User:Bzuk/sandbox

Flying Devils
Directed by	Russell Birdwell
Written by	Louis Stevens (story) Louis Stevens Byron Morgan
Produced by	Merian C. Cooper
Starring	Bruce Cabot Arline Judge Eric Linden Ralph Bellamy
Cinematography	Nicholas Musuraca
Edited by	Arthur Roberts
Music by	Max Steiner
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date	July 14, 1933
Running time	60 or 62 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Flying Devils (a.k.a. The Flying Circus) is a 1933 action film dealing with the aviation film genre. The film was directed by former Hollywood agent, Russell Birdwell and photographed by renowned film noir cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca. The screenplay was written by Byron Morgan and Louis Stevens, based on an original story by Stevens.

In an unusual move, Bruce Cabot was the star with perennial "good guy" Ralph Bellamy playing the villain in a love triangle involving Arline Judge and Eric Linden. Although considered a "B" feature, audiences enjoyed the aerial scenes, which helped elevate the feature to a minor box-office hit.

Plot

The "Black Cats" who are part of the Aerial Circus run by "Speed" Hardy (Ralph Bellamy) are a vagabond troupe of aerial performers in the 1930s. Speed takes on a new performer, Ace Murray (Bruce Cabot), a former airmail pilot. After performing a "double parachute" jump with his brother Bud (Eric Linden), Ace becomes aware that his brother is enamoured with Speed's young wife Ann (Arline Judge).

Bud and Ann perform the dangerous double parachute jump together, becoming the show's main attraction but Speed becomes jealous of the romance forming between Bud and Ann. After a flight together, Bud and Ann crash-land and spend a night in a deserted cabin leading to the realization that Ann must seek a divorce. When Speed discovers them, he apparently agrees to the new circumstances and surprisingly offers to design a new aerial stunt for Bud and himself, that will have two aircraft colliding "head-on" with both of the pilots bailing out before their aircraft collide.

Before the stunt takes place, "Screwy" Edwards (Cliff Edwards) reveals that Speed has deliberately cut his rival's parachute and is planning an aerial murder. Ace takes off and crashes into Speed, sacrificing his life to save his brother. The two lovers reunite on the ground.

Cast

• Bruce Cabot as "Ace" Murray
• Arline Judge as Ann Hardy
• Eric Linden as Bud Murray
• Ralph Bellamy as "Speed" Hardy
• Cliff Edwards as "Screwy" Edwards
• June Brewster as Betty
• Frank LaRue as Al Kern
• Mary Carr as Mrs. Murray

Production

David O Selznick brought in Merian C. Cooper as Executive Producer to get RKO back on its feet and in the black. Cooper is best remembered for masterminding the production of King Kong. It was natural for RKO to feature a slate of air minded pictures once Cooper was in charge.

Flying Devils combines all the features needed for such a "B" level action-ere. The "Speed" Hardy Flying Circus with veterans of World War I having excitement in the air and conflicts on the ground. RKO standbys Bruce Cabot, Ralph Bellamy with Cliff Edwards are the "vets". Arline Judge the wife (Bellamy) and kid brother Eric Linden (Cabot). Faster then you can say "CONTACT", a triangle forms with Bellemy, Judge and Linden with Cabot as referee and Edwards the comedy relief. In between true love plenty of air action with period aircraft.

RKO made many air films under Cooper's aegis and continued to do so after he left. Flying Devils is well worth a look as are other RKO efforts.

Primarily shot in a backlot, Flying Devils overcame some of the limitations of the low-budget film. The aircraft used were a mix of Standard J-1, Stearman C-3R, Travel Airs 4000 and 2000 stalwarts, the typical movie armada of the time.

Principal photography was begun in April 1933, using the RKO set at the Russell Brothers Ranch at Triunfo, with additional filming at .

Reception

In his August 26, 1933 review in The New York Times, Frank Nugent considered Flying Devils as a tried and true formula. "The materials woven into its plot have seen so much service that most audiences will welcome them as old and trusted friends. There are, for example, the eternal triangle, brotherly love, the enaction of the theme, 'greater love hath no man,' &c., and, finally, the always simple expedient of killing off the non-essential characters."

Richard B. Jewell, Professor of American Film at the University of Southern California, wrote in The RKO Story, "... director Russell Birdwell, best known as one of the demon press agents of the era, was able to pump enough zip into the proceedings to please the public; it became a bantam box-office hit."

References

Bibliography

• Jewell, Richard B. The RKO Story. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1982. ISBN 0-517-54656-6.
• Wynne, H. Hugh. The Motion Picture Stunt Pilots and Hollywood's Classic Aviation Movies. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1987. ISBN 0-933126-85-9.

External links

• Bzuk/sandbox at the TCM Movie Database
• Flying Devils at IMDb
• Flying Devilsk at AllMovie

[[:Category:1939 films]] [[:Category:Aviation films]] [[:Category:American disaster films]] [[:Category:Black-and-white films]] [[:Category:1930s drama films]] [[:Category:English-language films]] [[:Category:Films directed by John Farrow]] [[:Category:RKO Pictures films]] [[:Category:Screenplays by Nathanael West]] [[:Category:Screenplays by Dalton Trumbo]]

Ferdinand Zecca (19 February 1864 in Paris – 23 March 1947 in Saint-Mandé) was an early French film director.

Zecca was a cafe entertainer, playing the cornet, before switching to film in his mid-30s. His first film credit, Le Muet mélomane (1899), was the film version of a musical fantasy which he and a colleague named Charlus performed in Parisian cafés at the time.

At the Paris World Fair (Exposition Universelle) in 1900, French film manufacturer, Charles Pathé, hired Zecca to assist him in setting up his pavilion. Zecca did so well that Pathé hired him as assistant to the director of his film factory in Vincennes.

Between 1900 and 1907, Zecca directed or supervised hundreds of Pathé films. After Pathé bought the rights to Star films, Zecca started editing George Melies' films. He also acted, produced, and on occasion wrote films. He co-directed La Vie et la passion de Jésus Christ (1903), which with a length of 44 minutes was one of the first feature-length films about Jesus.

See also

• Histoire d'un crime

External links

• (in French) Les gens d cinéma
• Bzuk/sandbox at Who's Who of Victorian Cinema
• Ferdinand Zecca at IMDb

Category:1864 births Category:1947 deaths Category:French film directors Category:Silent film directors

Ferdinand Zecca (19 February 1864 – 23 March 1947 in Saint-Mandé) was an early French film director. producer, actor and author.

Zecca was a cafe entertainer, playing the cornet, before switching to film in his mid-30s. His first film credit, Le Muet mélomane (1899), was the film version of a musical fantasy which he and a colleague named Charlus performed in Parisian cafés at the time.

At the Paris World Fair (Exposition Universelle) in 1900, French film manufacturer, Charles Pathé, hired Zecca to assist him in setting up his pavilion. Zecca did so well that Pathé hired him as assistant to the director of his film factory in Vincennes.

Between 1900 and 1907, Zecca directed or supervised hundreds of Pathé films. After Pathé bought the rights to Star films, Zecca started editing George Melies' films. He also acted, produced, and on occasion wrote films. He co-directed La Vie et la passion de Jésus Christ (1903), which with a length of 44 minutes was one of the first feature-length films about Jesus.

Louis Ferdinand Zecca is born in in Paris on 19 February 1864. His father is chef-machiniste of a café-concert, his brothers, actors. He himself becomes a stage manager and then an actor. Occasionally, he gives voice to roll records phonograph for Pathé . In the opening stages of the dumb, in 1899 , sometimes oddly enough cinema by sound. He realizes Pathé first sound film, The Silent music , accompanying his projection of his phonograph and for Gaumont , The Mischief of a calf's head .

Ferdinand Zecca definitively turns to Pathé in 1900 . At the Universal Exhibition in Paris , where he maintains a booth for the company, he metCharles Pathé in person, who hired him as director. It became the official director of the new company and combines the various technical roles: writer, designer, cameraman, actor ... His first big success story of a crime . The work contains the first flashback of the cinema: a condemned to death revisits in his last moments the great moments of his life and especially the meeting with his future victim. The copies are going around the world. In 1902 , Zecca began filming The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ that comes to theaters in 1903 . Zecca was promoted to artistic director of Pathé, overseeing the work of new directors ( Gaston Velle , Georges Hatot , Louis Gasnier ). His filmography is consequently difficult to establish because his role was variable on certain films that could have been attributed to him.

Artist prolific and gifted with exceptional intellectual alacrity, attentive to the formal discoveries of early cinema ages Zecca succeeds in areas born of the imagination of Georges Méliès  : the reconstructed events ( Assassination of President McKinley ), movies to stuff ( the Impossible Swimming ) and magic ( the sleeping Beauty , the puss in Boots ). It will also carry out its own Dreyfus Affair , after that of Méliès. It also addresses the social drama ( the black country , Strike ). Like many other filmmakers of the time, he borrows movies from the competition, so he draws many ideas among British directors of the School Brighton . It includes the fundamental contribution of these filmmakers and resumes shamelessly topics addressed by George Albert Smith . He shows sometimes a real creative sensitivity 2 , but in general his approach is less artistic than commercial multiply genres and draw or plagiarize, his contemporaries notably aim to occupy the land business.The object is achieved since 1908 , Pathé Frères is a multinational company worldwide, which dominates the film production.

In 1914 , he was commissioned in the United States to care for the American branch of import and export of Pathé, Pathé Exchange . He returned in 1917 to lead the department Pathé-Baby , dedicated to the projection equipment and films for sale to the general public. The popularity of Ferdinand Zecca is that his name is associated with many thousands of reels that have been projected worldwide during this time of film before the War of 14-18 . His career is closely interwoven with the rise of Pathé.

Filmography

as director

1899: Les Mésaventures d'un muet mélomane (Le Muet mélomane) 1899: Les Méfaits d'une tête de veau 1901: Une tempête dans une chambre à coucher 1901: Une idylle sous un tunnel 1901: Un duel abracadabrant 1901: Un drame au fond de la mer 1901: La Soupière merveilleuse 1901: Les Sept Châteaux du diable 1901: Rêve et Réalité 1901: Plongeur fantastique 1901: Par le trou de serrure 1901: La Mégère récalcitrante 1901: Le Mauvais Riche 1901: La Loupe de grand-maman 1901: L'Illusionniste mondain 1901: Histoire d'un crime 1901: L'Enfant Prodigue 1901: Comment on met son couvert 1901: Comment Fabien devient architecte;; 1901: Scènes vues de mon balcon (Ce que je vois de mon sixième) 1901: À la conquête de l'air 1901: L'Agent plongeur 1901: Une discussion politique 1901: Quo Vadis? 1902: Les Victimes de l'alcoolisme 1902: Une séance de cinématographe 1902: La Fée des roches noires 1902: Le Conférencier distrait 1902: Chez le photographe 1902: La Catastrophe de la Martinique 1902: La Belle au bois dormant (coréalisation de Lucien Nonguet) 1902: Baignade impossible 1902: L'Assommoir 1902: L'Affaire Dreyfus 1902: La Poule merveilleuse 1902: Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs 1902: L'Assassinat du duc de Guise 1903: Samson et Dalila 1903: Repas infernal 1903: La Soubrette ingénieuse 1903: Le Chien et la Pipe 1903: Le Premier Cigare du collégien 1903: Le Démon du jeu ou la Vie d'un joueur (La Vie d'un joueur) 1903: Les Aventures de Don Quichotte (Don Quichotte) (coréalisation de Lucien Nonguet) 1903: Le Chat botté (coréalisation de Lucien Nonguet) 1904: The Wrong Door 1904: Le Portrait 1904: Les Petits Coupeurs de bois vert 1904: Le Pêcheur de perles 1904: Annie's Love Story 1904: La Grève 1905: La Passion de Notre-Seigneur Jésus Christ (La Vie et la Passion de Jésus Christ) 1905: Un drame à Venise 1905: L'Amant de la lune (Rêve à la lune) (coréalisation de Gaston Velle) 1905: Le Remords 1905: La Course aux tonneaux 1905: Automobile et Cul-de-jatte 1905: Au pays noir 1905: Au bagne 1905: L'alcool engendre la tuberculose 1905: L'Incendiaire 1905: Dix femmes pour un mari (coréalisation de Georges Hatot et Lucien Nonguet) 1905: L'Honneur d'un père 1905: Vendetta 1905: Les Apaches de Paris 1905: Brigandage moderne 1907: Le Spectre rouge (coréalisation de Segundo de Chomón) 1907: Le Poil à gratter 1907: Métempsycose 1907: L'Homme Protée 1907: La Course des sergents de ville 1908: Samson (coréalisation d'Henri Andréani) 1908: Le Rêve d'agent 1908: L'Affaire Dreyfus 1909: Le Caprice du vainqueur 1910: La Tragique Aventure de Robert le Taciturne, duc d'Aquitaine 1910: Slippery Jim 1910: Cléopâtre (coréalisation d'Henri Andréani) 1910: 1812, (coréalisation de Camille de Morlhon)

All films below are co-directed by René Leprincee

1912: La Fièvre de l'or 1913: Le Roi de l'air 1913: La Leçon du gouffre 1913: La Comtesse noire 1913: Cœur de femme 1913: Plus fort que la haine (film, 1913) 1914: La Danse héroïque 1914: La Lutte pour la vie 1914: La Jolie Bretonne 1914: L'Étoile du génie 1915: Le Vieux Cabotin 1915: Le Noël d'un vagabond 1919: Les Larmes du pardon 1919: Le Calvaire d'une reine

As producer

1901: Scènes vues de mon balcon (Ce que je vois de mon sixième) 1901: À la conquête de l'air 1903: Le Démon du jeu ou La vie d'un joueur (La Vie d'un joueur) 1906: Pauvre Mère 1906: La Grève des bonnes 1907: Cendrillon, ou la Pantoufle merveilleuse (Cendrillon) d'Albert Capellani 1907: Les Débuts d'un patineur 1908: Don Juan 1912: Boireau, roi de la boxe 1913: Les Incohérences de Boireau 1913: Boireau empoisonneur 1913: Boireau spadassin

as actor 1899: Les Mésaventures d'une tête mélomane (Le Muet mélomane) 1901: Une idylle sous un tunnel 1901: Histoire d'un crime 1901: Comment on met son couvert 1901: À la conquête de l'air 1902: Une séance de cinématographe 1902: Chez le photographe 1902: La Poule merveilleuse 1905: L'Amant de la lune (Rêve à la lune): Le pochard 1905: Automobile et cul-de-jatte 1905: Créations renversantes 1912: Rigadin aux Balkans

as writer 1901: Histoire d'un crime 1902: Les Victimes de l'alcoolisme 1903: Le Démon du jeu ou La vie d'un joueur (La Vie d'un joueur) 1905: L'Amant de la lune (Rêve à la lune) 1906: Le Théâtre de Bob 1910: La Tragique aventure de Robert le Taciturne, duc d'Aquitaine 1915: Le Malheur qui passe==See also==*Histoire d'un crime

External links

• (in French) Les gens d cinéma
• Bzuk/sandbox at Who's Who of Victorian Cinema
• Ferdinand Zecca at IMDb

Category:1864 births Category:1947 deaths Category:French film directors Category:Silent film directors