Steve Black, Antique Airfield's master of classic aviation movies, is pleased to announce the schedule of titles he will be showing at the AAA-APM Fly-In this year. It's a great lineup which covers a wide range of aviation history - from 1920s barnstorming, to airliners, air shows, and a salute to the 100th anniversary of Naval Aviation. As a special bonus in keeping with this year's "theme" aircraft, Steve will also be showing a vintage B&W newsreel of the original Monocoupe factory before Friday night's feature movie (you can also catch this film showing everyday at the APM Library).
Join us at the APM RUNWAY CINEMA for classic aviation movies shown outdoors under the stars!
Wednesday August 31
The place is rural Kansas, and the time is midsummer in the early 1920s, not long after the Great War.
Unable to sit still after the death of his wife, former war pilot Ace Eli and his 11 year old son Rodger set off to "see the world" in their war surplus Standard biplane. To Ace Eli, who has the emotional make-up of an 11-year-old, seeing the world means flying all the way to "San Willow". Wherever he lands Ace Eli is a killer with the ladies, always finding a new girlfriend. Rodger spends a lot of his time getting his dad out of scrapes. Missing his deceased Mom, Rodger soon learns to drink and smoke while waiting for Dad to return to camp from his nightly trips to town. Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies is an adventure-comedy film that provides an unglorified look into the life of the gypsy barnstormer. The film's scenes that take place in the town of "Monument" were actually filmed in Mount Hope, Kansas.
Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies is based on a story written by a young Steven Spielberg, whose lifelong interest in early aviation provided the spark. Spielberg expected to be the screenwriter and director of the movie. However, the studio executives who bought the story from him left the studio, and the new executive turned the story over to another writer and director, instead of the relatively inexperienced Spielberg.
Thursday September 1
A routine flight turns into a major emergency as passengers and crew succumb to food poisoning - is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane? If that plot sounds vaguely familiar, it's because the 1970s remake called AIRPLANE was based on this classic movie.
Ted Stryker is an ex-World War II squadron leader and fighter pilot who, 10 years after the end of the war, is still haunted by a decision he made that resulted in the death of several of his men. He's been unable to keep a job and when he gets home one day, he finds a note from his wife saying she and their young son Joey are leaving him and flying to Vancouver. He manages to get on board the aircraft before it leaves but when the pilot and co-pilot - along with many passengers, including his son Joey - fall severely ill due to food poisoning, Stryker is the only man on-board with any flying experience, though not in multi-engine aircraft. He has to overcome his fears if he is to save the life of his loved ones and the rest of the passengers and crew.
Friday September 2
In the early 1930's, WWI flying ace Roger Schumann (Robert Stack) is reduced to eking out a living as a barnstorming pilot on the airshow circuit. His family are forced to live like dogs while Shumann pursues his only true love, the airplane. When Burke Devlin (Rock Hudson), a New Orleans newspaper man, shows up on the scene to do a "whatever happened to" story on Shumann, he is repulsed by the war hero's diminished circumstances and, conversely, finds himself drawn to the pilot's long-suffering wife, Dorothy Malone. Jack Carson is on hand as Stack's chief mechanic, whose anger over the pilot's abusive treatment of Malone explodes into tragedy.
Trivia: During the location shooting in San Diego of this film, Robert Stack's wife was about to have their first child. While filming the tense scene where Stack propositions his own wife, suddenly a plane flew right by the cameras with letters tailing four feet tall proclaiming IT'S A GIRL! Rock Hudson had arranged to have the hospital call immediately when the news came and hired a stunt pilot to tow the message behind the plane. Stack was deeply moved by Hudson's generosity, saying in his autobiography, "It's a moment I've never forgotten. Anybody who tells me that Rock Hudson isn't a first-class gent had better put up his dukes."
Saturday September 3
Dive Bomber might be the prettiest aviation movie ever made. Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, and Ralph Bellamy top the cast, but the real star is Technicolor--in particular, a special Monopack developed to take the color process airborne without the cumbrous three-strip cameras used in the studios. The onscreen results are often breathtaking, as the real stars of the film are the brightly colored pre-World War II navy aircraft featured in full color. The movie earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Color Cinematography.
This exciting action movie was released right before Pearl Harbor. Errol Flynn portrays a flight medical researcher and Fred MacMurray plays a squadron commander, flyboys who put differences aside and risk all to confront the problems of G-forces and high-altitude sickness.
Here’s a list of the airplanes you will see in this movie:
- Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber.
- Vought SB2U Vindicator dive bomber.
- Brewster F2A Buffalo single-seat fighter; several seen briefly on a carrier deck. Later a flight of three takes off from San Diego NAS.
- Curtiss SBC Helldiver two-seat biplane scout bomber.
- Northrop BT-1 torpedo bomber; only three that I could see, but shown prominently in two scenes, one central to the ending ceremony.
- N3N Canary biplane trainer. Errol Flynn’s first training scene shows use of a hand-cranked inertia starter.
- North American SNJ Texan trainer; mostly parked in the background.
- Grumman F3F biplane fighter.
- Link Trainer ANT-18 flight simulator; not a plane, but interesting. Check out the Link Trainer in the APM Museum!
- Curtiss SOC Seagull scout-observation biplane, surprisingly pretty in its wheeled version; we see one parked after Flynn tests a pressure belt.
- Ryan STA sport monoplane; good landing and takeoff scenes. Disguised as a fictional "RAF fighter."
- Consolidated PBY Catalina twin-engined amphibian; a picturesque row of five parked in the sunset.
- Lockheed Model 10 Electra twin-engined transport.
- Consolidated PB2Y Coronado four-engined flying boat patrol bomber; briefly seen high up in the finale’s aerial montage.
