Central Airport

Central Airport (1933)

A Man's Courage and a Woman's Faith Put to the Supreme Test

Aviator Jim Blaine and his brother Neil are rivals not only as daredevil flyers, but also for the love of parachutist Jill Collins.

Date of release
1933-04-15
TMDB
6.0 / 10 (13)
Runtime
1h 12m
Genres
Drama
Director
William A. Wellman

Casting

Interesting facts

Central Airport is a 1933 American pre-Code aviation drama film directed by William A. Wellman, with uncredited fill-in direction by Alfred E. Green, and written by Rian James and James Seymour based on the John C. "Jack" Moffitt story, "Hawk's Mate". The film stars Richard Barthelmess, Sally Eilers and Tom Brown. Central Airport was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, which released it on April 15, 1933.

Production

The film's working title was Grand Central Airport. It was shot over a 30 day period at the cost of $365,000. When director William Wellman was sick with the flu, Alfred E. Green substituted for him. Actor Milton Kibbee, the lesser-known brother of actor Guy Kibbee made his film debut in this picture.

An air crash scene was dropped from the film after it was found to be harmful to the travel industry by the aviation board of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

Location shooting on Central Airport took place at Wilson Airport and United Airport, Burbank, California. The film showcased a number of contemporary aircraft, all gathered under the direction of noted Hollywood pilot Paul Mantz. The aircraft included:

four Ford Tri-motor three-engined airliners

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.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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