Ceiling Zero (1936)

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writers:

Frank Wead (play)
Frank Wead (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 January 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Romance

Plot:

War veteran pilots Dizzy Davis, Texas Clark and Jake Lee are working in an airline. Dizzy is fooling...

Plot Keywords:

Teacher | Weather | Redhead | Husband Wife Relationship | Italian

Cast

James Cagney	...	Dizzy Davis
Pat O'Brien	...	Jake L. Lee
June Travis	...	Tommy Thomas
Stuart Erwin	...	Texas Clarke
Barton MacLane	...	Al Stone
Henry Wadsworth	...	Tay Lawson
Martha Tibbetts	...	Mary Miller Lee
Isabel Jewell	...	Lou Clarke
Craig Reynolds	...	Joe Allen
Dick Purcell	...	Smiley (as Dick Purcell)
Carlyle Moore Jr.	...	Eddie Payson
Addison Richards	...	Fred Adams
Garry Owen	...	Mike Owens
Edward Gargan	...	Doc Wilson
Robert Light	...	Les Bogan

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:Approved | France:U (re-release)

Company:

Cosmopolitan Productions

Trivia:

The play premiered at the Music Box Theatre on 10 April 1935 and ran for 104 performances. John Litel and Osgood Perkins played the parts portrayed by James Cagney and Pat O'Brien in the film.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Ceiling Hero (1940)

Soundtrack:

I Can't Give You Anything but Love

The Flawed Aviator

Mail pilot Dizzy Davis (James Cagney) is a daredevil and a womanizer like a textbook example. After he dropped a scheduled flight because of a rendezvous, his friend and colleague Texas Clarke (Stuart Erwin) stands in for him. Due to bad sight, the plane meets with an accident while landing, and Texas dies. Dizzy puts the blame on himself. To fix up that fatal error, he starts a bad weather kamikaze flight.

Hawks' preliminary study to "Only Angels Have Wings" is an absorbing aviator film which does not surprise very much though. A troup of airmen, intrepidly looking in death's eye, between the flight sequences, it's a drama of interiors. Duty and honor, lust and loyalty of professionals, a question of fast-paced flow of words and swifter movements. Hawks' (typical) flawed hero, played by the master of nimble gestures, James Cagney, is small and every handling an expression of his being. Although he flirts with June Travis and tries to impose his room keys on her, his love applies to his understanding chief and friend, the plagued Pat O'Brien.

Unfortunately, all this comes along as pretty conventional (particularly for a Hawks film), but is entertaining nonetheless with a great James Cagney in the lead.