The Last Flight

Director: William Dieterle William Dieterle

Overview

Curiously reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway's Sun Also Rises, The Last Flight dramatizes the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. Four Yankee army buddies (Richard Barthelmess, Johnny Mack Brown, David Manners and Elliot Nugent) are invalided out of service during World War One, victims of profound physical and emotional injuries. Disillusioned by their wartime experiences, the foursome head to Paris, there to spend their waking hours getting drunk. They meet an enigmatic young American woman named Nikki (Helen Chandler), a kindred spirit who becomes their constant companion. Because of their reluctance to invest their true emotions in anything, an unspoken agreement between the five lost souls precludes sex with Nikki, but this does not stop a mutual friend (Arthur Byron) from clumsily trying to seduce the girl. In search of excitement, Nikki and the boys head for Portugal, where on impulse one of the men jumps in the ring during a bullfight. He is mortally wounded, and when asked why he exposed himself to certain death, he replies "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Gradually the friends' ranks diminish due to misadventure and sudden death, until only Richard Barthelmess is left. He meets Nikki on a train bound for Lisbon, where the two melancholy expatriates finally declare their love for each other.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/02/2010
UPC:	0883316232415
Original Release:	1931
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[Full Frame]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:16:00
Sales rank:	45,932

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Richard Barthelmess	Cary Lockwood
Helen Chandler	Nikki
John Mack Brown	Bill Talbot
David Manners	Shep Lambert
Elliott Nugent	Francis
Walter Byron	Frink
Luis Alberni	Spectator at Bullfight

Technical Credits

John Monk Saunders

William Dieterle	Director
John Monk Saunders	Screenwriter
Fred Jackman	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

One of the finest films ever made about the "Lost Generation," The Last Flight is so immersed in that generation that it feels as if Hemingway or Fitzgerald should have had a hand in it. Yet all the giants associated with the era are nowhere to be found; this exceptional film is the work of writer John Monk Saunders and, more surprisingly, director William Dieterle. It's a penetrating, incisive work that manages to be both bleak and nihilistic without becoming pretentious or enervating. While a heavy sense of melancholy hangs over the film, tinged with an undercurrent of despair, Flight never becomes labored. Its characters are souls that are weighted down and, for most of them, on an inexorable march toward destruction, but their unconscious fascination with a Death Wish doesn't force the film to become an ordeal. Instead, one cares deeply about these people, mourns even as they reach their expected ends, and feels triumphant at the implied relative happiness that awaits those who manage to survive the dark nights of their own souls. Dieterle directs with extreme sensitivity and taste; it's far and away his best work and makes one wish he had created more works in a similar vein. The cast is all good, with special mention going to Helen Chandler's Nikki.