Flying High

Early musicals, at least those before 42nd Street, were often a bit of an odd bird, either way too static or trying to do a little bit of everything. A good example of the latter is Flying High, which is going to be on TCM tomorrow morning at 10:45 AM.

Bert Lahr plays Rusty Krause. He's an aviation tinkerer, in that I don't think the term aerospace engineer had been invented yet. Instead, he's the sort of guy who worked as a mechanic in a small garage, and in his spare time invented something he calls the "aerocopter", which is probably like a precursor to the helicopter or the sort of autogyro you see in It Happened One Night. Rusty is at an air show, where he hopes to show off the aerocopter, but he needs a pilot, and more importantly, money.

Enter smooth-talking promoter Sport Waddell (Pat O'Brien), the sort of man who's liable to wind up in jail for his smooth talking, as one of his marks remarks. Sport might be willing to help out Rusty, but he too doesn't have the money necessary. He meets a Mr. Smith (Guy Kibbee), who could be an investor, except that he admits he has cash flow issues and can't buy the stock just yet. But meeting Mr. Smith brings Sport in contact with Smith's daughter Eileen (Kathryn Crawford), and Sport falls in love with her.

Meanwhile, working at the aerodrome is waitress Pansy Botts (Charlotte Greenwood). She's without a husband, and has just come into a modest inheritance from her uncle, so she'd even be willing to buy a husband. She's so desperate, in fact, that she's thinking of heading off to a logging camp to marry a cook there.

Sport has to work fast, and offers Pansy a husband in the form of Rusty, who is decidedly unwilling to get married. Sport, for his part, shows Pansy a photo of Clark Gable when mentioning Rusty to her, so imagine the surprise of both of them when they meet and realize they're supposed to marry each other. But they get married in time, and Rusty is able to get a pilot's license, which allows him to fly the autocopter himself -- except that Pansy doesn't want him flying off alone, joining him for the flight.

Along the way, there are several musical numbers, including two big pieces which were choreographed by Busby Berkeley, which is why the camerawork shows Berkeley's style a year and change before 42nd Street. Of course, one number in which the dancers spell out various aviators' names, really requires the camera to be overhead. There's also the pilots' license exam number, in which a doctor (Charles Winninger) examines a bunch of scantily clad women before Rusty shows up.

It's a mish-mash which doesn't always work. A little bit of Bert Lahr goes a long way, and there's a lot of Lahr here. Greenwood is underused, and the climax of the autocopter flight is deliberately unrealistic but also unfunny as a result. Hedda Hopper has a small role as Mrs. Smith.

If I were going to introduce Charlotte Greenwood to people who aren't familiar with her work, I'd probably start with The Gang's All Here; others would probably select one of the other Fox movies or maybe even Oklahoma. If I wanted to introduce one of her pre-Code movies, I'd probably pick something like So Long Letty for its bizarre plot and much greater usage of Greenwood. Flying High would be down the list a ways.