''The Eagle and the Hawk'' is a 1933 American

Pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

aerial

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

set in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It was directed by Stuart Walker and

Mitchell Leisen James Mitchell Leisen (October 6, 1898 – October 28, 1972) was an American director, art director, and costume designer. Film career He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments. He directed his f ...

and was based on an original story by

John Monk Saunders John Monk Saunders (November 22, 1897 – March 11, 1940) was an American novelist, screenwriter, and film director. Early life and career Born in Hinckley, Minnesota, to Robert C. Saunders and Nannie Monk Saunders, his family (6 children) move ...

. The film stars

Fredric March Fredric March (born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel; August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975) was an American actor, regarded as one of Hollywood's most celebrated, versatile stars of the 1930s and 1940s.Obituary '' Variety'', April 16, 1975, ...

and

Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...

as Royal Flying Corps fighter pilots. The supporting cast includes Carole Lombard,

Jack Oakie Jack Oakie (born Lewis Delaney Offield; November 12, 1903 – January 23, 1978) was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on stage, radio and television. He portrayed Napaloni in Chaplin's ''The Great Dictator'' (194 ...

, and

Sir Guy Standing Sir Guy Standing, KBE (1 September 1873 – 24 February 1937) was an English actor. Biography Standing served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve throughout the First World War, reaching the rank of commander. He was seconded to MI6, but ...

Plot

In World War I, American born pilots Lt. Jerry Young (Fredric March) and Lt. Mike "Slug" Richards (Jack Oakie) join Britain's Royal Flying Corps and are assigned to the dangerous mission of reconnaissance over enemy lines. During furious fighting, Jerry loses his air gunners/observers, one after the other, until only Henry Crocker (Cary Grant) is available to fly with him. The two men had previously met and fought. Jerry's dislike of Crocker grows after Crocker shoots a parachuting German observer who bailed out of a blimp. They eventually become friends of a sort, but Henry realizes that the war is taking a toll on Jerry. After an enemy raid on his base, the commanding officer, Major Dunham ( Guy Standing) sees what is happening to his best pilot, and orders Jerry to go to London on leave after Crocker tells him that Jerry is cracking up. Meeting a young woman (Carole Lombard), Jerry carries on a brief affair, before being sent back to the front. With Jerry away, Henry flies a mission with Mike that ends with the pilot's death because Henry persuaded him to go back for another pass at an enemy. Jerry blames his friend and asks for a different air observer. On his first mission with Jerry, the new recruit, Lt. John Stevens (Kenneth Howell) is shot and then falls out of the airplane during inverted flight during a dogfight with Voss (Robert Seiter), a famous German ace. He has no parachute and falls to the ground. Jerry then shoots down Voss in a head-on pass. Jerry lands near Voss' crashed airplane and sees that the dead Voss is a young man. Stevens' death and the killing of the young German are the last straw for Jerry, who kills himself in his and Crocker's quarters after attending a drinking party in honor of his killing Voss. Crocker finds Jerry dead later that night, and hides the fact that Jerry is dead from the Colonel, who visits to check on Jerry. To preserve his friend's reputation, Crocker loads Jerry's body into an aircraft early the next morning and flies toward the front lines, where Crocker stages things to make it appear that Jerry died in aerial combat. The movie ends showing Jerry's heroic epitaph.

Cast

as Lt. Jerry H. Young *

as Lt. Henry Crocker * Carole Lombard as The Beautiful Lady *

as Lt. Mike "Slug" Richards *

as Major Dunham *

Forrester Harvey Forrester Harvey (27 June 1884 – 14 December 1945) was an Irish film actor. From 1922 until his death year Harvey appeared in more than 115 films. He was credited for about two-thirds of his film appearances, but some of his roles were un ...

as Hogan * Kenneth Howell as Lt. John Stevens *

Leyland Hodgson Leyland Hodgson (5 October 1892 – 16 March 1949), also known as Leland Hodgson, was an English-born American character actor of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in London on 5 October 1892, Hodgson entered the theater in 1898. In his early 20s, Ho ...

as Lt. Kingsford *

Virginia Hammond Virginia Hammond (August 20, 1893 – April 6, 1972) was an American film and theatre actress. Born in Staunton, Virginia. Hammond was the daughter of a Confederate army major. Hammond began her career in 1907, where she made her theatre debu ...

as Lady Erskine * Douglas Scott as Tommy Erskine * Robert Seiter as Arnold Voss * Adrienne D'Ambricourt as Fifi, also known as Fanny * Russell Scott as Flight sergeant *Craufurd Kent as General *Paul Cremonesi as French general *Jacques Jou-Jerville as French general's aide *

Yorke Sherwood Yorke Sherwood (14 December 1873 – 27 September 1956) was an English actor. Life He was born Herbert Edmund Sherwood in Manchester on 14 December 1873. He moved to California in the 1920s and had multiple supporting roles in Mack Sennett ...

as taxi driver Cast notes: *Both Cary Grant and Carole Lombard appeared in ''The Eagle and the Hawk'' before their careers took off and they became major stars, and they both played against (what would become their) type: i.e. Grant would become known as the smart, sophisticated and stylish romantic hero and Lombard as the beautiful screwball comic heroine. *Jack Oakie provides the film's comic relief.

Production

The working title for the film was "Fly On".

Gary Cooper Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, ...

was set to play the role played in the released film by Cary Grant, and principal photography was delayed in order to allow Cooper to work on another film. George Raft was also considered for the role played by Frederic March. Although a small number of aerial scenes were called for and noted aerial cinematographer

Elmer Dyer Elmer Dyer, A.S.C. (August 24, 1892 – February 8, 1970) was an American cinematographer, the first film cameraman to specialize in aerial photography. Dyer was born in Lawrence, Kansas and died in Hollywood. During World War II Dyer was as ...

was contracted, many of the sequences were clips from two other Paramount productions, ''

Wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expre ...

'' (1927) and ''

Young Eagles The Young Eagles is a program created by the US Experimental Aircraft Association designed to give children between the ages of 8 to 17 an opportunity to experience flight in a general aviation airplane while educating them about aviation. The pr ...

'' (1930), as well as Warner Brothers' '' The Dawn Patrol'' (1930).Orris 2013, p. 79. Assistant director Michael Leisen, himself a pilot, handled most of the aerial filming, and although uncredited, was responsible for the authentic look of the film. The flying that was filmed specifically for the film was done by the Associated Motion Picture Pilots, colloquially known as the "Suicide Squadron". Other re-used footage was a crash scene which came from '' Lilac Time'' (Warners, 1928). The period-accurate aircraft assembled for the film included five Thomas-Morse Scouts, four

Nieuport 28 The Nieuport 28 C.1, a French biplane fighter aircraft flown during World War I, was built by Nieuport and designed by Gustave Delage. Owing its lineage to the successful line of sesquiplane fighters that included the Nieuport 17, the Nieu ...

s, two de Havilland DH-4s, a

Curtiss JN-4 The Curtiss JN "Jenny" was a series of biplanes built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft for th ...

and assorted post-World War I types used as "set dressing". The aircraft were all leased from the Garland Lincoln Flying Services, a company that provided aviation equipment for film productions. During filming, an explosion which went off before it was meant to trapped Grant and March under fallen beams. Grant held up one of the beams, allowing March to disengage himself, but Grant suffered some internal injuries.

was given co-director credit for the film's 1939 re-release. Leisen claimed that he did most of the directing on the film, and that Stuart Walker acted as more of an assistant director, but Walker's contract with Paramount guaranteed him full directorial credit, while Leisen had no contract with the studio. For the re-release of the film in 1939, some scenes were cut to comply with the

Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...

Reception

''The Eagle and the Hawk'' was well received and critical reaction was extremely positive, characterizing the film as "... one of the better World War I dramas produced during the 1930s." 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 d ...

'', described the film as "... a vivid and impressive account of the effect of battles in the clouds upon an American ace. It is, fortunately, devoid of the stereotyped ideas which have weakened most of such narratives. Here is a drama told with a praiseworthy sense of realism, and the leading rôle is portrayed very efficiently by Fredric March." Hall, Mordaunt (May 13, 1933
"The Eagle and the Hawk (1933); Fredric March, Jack Oakie and Sir Guy Standing in a drama of World War air-fighting"
''

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 d ...

References

Informational notes Citations Bibliography * Diggens, Barry (2003) ''September Evening: The Life and Final Combat of the German Ace Werner Voss''. London: Grub Street. . * Orriss, Bruce W. (2013) ''When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War I.'' Los Angeles: Aero Associates. . * Wynne, H. Hugh (1987) ''The Motion Picture Stunt Pilots and Hollywood's Classic Aviation Movies''. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co.. .

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eagle And The Hawk, The (1933 film) 1933 films 1933 war films American aviation films American black-and-white films Films directed by Stuart Walker Films set in London Paramount Pictures films Western Front (World War I) films World War I aviation films American war films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films