Word: flyers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...years, crinkle-eyed Texan Cliff Mooers has collected a wide assortment of animals ranging from Alaskan huskies (he was a gold prospector in 1913) to mynah birds, flamingos, monkeys and penguins. After World War I, in which he served as a flyer, Cliff Mooers went into the oil business, made some fortunate strikes and became president of the Shasta Oil Co. That gave him a chance to do something else he wanted to do: he established a deer sanctuary on his Texas ranch where he ran everything from mule deer to rare muntjac barking-deer imported from India...
This is all mixed with a modern girl, the niece of the now-senile Niven, who comes to stay in the house, in 1940 and meets a young flyer. They, too, are in love but manage to hide it from each other until almost too late. The elderly uncle observes all this with disquiet, and divides his time between hearing the voice of the non-dead Lark and advising the girl to get off the dime and marry...
Alexander Korda imported Burgess Meredith to England to play the thoughtful, smiling, pipe-smoking analyst, who, exasperated by his ineffectual, though devoted spouse, falls in love with another woman. So intent is he on curing a young ex-flyer who has tried to kill his own wife, that the psychiatrist is unable to patch up the disintegrating marriage in his own home...
...acting, though, is excellent right down the line. Meredith is only Meredith, but it fits. Dulcie Gray as his wife mixes helplessness with devotion and comes up with the correct martyrdom. But little black-haired Barbara White, who is on screen for ten minutes as the flyer's wife, is on her way to stardom. A mobile face that coordinates magically with her lines enables Miss White to strip everything unessential and distracting from the heart of her role. Kieron Moore stalks sulkily as her moody, proud, and dangerous husband...
...Bribe, dame and dilemma are beautifully embodied (but hardly acted) by Ava Gardner, wife of a derelict U.S. flyer (John Hodiak). When not hung over from bad rum and alleged combat fatigue, Hodiak is busy smuggling airplane engines to Central America with the help of a suave mastermind (Vincent Price) and a broken-down fingerman (Charles Laughton). Fed-Man Taylor finally convinces himself, with some hard-breathing monologuing, that Ava is innocent but deeply implicated. So why not sell out on his job and collect on his love-as well as on Laughton's $12,000 in hush money...