This week’s mystery movie was the 1930 version of the First National picture “Dawn Patrol,” which was renamed “Flight Commander” when Warner Bros. sold the film to TV to prevent confusion with the 1938 remake starring Errol Flynn. according to the intro by TCM host Robert Osborne.

The movie was based on a story by John Monk Saunders (later novelized by Guy Fowler) and directed by Howard Hawks, with adaptation and dialogue by Dan Totheroh, Howard Hawks and Seton Miller. Photography was by Ernest Haller, aerial photography by Elmer Dyer, edited by Ray Curtiss, art director Jack Okey, the aeronautic supervisor was Leo Nomis, general music director was Erno Rapee, special technical effects by Fred Jackman and the Vitaphone Orchestra was directed by Leo F. Forbstein.

The film’s credits list Richard Barthlemess, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Neil Hamilton, Clyde Cook, James Finlayson, Gardner James, William Janney and Edmund Breon.
Here’s a link to Mary Mallory’s post about Dick Grace, Hollywood’s Sky Pilot that discusses many early aviation films.  Mary passes along the names of the pilots in his “Squadron of Death.” Hallock Rouse, Ross Cooke, Clement Phillips, Charles Snoffer, Frank Baker, B. M. Spencer, Lonnie Hay and E. D. Baxter

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This week’s movie has been the 1946 Columbia picture “Johnny O’Clock,” starring Dick Powell and Evelyn Keyes. The movie was directed by Robert Rossen, with Lee J. Cobb, Ellen Drew, Nina Foch, S. Thomas Gomez, John Kellogg, Jim Bannon, Mabel Paige and Phil Brown. The screenplay is by Rossen from a story by Milton Holmes. It was photographed by Burnett Guffey, with art direction by Stephen Goosson and Cary Odell, with set decorations by James Crowe.

It is available in the Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics IV collection from TCM, with “So Dark the Night,” “Walk a Crooked Mile,” “Between Midnight and Dawn” and “Walk East on Beacon.”

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For Monday, we have a mystery lad.

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This week’s mystery movie has been First National Pictures’ 1931 film “Safe in Hell.” It was directed by William A. Wellman. Curiously, the credits come at the end of the film.  It starred Dorothy Mackaill, Donald Cook, Ralf Harole, John Wray, Ivan Simpson, Victor Varconi, Morgan Wallace, Nina Mae McKinney, Charles Middleton, Clarence Muse, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Noble Johnson and Cecil Cunningham. It was based on the play by Houston Branch, with adaptation and dialogue by Joseph Jackson and Maude Fulton. Photography was by Sid Hickox.

Interestingly enough, “Safe in Hell” was also sketched out as a four-act opera, according to a catalog of Branch’s archives. A pre-code opera? Why not.

“Safe in Hell” is no longer listed at Warner Archive, but a Warner Archive version can be found at TCM for $17.99 or $14.99 from Amazon.

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1945 Ealing Studios film “Dead of Night,” a supernatural thriller consisting of five separate stories and a sixth story that ties them together. Robert Osborne mentioned it recently in introducing “Went the Day Well?” and fortunately I had a copy in the archives thanks to my binge recording of (almost) everything on TCM before 1960.

The film opened in Los Angeles at the Four Star Theater in August 1946.

The Times’ Edwin Schallert said:

The picture will prove intriguing for those who are willing to “reach” for its purport and plot. However, it will perhaps have only an indifferent appeal for most audiences, unless they are caught by what might be termed its uniqueness….

In many ways, the feature carries less impact than the fine “March of Time” on atomic power, and the John Nesbitt “Passing Parade” about inventions that were due to hunches or accidents.

“Dead of Night” stars Mervyn Johns, Roland Culver, Frederick Valk, with Mary Merrall, Renee Gadd, Judy Kelly, Antony Baird, Miles Malleson, Robert Wyndham, Sally Ann Howes, Michael Allan, Googie Withers, Ralph Michael, Esme Percy,  Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Peggy Bryan, Michael Redgrave, Hartley Power, Elisabeth Welch, Garry Marsh, Magda Kun and Allan Jeayes.

It was written by John Baines and Angus MacPhail with additional dialogue by T.E.B. Clarke, based on original stories by H.G. Wells, E.F. Benson, John Baines and Angus MacPhail. Music was by Georges Auric.  The film’s segments  were directed by Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer.

“Dead of Night” is available on DVD from Amazon (U.S.) paired with “Queen of Spades”  or in a Region 2 DVD from Amazon UK at a better price.

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This week’s mystery movie was the 1936 MGM picture “Small Town Girl,” starring Janet Gaynor and Robert Taylor. It featured Binnie Barnes, Andy Devine, Lewis Stone, Elizabeth Patterson, Frank Craven and James Stewart. It was directed by William A. Wellman,  with a script by John Lee Mahin, Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Edith Fitzgerald from the book by Ben Ames Williams.

I chose it because I wanted to do a film edited by Blanche Sewell and most of her films are too well known to be a mystery movie.

Portions of the film were shot on the Monterey Peninsula and the crew set up its headquarters at Carmel, according to the Los Angeles Times. It opened in Los Angeles at Loew’s State and Grauman’s Chinese theaters on April 24, 1936, on a bill with “Charlie Chan at the Circus.” Edwin Schallert  of The Timesc alled it one of Gaynor’s best pictures.

MGM’s 1953 remake with Farley Granger and  Jane Powell is available on DVD. The 1936 version is not, as far as I can tell.

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