The Last Flight (1931)

8/10

mmallon412 January 2020

The Last Flight is one of the more unique movies to come out of 1930's Hollywood (possibly in part due to the film being directed by German newcomer to Hollywood, William Dieterle). It didn't hold my attention on first viewing with its surprising plotless structure but the odd nature of the movie made me want to give it another try. The Hemingway like Lost Generation film follows a group of Great War veterans leading a shallow and hopeless existence as they spend their nights drinking and partying in Paris while making no attempt to properly readjust to civilian life ("Well there they go, out to face life, and their whole training was in preparation for death") - A tale which would be repeated throughout cinema with various wars.

The film is entirely driven by the rapport between the characters and the listlessness that covers their lives. Along the way, they met a metaphorical representation of their damaged states in the form of Niki (Helen Chandler). The first scene with this character really confused me on first viewing as it sounds like she's saying she is holding a man's "tea" rather than his "teeth". Why the men would get so excited over this? It's not clear if Nikki is a ditsy dame, constantly inebriated or just nuts. She doesn't mind just standing and holding the teeth of a stranger who wants to go out back and fight and even keeps turtles in a hotel bathroom.

I do love the exquisite Paris nightlife circa 1919 as presented in the film with the suits and the drinks, you really get a sense of the all the good (if pathetic on a deeper level) times they have (even if it's never explained how they fund their drinking adventures). Allow me to express my inner grumpy old man when compared to modern nightlife.

Richard Barthelmess gave some of the most memorable performances of the pre-code era, having the ability to convey the look of a damaged man as seen in the role of Cary Lockwood, the most sensible one of the ecliptic group. Likewise, there's also Frink (Walter Byron) and his sexual misconduct ("He is a member of the wandering hands society and has a grouping good time"), in which the men are shockingly tolerant of his behaviour as they call him out and criticise his actions but never expelling him from the group. Even after an attempted rape on a train the men only tell him to apologise and to never get out of line again.

The Last Flight reuses footage at the beginning from Barthelmess' previous war film, The Dawn Patrol; both are based on stories from John Monk Sanders and make for a great double feature. - The Last Flight is a film for a patient viewer but one which holds many nihilistic rewards.

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8/10

The soul brothers of Jake Barnes

Fred_Rap7 May 2010

A striking, deeply felt version of Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" -- even though it purports to be derived from a novel by John Monk Saunders.

The Lost Generation of disillusioned post-Armistice Yanks is vividly etched in this episodic portrait of four wounded vets in Paris. Refusing to return home to the pity of their loved ones, they decide to remain in Europe, sleeping all day and spending their nights hopping from bistro to bistro in an orgy of self-destructive benders. Along the way they happen upon Nikki, a dizzy American heiress with more than a passing resemblance to Lady Brett Ashley (minus the promiscuity), and she quickly becomes part of their ranks. There's also a sixth wheel, the smug, lecherous Robert Cohn-like newsman Frink, who makes graceless advances toward Nikki.

Richard Barthelmess, John Mack Brown, Elliot Nugent and David Manners, actors who rarely got to work with such superior material, show surprising sensitivity and conviction (especially Manners, released from his insipid juvenile fetters and displaying sharp tragicomic skills). But the film pivots around the beautiful performance by Helen Chandler. The screwball, naively erotic Nikki and the ethereal, bird-like Chandler merge into one, and though the character is rather vague and underdeveloped, the wistful actress turns this to her advantage -- she makes Nikki seem mysterious and dreamy, like the product of a wounded man's delirious vision.

With Walter Byron as Frink; directed by William Dieterle in his American debut.

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7/10

Early Talkie from the Warner Archive,

tim-764-29185616 July 2012

My DVD is a region 2, but I cannot now recall where I bought it from. This is the nearest listing that Amazon run, so...

End of the Great War, Paris - four young U.S. pilots are discharged from hospital, for fairly minor ailments, but they will never will fly again. Thousands of miles from home and all sense of responsibilities abandoned, they just yearn to get 'tight'. Hitting the bright lights and seeking the gaiety takes away the memories and the pain. Whilst out, they encounter the free-spirited Nikki.

She lives off her wealthy mother and so, soon, we are treated to the antics of the young at the time and for the most part, it's light, frothy and often funny nonsense. When I read that it was about wounded servicemen being repatriated, I was sort of expecting a 'The Best Years Of Our Lives' but for the First War. There is very little similarity and you could think, for the worse. The band of new friends then travel by train to Lisbon - and continue as before, until tragedy strikes.

Apparently, this "lost generation" of American expatriates who found themselves in Paris or Madrid in the 1920s, were characters beloved by authors F Scott Fitzgerald (who coined the phrase) and Ernest Hemingway.

To my eyes, it works best as a snapshot of a time and a certain place and for its spritely humour. I'm sure 1930's Depression-hit Hollywood wasn't the place for a serious and possibly maudlin look at War. If ever there was a film that carried the expression "What's the idea?" to the point of repetition, it's this one.

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I'll Take Vanilla

drednm22 September 2007

WOW.... this film is excellent. The best "lost generation" film I've seen... perfectly captures the Hemingway/Fitzgerald feeling of hopelessness after WW I. It also boasts several terrific performances. Richard Barthelmess stars with the fragile Helen Chandler, Johnny Mack Brown, David Manners, Elliott Nugent, and Walter Byron as a group that boozes its way from Paris to Lisbon following the war.

Each has his/her wounds (physical or emotional) as they try to get their balance after the hideous war. Chandler's remark whenever she's confused is "I'll take vanilla." The film is full of wry humor and a deep sadness that is palpable.

Barthelmess is solid as always; Brown and Chandler are nothing short of superb. This is the first American film for German actor/director William Dieterle.

A must see film.

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10/10

Original and heart-breaking film study of lost characters.

robertrdhansen1 September 2000

Although the story is derivative of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises", novelist and screenwriter John Monk Saunders brings his own style and a better plot to this study of the "Lost Generation" wandering Europe during the 1920's.

The male characters desperately cling to drinking and all-night frivolity as a means of forgetting the terror of war, and they meet a similarly lost, though full of life, alcoholic woman played superbly by the under-rated Helen Chandler. Chandler's performance is so effortless that she seems to be playing herself, a woman living an independent, wild life with an unknown reason for also wanting to forget and escape. Watch her scene with Richard Barthelmess as they have a drink at a cafe during a rain shower before visiting a cemetery, and you'll see her longingly trying to imagine a simpler, happier life.

Barthelmess provides another expert performance to the film, as one of the saner, less-hard-drinking characters who half-heartedly tries to escape from the others on several occasions, but is always drawn back because of his love and friendship for the others.

See this film if you can - it's unlike any other.

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6/10

The Longest Cocktail Party

wes-connors24 October 2010

In 1919, following service in The Great War, a quartet of shell-shocked pilots try to heal physical and psychological wounds through the consumption of alcohol, drinking their way from Paris to Lisbon. Hand-burned Richard Barthelmess (as Cary Lockwood), distant David Manners (as Shep Lambert), bombastic John Mack Brown (as Bill Talbot), and sleepy Elliott Nugent (as Francis) are joined in their binge by beautiful and wealthy Helen Chandler (as Nikki), plus aroused reporter Walter Byron (as Frink).

This post-World War I "Lost Generation" story will probably leave more than a few present-day viewers lost.

"The Last Flight" certainly takes patience and understanding. The players, acting in that cusp between silent and sound pictures, seem to be doing what they are doing on purpose - yet, the style, even for early "talkies", is more than a little off-kilter. A lot of alcohol is consumed, but nobody seems to ever get realistically drunk. Stock footage in the opening is okay, but the bullfighting sequence is painful. But, once you warm up to it, the film is interesting and sometimes works in its own way of thinking.

****** The Last Flight (8/19/31) William Dieterle ~ Richard Barthelmess, David Manners, Helen Chandler, Johnny Mack Brown

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10/10

Unique and fascinating study of post-war disillusion.

David-24014 April 2000

I have never seen a 1930's American film like this one! Perhaps this is because it was directed by German director William Dieterle when he was fresh off the boat. Apart from a slightly pontifical doctor musing about the difficulties of war-time flyers adjusting to civilian life near the beginning of the film, this is a subtle, evocative, under-stated and powerful depiction of this mal-adjustment. Following the end of World War One a group of American flyer buddies go on a six months long bender in Paris and Lisbon. They link up with a rich young woman, beautifully played by Helen Chandler, who drinks as hard as they do. They are all a little in love with death and wander from one meaningless adventure to another in pursuit of it. It is here that the film encounters some difficulties - making meaninglessness dramatically interesting is very difficult.

But the actors do an admirable job in suggesting the huge pain under the jovial partying. Richard Barthelmess was one of the greatest screen actors ever, and his talents are well utilised here. Johnny Mack Brown is a revelation as the rougher Bill - who knew this cowboy star was such a fine actor? David Manners is also a surprise, much better here than in "Dracula", he proves to be capable of doing great emotional work. Elliott Nugent as the heavily traumatised Francis is unforgettable, and Walter Byron is fine as an unscrupulous hanger-on.

This is not a perfect film, but it is a brave one, and is absolutely essential to an understanding of the mood after World War One. It is no surprise that the writer was also responsible for "Wings" (1927) - his understanding of the relationships between men in and after wartime is phenomenal. Make sure you see it.

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6/10

the lost generation gets lost in translation

tmcardle-7147411 March 2015

I really wanted The Last Flight to live up to its reputation as a great film. I'm not sure it is even a really good film. The story, said to be a knock-off of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, involves four WWI fliers who suffer from varying forms and degrees of PTSD. They leave for Paris and later Lisbon to "get tight and keep getting tight." One flier (Richard Barthelmess) has injured his hands while his best buddy (David Manners) has a nervous tic from eye surgery. The third flier (Johnny Mack Brown), a former college football star, is so punch drunk that he runs into the street and tries to tackle a horse. A fourth (Elliot Nugent) sleeps in all day and needs a chimed watch to wake him from slumber. They run into a boozy, ditzy heiress (Helen Chandler) with too much money and time on her hands and alternately act chivalrous and nasty towards her. Basically, that's the story -- drinking, drinking and more drinking by some guys who are self-medicating their PTSD. And for a modern film, that would be enough since these men have been prematurely stunted by the war. I'm not sure what the biggest problem is with the movie. The dialogue is way too non sequitur. German director Dieterle went on to better things (Devil and Daniel Webster, Portrait of Jennie). As this is only his first U.S. film perhaps his ear for English failed him and the actors -- or maybe they tried to write too much slang into the script. And then there is the acting -- a total mishmash of uncomplimentary styles. Barthelmess, a silent matinée idol, telegraphs every emotion through broad facial expressions. Manners, a stage actor who came to film because he could talk, declaims his lines as though this is the first opportunity he has been given to act. (And it might have been just that as Manners usually got stuck with the second lead/male ingenue parts.) Nugent needs only to sleepwalk through his part. Johnny Mack Brown, is the most authentic since he, a football hero turned cowboy actor, didn't have to act. Helen Chandler, in real life a bad alcoholic, also registers as authentic. The scenes with Chandler and the foursome drinking is Paris are probably the best parts. The viewer can almost get drunk by osmosis. Melodramatic complications arrive too abruptly near the end of the movie as though the producers told the writers to 'make something happen.' And, as if to drive that point home, Barthelmess' character somehow regains the use of his hands enough to shoot a gun without any pretext. Its lost generation angst filtered through the staccato style of early 30s Warner Brothers -- and it's just plain weird.

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10/10

One of the best forgotten film of the 30's

joeym4288728 March 2004

Richard Barthelmess, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Elliott Nugent, and John Mack Brown star in this excellent psychological war drama directed by William Dieterle about a handful of WWI veterans who do nothing but drink booze and run around Paris with flapper, Nikki (Chandler, in an elegant and moving performance).

What makes this film so special is that it's mood of despair of hopelessness has held up very well over all these years. Plus, the movie's bleak atmosphere and subject matter helps. Sometimes the performances (David Manners) and dialogue comes off as a little dated, but that is to be expected from a movie this old. It is very easy to overlook; and that is really the only bad thing about the movie.

It's a shame that this movie isn't released on DVD or even VHS (thank goodness for TCM). It's a real forgotten gem of early 1930's cinema that hopefully won't remain forgotten for long.

**** out of ****

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6/10

post world war one bit...

ksf-213 June 2021

A group of american world war one soldiers, led by Richard Barthellmess, wander around Paris after the end of the war. In tuxedos, all of a sudden. (where did they get the tuxes?) they crawl from pub to pub, and make friends with Nikki. They all hang out together, with their own ups an downs. Happy, then sad. Then drunk. Pretty downbeat. I know these are some of the biggest hollywood names of the day, but darn, it's a downer. Barthelmess keep aiming his head foreward and low... the director must have liked that look. They train off to lisbon to see the bullfight. It's just okay. Directed by Bill Dieterle. Based on Single Lady by John Saunders.

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3/10

Real tough going here

planktonrules14 July 2007

I noticed that one reviewer gave this film a 10 and I am happy that they enjoyed it but perplexed because I disliked the movie so much. While I understood the central message that these men were all ruined for normal life after fighting in WWI, it was tough watching this group of men drink, laugh at EVERYTHING, drink some more, get into trouble and then drink--all accompanied by lots and lots and lots of talking. In fact, I'd be very hard pressed to find a film with more inane dialog and blather or more tedious to watch. I understood the message that these men were doing and talking so much so they would avoid thinking and feeling, but after a short time I just wanted it all to end. This film was a real chore to stick with and I doubt if anything could induce me to watch it again.

For a much better film about ex-soldiers traipsing about Europe trying to deal with memories of war by drowning it in drinking and adventure, try watching THE SUN ALSO RISES--a much more interesting, better acted and less shrill production.

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10/10

Charming, even fascinating

morrisonhimself15 March 2004

This early talkie was an exciting experience. The script was charming, the performances intriguing. Author John Monk Saunders managed to combine just the right touch of whimsy with the desperation and hopelessness of post-war life. The story was fascinating, a look at what was to become known as "The Lost Generation," or maybe already was so known by 1931. I hope Turner Classic Movies will show this movie again, and I would like to have a recording. A great cast with an excellent script directed by a master made "The Last Flight" a superb motion picture. I was moved and charmed. And I'm grateful for the chance to have seen it.

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4/10

Not since "Top Gun" have I felt so robbed of time and I.Q. points...

AlsExGal17 April 2010

... and I really enjoyed "The Sun Also Rises". This film is scripted as though the writer ate a heavy dinner and fell asleep while reading Hemmingway, with the resulting nightmares being this film. The story is about a group of four pilots released by the service at the end of World War I that, instead of going home, hang around in Europe drinking heavily and wasting their time with a woman even more annoying than the overall experience of watching this movie - Nikki (Helen Chandler). Ms. Chandler seems to be doing a bad imitation of Billie Burke here. While Ms. Burke was always interesting and whimsical in her roles, Nikki is just a simple and rather flippant ditz whose act gets old in a hurry.

Just knowing the background of the film I know where this story is trying to go, but there is no context to let you know these guys are numbing themselves to forget the war and anything that might matter. Instead, you are left with man-child behavior and dialogue that would make Judd Apatow blush. Every time I think any two of the characters are going to finally connect in a meaningful way and have a real conversation, there's a knock on the door - I cringe - and, sure enough, in come those darned wingmen, prattling on and on about nothing. Only at the end is there anything close to a successful attempt to tie everything together in a touching scene between ex-pilot Cary (Richard Barthelmess) and Nikki. My recommendation is to steer clear of this one.

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Masterful Picture of Post War Despair

Kalaman5 June 2004

I came across this unheralded early William Dieterle film a while back and it blew me away. Quite an astonishing film for a 1931. I believe it was Dieterle's first Hollywood outing. It's a "Sun Also Rises"-like story of several ex-WWI American fliers living, relaxing and drinking in Paris and the wacky, free-spirited woman they "adopt" into their group. A truly unusual film--the dialogue is almost entirely in non sequitors which gives it an almost ahead-of-its time feel. The editing and the frenetic energy of it all are spectacular. It offers an accurate and immediate picture of post-war disillusionment of its time, the confused emotional/psychological state of the characters, much the same way Henry King's 1957 "Sun Also Rises" captured 1950s post-WWII mentality.

Dieterle is a talented stylist, and it shows all the way through, using fast-moving and inventive camera work. And it's beautifully photographed in that "German-looking" Expressionism early-1930s style.

The performances are top-notch. Richard Barthelmess is excellent as Cary Lockwood. Helen Chandler is quite distinctive as the leading lady Nikki. And I especially like David Manners in this film. He's one of the forgotten leading men of the 30s. Manners is best known today for his appearances in the Universal horror films, but he made a wide range of films--one of my favorites is his scrupulous secretary in love with a glamorous Kay Francis in Dieterle's other unheralded classic of the early 30s, "Man Wanted."

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9/10

Very romantic drunks

overseer-326 February 2006

Warning: Spoilers

Films about alcoholics are usually not my cup of tea, but The Last Flight is different. These men are all buddies who are shell shocked from World War One, and they are unable emotionally and physically to make the transition from war to peacetime, or to go home to America and try to find humdrum jobs after dramatic lives as wartime air pilots and bombers in Europe. They only have each other.

So they travel together from bar to bar in Paris for months after 1918 and the end of the war, and then move on to Lisbon's bars. Along the way we are treated to strange hotel bedroom scenes with turtles in the bathtub, a scene in a cemetery where two characters discuss the infamous lovers Heloise and Abelard, a bullfight, a carnival, and an unusual train scene. The Last Flight is wacky and fun and has the oddest dialog of any early 1930's sound film. "I'll take vanilla." O...k...

The ensemble cast are all terrific. Richard Barthelmess as Cary, the pilot with the burned hands, David Manners as Shep, whom Cary rescued from their burning plane, and who now has a nervous tic he can only control through drinking, Johnny Mack Brown as Bill, who likes to grab onto horses and bulls, and Elliot Nugent as Francis, who is quietly psychotic, but in a very friendly, dedicated way, of course. Walter Byron plays Frink (read: fink), really very much an outsider to the group, because he seems able to hold his liquor and is judgmental of the other fellows who can't.

And best of all we have Helen Chandler in one of her most endearing 1930's roles as Nikki, kooky, spaced out, prone to tears at the drop of a hat, attractive even though she has that crooked tooth which makes her unable to kiss a man (and notice she doesn't kiss any of the men all through the picture). She falls in with their crowd because she's rich, she likes champagne, she has a closet filled with hundreds of pairs of shoes, and she has nothing else better to do. "I can walk faster in red shoes." :)

I hope TCM airs this film again soon. I keep requesting they do so, but they keep ignoring my requests. Since we are in the midst of a war today the subject matter in this 1931 film would be very contemporary for our boys returning home.

Update: they finally aired it again and it's great to have a good print finally. Way to go, TCM!

Update again: Warner Brothers has released the film on DVD at their Archive web site. It's a nice print with good contrast. Go get it!

9 out of 10.

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10/10

Great Movie About Expatriate American Vets in Post WW1 Europe

gerrythree19 May 2005

I first read about The Last Flight maybe 20 years ago, in a book on movies by Tom Shales of the Washington Post. What I remember about his comments was that The Last Flight flopped at the box office and, as a result, movies of its type fell by the way side. In the Depression year of 1931, only MGM of the major studios turned a profit. Warner Bros. and its producing supervisor, the then-great Darryl Zanuck, did anything they could to attract paying customers, making some movies in two-strip Technicolor, some showing the dark side of life and giving a chance for their actresses to show as much skin as they could get away with. When The Last Flight finally made it to TCM last March 2004, I made sure to record it onto a DVDR. You would not know from looking at the movie it was made at Warner Bros., where the policy once filming started there were to be no script rewrites and few, if any, retakes to cut down on production costs (unlike MGM, whose Culver City studio had the nickname "retake valley"). From the montage at the start, showing through rapid cuts a well staged World War One battle, to the end, the pace almost never slackens. Sometimes, the message is heavy handed, as when the hospital officer physician describes the discharged aviator patients as "spent bullets." For the most part, though, the actions of the characters show the effects of the war trauma on their lives. Disabled veterans trying to make a go of their lives during peacetime is usually not a subject that was big box office except for the period right after World War Two. Richard Barthelmess usually played offbeat roles, in movies that did not score at the box office in the early thirties. By 1934, his relatively expensive Warner Bros. contract was up, and the studio released him.

Now, thanks to TCM, one of his forgotten pictures from the pre-Code era appears briefly from the film vault. Maybe The Last Flight did not do as well as expected at the box-office. This movie has one fine characteristic, it stands the test of time. To me, the movie seems to be a reflection of real people, even if their behavior is a little exaggerated to make a point. The Last Flight shows a world long gone, when the Hollywood dream factory could give the appearance of an effortless portrayal of people on the fringes of society. Whenever TCM shows this movie again, it is a must see.

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9/10

So European for a Hollywood movie

raskimono15 March 2004

German Director had just segued past the shores of The Statue of Liberty from his native Germany when he made this movie, thus its European movie. Some plot-driven cineastes may argue that nothing happens in this movie but that is exactly the point. It is what is potently called a character study in the grand tradition of "new wave". Richard Barthelmess headlines a cast of five friends who after the end of WWI, disillusioned bythe events and their injuries wonder aimlessly, lolling and cajoling in Paris. They run into a female character played by Helen Chandler who is much like them, except she has hope for life. The first act or first hour has the characters chatting away at night clubs, cafes, nightspots and anywhere else delivering some of the wittiest remarks I've ever heard on camera. The relationships though are set up by an opening montage which is pure silent cinema with its MTV-style cutting and reliefing of images in juxtapositionIt sets the tone for the rest of the movie. The dark shades worn by the one of the characters, day or night adds to the phantasm of the whole scenario. A love story emerges between Helen and Richard and not so unexpected tragic occur before the end. Someone, earlier has noted a similarity to Hemingway's "he lost generation" novella, THE SUN ALSO RISES which was made into a fairly staid affair in the fifties with Ava Gardner, but this make no mistake is much better and one of the unknown gems of thirties cinema.

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1/10

Five drunks wander aimlessly in Europe

westerfield29 May 2012

Warning: Spoilers

I just watched this excruciatingly bad film, hoping it would end or at least make some sense. I have to say this is one of the worst I've ever seen, and I've seen Plan 9. To say I was amazed at many of the reviews here would be an understatement. How could such a marvelous cast play so badly, even given the rotten script. I didn't like any of them, much less have sympathy. At least some of them had the good grace to die off. And Bartlemess who couldn't use his hands to lift a drink later can light a cigarette and fire a rifle. Unbelievable! The cast drinks continuously and never sleeps without ill effect. They stay at the best hotels, dine and drink at the best establishments and dress in the best clothes without any apparent source of income. If this were a fantasy I could suspend my disbelief but the film is supposed to portray the result of war on ordinary men.

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10/10

Tribute To The Lost Generation

Ron Oliver10 June 2004

Four former flying aces, scarred both physically & emotionally, make THE LAST FLIGHT through the bars of Paris & Lisbon with an eccentric American girl.

Well-crafted & poignant, this film tells the sad tale of American World War One buddies whose lives are essentially over with the cessation of the conflict. Aimless & drifting, but seemingly very well financed, they stagger from bar to bar, looking for the forgetfulness that comes with drunken oblivion. If not for the noble loyalty they feel for each other their story, and the sundering of their quartet, would be almost unremittingly lugubrious.

Director William Dieterle was given fine service by his cast: silent screen star Richard Barthelmess, leader of the band, as a pilot sensitive about his burned hands; gunner David Manners dealing with a nervous tic in his left eye; country boy Johnny Mack Brown letting high jinks and alcohol define his new existence; and sharpshooter Elliott Nugent, shell-shocked into extreme lethargy.

Helen Chandler is remarkable as the highly unusual young woman who is allowed to become an essential part of the fliers' lives. Her kooky vagueness and affection for pet turtles is most endearing. Walter Byron gives an effective performance as a caustic reporter who tags along with the others for his own motives.

*************************

At one point in the story Mr. Barthelmess & Miss Chandler visit the cemetery of Père-Lachaise in Paris, where he tells her something of the history of the tragic lovers Pierre Abélard (1079-1142) and Héloïse (1098-1164), who lie interred there. Barthelmess mentions the terrible revenge visited upon Abélard by the Canon Fulbert, the uncle of Héloïse, without actually saying what it was. Even with Pre-Code liberality, forced castration was not a subject to be broached lightly.

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5/10

They drink, they party, and what's the point?

sdave759622 November 2010

"The Last Flight" released in 1931 by First National Pictures, is a rather pointless tale of four flying aces (Johnny Mack Brown, Elliot Nugent, David Manners, and Richard Barthelmess) who drift aimlessly through Europe after World War I. They drink a lot, party a lot, apparently to forget the horrors of war, although the story never really explores this in any depth. There is a strange girl (Helen Chandler) who acts and talks as if she was from another planet. For whatever reason, she befriends the men and takes a liking to Richard Barthlemess' character. Some of the acting is far from great, and the dialogue at times is unnatural sounding, although many films of the early talkies suffer from this. I will say one thing about this film; it does have movement, something unusual in these early days of sound, as the recording equipment was cumbersome and difficult to deal with. Other than that, I see little point to this film. I supposed it's to show us the way men bond who are in the military together. Too bad they couldn't do more with that, instead of just showing us four guys and a girl who drink and carry on. Interestingly, both Manners and Chandler would star in another -- and far superior -- film in 1931: "Dracula."

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Incomparable and Unforgettable!!!

kidboots17 August 2011

Warning: Spoilers

With a blend of dark humour, witty dialogue and psychological insights, this unusual "ahead of it's time" film tried to find an insight into the Lost Generation. With debts to Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, it was given it's own style by German director William Dieterle (in his American movie debut) and also with script by John Monk Sanders, taken from his own novel "Single Lady". Sanders was best known at that time for such male dominated movies as "Wings" and "The Dawn Patrol".

The movie starts with some aerial combat scenes showing the camaraderie of four friends - survivors who choose to life a life of European expatriation rather than return to their families and conventional middle class values. They form an alliance with kooky flapper Nikki (Helen Chandler) and she becomes their mascot. Together they live a life of happy desperation, constantly drunk and always enchanted with Nikki's answer to most questions "I'll take vanilla"!!! Nikki is a sophisticated innocent and like the boys, part of the lost generation.

The doctor compares them to "spent bullets, shattered watches" and says they are "cooled off and useless". He is talking to Frink (Walter Byron) an outsider, the "normal" one who has no sympathy with what he sees as the other's inability to snap out of their woes. There is drug addicted Francis (Elliot Nugent) with his alarm clock watch, reckless Bill (Johnny Mack Brown), alcoholic Shep (David Manners) who finds it easier to remain drunk so he won't have to deal with a tic in his eye and Cary (Richard Barthelmess), the leader.

The chums go to Nikki's apartment and are just enchanted at her clothes, her perfume, her shoes ("I can walk faster in red shoes") her baby turtles in the bath!!! She has deeper feelings for Cary and questions why he and his friends do not want to return to normal life. They go to the cemetery where Cary tells her the story of Abelard and Heloise - not all the story, it was too strong even for pre-code audiences. Nikki again puts her foot in it by exclaiming "at least I now have names for my two turtles"!! Cary is not impressed and begins to find Nikki a bit too flippant so decides to go to Portugal. On the train, Frink forces himself on Nikki and there is an even bigger division - no-one really likes Frink.When devil may care John dies after leaping into a bull ring events turn sombre - Frink is killed at a carnival by Francis, who then disappears into the night ("that's the first time I've ever seen him really happy"), Shep then dies from a passing bullet leaving Cary and Nikki to plan a more conventional future together.

The most extraordinary part of "The Last Flight" was the luminous Helen Chandler. I am not particularly familiar with her but with her no sequitor thoughts "I'm drinking teeth"!!!, her stories that began "When I was a little girl..." and her just seeming to inhabit the role, I think I have fallen in love with her!!! This doesn't take anything away from Richard Barthelmess's incisive performance, his soulful eyes have never seemed so effective. It is easy to see why this movie failed to impress audiences battling the depression, with it's downbeat story, the absence of traditional narrative structure and the flippant message of "Get tight and stay tight"!! A month after the movie's release a short lived musical adaptation entitled "Nikki" opened on Broadway with Douglas Montgomery, Fay Wray and Archie Leach (Cary Grant) in the Manners, Chandler and Barthelmess roles.

Highly, Highly Recommended.

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9/10

An early sound masterpiece

atlmkt16 September 2007

Warning: Spoilers

Quite simply a masterpiece. William Dieterle came out of the German Expressionist school & his later noir movies clearly reflect that influence. Here with a story by the great John Monk Saunders ( Wings, The Dawn Patrol)) containing larger & more profound issues to explore than the typical noir plot line he is in an existential mode in dealing with the play of the characters but with a strong expressionist style making for a fascinating movie experience.

Four friends who fought in and were deeply damaged by the Great War carouse through Europe, despair at their heels. They drink, meet a woman, go to a bullfight, roam around Europe. Everything they do reflects the disillusionment at the heart of their existence. Moving, beautiful, sad. The reviewer who said he prefers the somewhat mediocre 'The Sun Also Rises' clearly didn't understand the nature of what he was watching. Superbly acted by all participants Absolutely essential viewing, relevant today as it was then. War destroys people.

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9/10

Wonderful characters in a powerful, touching movie

lge-946-22548719 April 2013

When I first saw this movie, I was quite surprised that I had never even heard of such a masterful work before. It is worth watching again and again.

The story begins just as World War I ends, and it's about a group of pilots from that war. As I see it (perhaps adding some interpretation here), these pals saw enough death, misery and bloodshed in the war to last them a lifetime. In reaction, they attempt to create their own childlike, innocent world, where hate and meanness have no place.

This world consists of just the bunch of them, going to bars, drinking, making facetious banter, joking and talking in non-sequitors. They're a lot like college students, really.

One recurring flippancy is this: whenever one of them has to go to the bathroom, he makes up an outlandish task he's headed for, like "I've got to go see a man about a Chinese horse" or something -- I can't remember a specific one right now.

Helen Chandler fits in well with the group and their innocent world. As another reviewer has said, she seems fragile herself, and she gets right into the spirit of their banter. Her memorable joke is: whenever somebody starts reciting a long list of ANYTHING, she always says, "I'll take vanilla" (as if they were reciting ice-cream flavors, you see).

But this innocent, harmless world can't last. The mean, dirty real world keeps breaking in. There's an outsider, who lusts after Helen Chandler and attaches himself parasitically to the group. He eventually causes them great trouble. Also, one of the group gets gored to death by a bull.

One way or another, the real world breaks up this happy group. Yet at the end there's hope for a better world for at least some of the group.

(I was greatly taken with Johnny Mack Brown in this movie, as in some others I have seen. He's not just a cowboy star, but a fine actor.)

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8/10

Flawed but Fascinating

laddie527 April 2008

Though it pretty much deserves its reputation as a lost classic, The Last Flight is essentially a blatant ripoff of The Sun Also Rises. That's forgivable, but where Hemingway's depiction of despair cloaked in banter and monosyllables is delicate and evocative, John Monk Saunders tends to hit the same notes with a ball-peen hammer. Another problem is that much of the time the early-talkie cast simply recites the script's non-sequiturs and absurdities with singsong cheer and no clue that there's supposed to be a subtext. And if Helen Chandler gives a haunting performance, it seems less about acting than her own inner demons and premonitions of tragedy.

And yet... maybe because it was filmed only three or four years after the novel was published, the acrid Hemingway flavor comes through anyway. When they finally did make a movie of The Sun Also Rises, with a superb and faithful script by Peter Vietrel, it was let down by glossy production values and a menopausal big-star cast. This is how it should have looked: gritty and seedy, with dirt on the barroom floors. Flawed as it is, this movie (and A Farewell to Arms, filmed at the same time) does manage to put across Hemingway's vision of people connecting, brokenly and sardonically, in a world where no other hope has survived.

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4/10

Sub-Hemingway

marcslope5 August 2014

I think they meant for this to be a meaningful rumination on the useless postwar wounded, with Barthelmess, David Manners, Johnny Mack Brown, and Elliott Nugent as damaged flyers living useless existences in Paris and Lisbon. All four flit around Helen Chandler, a flighty heiress who talks in non sequiturs and has more shoes in her closet than Imelda Marcos. It has the tone of "The Last Time I Saw Paris" or "A Farewell to Arms." But it's shallow. This quartet seems to spend all its time flirting and drinking, and the talk's all small and doesn't go anywhere. Motivations are picked up and dropped; Barthelmess, furious at Chandler for no discernible reason, escapes to Portugal, then, as she follows him, he's suddenly delighted. Barthelmess does have the right kind of gravitas for this kind of part, and I always liked the gentlemanly David Manners, here a brooding playboy whose eye tic ruins his life. But it's very haphazardly put together. Helen Chandler can only end up with one doughboy, so three of the four are dispatched quickly and randomly before the fadeout. All the actors do their best, but they haven't much to play.

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