''Central Airport'' 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 ...

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes airplane, fixed-wing and helicopter, rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as aerostat, lighter- ...

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- ...

directed by William A. Wellman (with Alfred E. Green, uncredited), based on the John C. "Jack" Moffitt story, "Hawk's Mate". The film stars

Richard Barthelmess Richard Semler Barthelmess (May 9, 1895 – August 17, 1963) was an American film actor, principally of the Hollywood silent era. He starred opposite Lillian Gish in D. W. Griffith's ''Broken Blossoms'' (1919) and ''Way Down East'' (1920) and w ...

and

Sally Eilers Dorothea Sally Eilers (December 11, 1908 – January 5, 1978) was an American actress. Early life Eilers was born in New York City to a Jewish-American mother, Paula (or Pauline) Schoenberger, and a German-American father, Hio Peter Eilers ( ...

. ''Central Airport'' was produced and released by Warner Bros., on April 15, 1933.

John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Go ...

had an uncredited part in the film, playing a co-pilot, and this film features his first on-screen death.

Plot

After his aircraft crashes in a thunderstorm, commercial pilot Jim Blaine is blackballed and unable to find a job flying. Depressed, he begins working as a bank teller until he meets beautiful Jill Collins, a

barnstorming Barnstorming was a form of entertainment in which stunt pilots performed tricks individually or in groups that were called flying circuses. Devised to "impress people with the skill of pilots and the sturdiness of planes," it became popular in ...

parachutist Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For ...

working with her daredevil pilot brother. Jim is immediately attracted to Jill, and when her brother is killed in a freak crash, he reveals his past and volunteers to replace her dead sibling in their act. As they tour throughout the Southwest, their affection turns physically intimate. Jim, believes that his risky lifestyle precludes the luxury of a wife and family while Jill wants marriage. When Jim's brother Neil "Bud" joins them, he too is immediately attracted to Jill, but respects his brother's relationship; but after another freak accident puts Jim in the hospital for a prolonged convalescence, Jim returns to find them married and in bed together. Angry and bitter, he becomes a soldier of fortune and loses an eye and a leg flying for the Communist rebels in China and Chile. After a prolonged estrangement, a chastened Jim goes to Cuba to rejoin Bud and Jill but finds his brother's aircraft has gone down in a storm in the Gulf of Mexico. With only a short window of opportunity to save Bud and his passengers, Jim volunteers to go into the storm to save his brother. After finding the downed aircraft and saving all the passengers, he flies back but a heavy fog comes in and Jim cannot see well enough to land. All the cars in the city then line up in an old airfield, and with the help of their headlights and horns, Jim lands safely. Realizing how much Bud loves Jill, Jim leaves town again, but this time on better terms with his brother.

Cast

as James "Jim" Blaine *

as Jill Collins * Tom Brown as Neil "Bud" Blaine * Grant Mitchell as Mr. Blaine * James Murray as Eddie Hughes *

Claire McDowell Claire McDowell ( MacDowell; November 2, 1877 – October 23, 1966) was an American actress of the silent era. She appeared in 350 films between 1908 and 1945. Early years Claire MacDowell was born in New York City on November 2, 1877, the ...

as Mrs. Blaine *

Willard Robertson Willard Robertson (January 1, 1886 – April 5, 1948) was an American actor and writer. He appeared in more than 140 films between 1924 and 1948. He was born in Runnels, Texas, and died in Hollywood, California. Biography Robertson first ...

as Havana Airport Manager * Arthur Vinton as Amarillo Airport Manager *

Louise Beavers Louise Beavers (March 8, 1902 – October 26, 1962) was an American film and television actress. From the 1920s until 1960, she appeared in dozens of films and two hit television shows. She was most often cast in the roles of a maid, servant ...

as Hotel Maid (uncredited) * Harrison Greene as Pomona Air Circus Announcer (uncredited) *

Fred Toones Fred "Snowflake" Toones (January 5, 1906 – February 13, 1962) was an American actor and comedian. He appeared in over 200 films in his career spanning 23 years. Career He appeared in over 200 films between 1928 and 1951. His standard cha ...

as El Paso Craps Shooter (uncredited) *

as co-pilot in aircraft wreck (uncredited) *

Lester Dorr Lester Dorr (born Harry Lester Dorr; May 8, 1893 – August 25, 1980) was an American actor who between 1917 and 1975 appeared in well over 500 productions on stage, in feature films and shorts, and in televised plays and weekly series. Even ...

as hotel desk clerk (uncredited)

Production

Production on ''Central Airport'' took place at

Wilson Airport Wilson Airport is an airport in Nairobi, Kenya. It has flights to many regional airports in Kenya while Nairobi's main airport, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, serves domestic and many international destinations. Location Wilson Airport ...

and United Airport, Burbank, California. The film showcased a number of contemporary aircraft, all gathered under the direction of noted

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

pilot

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 ...

. The aircraft included: *

Alexander Eaglerock The Alexander Eaglerock was a biplane produced in the United States in the 1920s by Alexander Aircraft Company of Colorado Springs, Colorado.Payne, Stephen, ed. ''Canadian Wings'' (Douglas & McIntyre, Ltd., 2006), p.162. It was a fixed-gear thre ...

American Eagle A-101 The American A-1 and A-101 were American two and three-seat biplanes of the 1920s. Design and development The American Eagle A-1 was designed in late 1925 as a training aircraft to replace the World War I biplanes then in use by the Porterfield ...

Fairchild 71 The Fairchild 71 was an American high-wing monoplane passenger and cargo aircraft built by Fairchild Aircraft and later built in Canada by Fairchild Aircraft Ltd. (Canada) for both military and civilian use as a rugged bush plane. Design and d ...

* four

Ford Tri-motor The Ford Trimotor (also called the "Tri-Motor", and nicknamed the "Tin Goose") is an American three-engined transport aircraft. Production started in 1925 by the companies of Henry Ford and ended on June 7, 1933, after 199 had been made. It w ...

three-engined airliners * Pitcairn PA-5 Mailwing *

Stearman C3 Stearman is a surname. Notable people with the name include: * Lloyd Stearman (1898–1975), American aviation pioneer * Richard Stearman (born 1987), English footballer * William Stearman (1813–1846) English cricketer * William L. Stearman (b ...

* two

Travel Air 4000 The Travel Air 2000/3000/4000 (originally, the Model A, Model B and Model BH were open-cockpit biplane aircraft produced in the United States in the late 1920s by the Travel Air Manufacturing Company. During the period from 1924–1929, Tr ...

biplanes A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

Beck 2016, p. 28. Aviation film historian Stephen Pendo in ''From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema'' (1995), considered that ''Central Airport'' "proved to be one of Paul Mantz's most dangerous films." Two crashes punctuated the action and in one of them, Mantz suffered a broken collar bone when he rolled out of a careening aircraft and was struck by the tailwheel. File:BarthelmessCreditCentralAirport1933Trailer.jpg File:EilersCreditCentralAirport1933Trailer.jpg File:MainTitleCentralAirp1933Trailer.JPG

Reception

Mordaunt Hall in his review of ''Central Airport'' for ''

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 ...

'', did not see it more than "... a most obvious affair". The only redeeming aspect was an exciting final scene, "This closing sequence, which takes place in Havana waters, is moderately effective, with scores of automobiles all tooting their horns to direct the aviator lost in the supposedly thick fog. Hall, Mordaunt
"An aviation drama."
''

'' (NYTimes.com), May 4, 1933. Retrieved: June 2, 2019. Aviation film historian Michael Paris in ''Celluloid Wings: The Impact of Movies on Aviation'' (1984), considered ''Central Airport'' as "... the first feature to look seriously at civil aviation ... it does show something of the background of the development of air transport and the workings of a busy commercial airport."Paris 1995, p. 71.

Box office

According to Warner Bros, ''Central Airport'' earned $393,000 domestically and $354,000 foreign.

Preservation

* 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 libra ...

has an archived print of ''Central Airport''."Catalog of Holdings." ''The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress''. Los Angeles: The American Film Institute, 1978, p. 28.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Beck, Simon D. ''The Aircraft-Spotter's Film and Television Companion''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2016. . * Farmer, James H. ''Celluloid Wings: The Impact of Movies on Aviation''. Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: Tab Books Inc., 1984. . * 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

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Stills
at pre-code.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Central Airport 1933 films 1933 drama films American drama films American black-and-white films American aviation films 1930s English-language films Films directed by William A. Wellman Films produced by Hal B. Wallis Warner Bros. films 1930s American films