400 films between 1909 and 1953. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and died in Los Angeles, California. Select ...

as "Scotty" * Jack Byron as Rene Lenoir *

John Webb Dillon John Webb Dillion (6 February 1877 – 20 December 1949) was an English actor. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1911 and 1947. He was born in London and died in Hollywood, California, USA. He was married to Catherine Urlau. Selected fi ...

as Donald McKee *

Lloyd Whitlock Lloyd Whitlock (January 2, 1891 – January 8, 1966) was a prolific American actor who began working during Hollywood's silent era. Born in 1891, he appeared in nearly 200 films between 1916 and 1949. Distinguished by his height and stature, he ...

as Speck

Production

Writer Byron Morgan, himself a pilot, strived for authenticity in the story of ''The Air Mail''. To find out what air mail pilots were encountering, Morgan flew on an air mail flight from

, to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. The hazards that were found along the route including flying over the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

and inclement weather. To make ''The Air Mail'', the,

company traveled by train to

Beatty, Nevada Beatty ( ) is an unincorporated town along the Amargosa River in Nye County in the U.S. state of Nevada. U.S. Route 95 runs through the town, which lies between Tonopah, about to the north and Las Vegas, about to the southeast. State Route 37 ...

, about east of

Rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

, where it set up temporary headquarters on January 10, 1925. Aircraft used in the film such as the DH .4 and Catron & Fisk arrived from Reno via Tonopah.Beck 2016, p. 17. Stunt pilot Frank Tomlck was hired to do the actual flying in the film, eschewing the use of sound stages or studio effects. The filming was completed by the end of January.Patera, Alan H. "Rhyolite's demise and the rise and fall of Pioneer and Springdale." ''Western Places'' (Lake Grove, Oregon), Volume 7, Issue 4, 2004, pp. 50–51. ISSN 1092-8782. During the filming, Famous Players-Lasky restored the Bottle House, one of the deteriorating buildings in the ghost town.McCoy 2004, pp. 60–62.

Reception

Critics deprecated ''The Air Mail'' as an "... up-to-date western adventure", virtually ignoring its aviation theme. At the same time, other features based on flying air mail, ''Trapped in the Sky'' (1922) and ''The Fast Mail'' (1922) were characterized as basically inferior to the Paramount production.Paris 1995, p. 60. Reviewer

Mordaunt Hall Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.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 ...

'' in 1925, said that although Dove and Baxter in ''The Air Mail'', "... deliver creditable performances", the story is "... only mildly interesting and often quite tedious". While he thought the scenes of aircraft taking off from the ground were "quite inspiring", he found the stock villains,

Deadwood Dick Deadwood Dick is a fictional character who appears in a series of stories, or dime novels, published between 1877 and 1897 by Edward Lytton Wheeler (1854/5–1885). The name became so widely known in its time that it was used to advantage by s ...

adventures, and romantic conversations between a man at in the air and a woman on the ground to be improbable. "This picture ...", he concluded, "... is interesting because of the modern touch to an ordinary Western story, but the idea deserves to be more thoughtful and sincere."Hall, Mordaunt
"Seven Chances."
''The New York Times'', March 17, 1925. Retrieved: March 22, 2017. Only one-half (four of eight reels) of a single print of ''The Air Mail'' exists today, stored at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

in Washington, D.C.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Beck, Simon D. ''The Aircraft-Spotter's Film and Television Companion''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2016. . * DuVal, Gary. ''The Nevada Filmography: Nearly 600 Works Made in the State, 1897 Through 2000''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2002. . * McCoy, Suzy. ''Rebecca's Walk Through Time: A Rhyolite Story''. Lake Grove, Oregon: Western Places, 2004. . * Paris, Michael. ''From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema.'' Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995. . * Pendo, Stephen. ''Aviation in the Cinema''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. . * Wynne, H. Hugh. ''The Motion Picture Stunt Pilots and Hollywood's Classic Aviation Movies''. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1987. .

External links

* * *
Progressive Silent Film List: ''The Air Mail''
at silentera.com
Beautiful lobby poster for the film, rare
{{DEFAULTSORT:Air Mail, The American action drama films American silent feature films American aviation films American black-and-white films Films directed by Irvin Willat Nevada in fiction Paramount Pictures films American women aviators 1920s action drama films 1925 drama films 1925 films Films shot in Nevada Films about the illegal drug trade Films about illegal immigration to the United States Films set in Reno, Nevada Films set in Nevada 1920s American films Silent American drama films