FUGITIVE IN THE SKY (1936)

Reporter Terry Brewer is hanging out at a Los Angeles airport, flirting with Rita, a stewardess, when he recognizes Roger Johnson, a departing passenger on a Transamerica Airlines flight to New York, as a Federal agent named Mike Phelan. Smelling a story, maybe involving the capture of the notorious 'Killer' Madsen, Terry gets a ticket and joins eleven other passengers, including Katie, a woman obsessed with horoscopes; an beauty queen from Apple Creek, Ohio; a quiet elderly lady; a boxer and his manager; a drunkard; and a pilot (Bob) who is also sweet on Rita. At one point when everyone is asleep, we see a passenger stabbed to death in silhouette. When Rita discovers him, Phelan steps forward to take charge, but so does the elderly lady who is actually 'Killer' Madsen. He pulls a gun and, though apparently innocent of the murder, hijacks the plane to Evansville, Illinois, despite the fact that the pilots warn him about a dangerous dust storm that's brewing near there. From here on out, it's one thing after another--Madsen smashes the plane's radio, the pilot and co-pilot both wind up out of commission, Rita has to pilot the plane briefly, the horoscope lady makes a nuisance of herself, and a rocky landing is made in the middle of nowhere during the dust storm. Madsen leaves and is forced to stop at an isolated farmhouse, and soon all the other passengers wind up there as well. Can Terry and the Fed manage to bring Madsen to justice? And if Madsen really didn't kill the passenger, who did?

Because this movie was released in the relatively early days of transcontinental air travel, it begins with a foreword stressing that, despite what we're going to see, air travel is actually fast and safe. Well, it may be if you don't have a couple of murderers on board. This is a typical classic-era Warner Bros. B-picture; as such, it's well-paced, has a short running time, and features a fairly solid group of second-string actors, including Warren Hull as Terry (he doesn't cut the most heroic figure, but he's nicely flippant), Jean Muir as Rita, Gordon Oliver as the co-pilot (who I was rooting for the get the girl, but since he’s third-billed, I knew that wasn't going to happen), John Litel as the federal agent, Howard Phillips as the bad guy, and Nedda Harrigan and Mary Treen in smaller roles. Even if the outcome is predictable, the last 20 minutes are fairly exciting. My favorite line: when the reporter, frustrated when Madsen gets the upper hand in the plane, blurts out, "I'd like to give that guy some action!" the Fed replies, "Who wouldn't?" I wanted to quote Archer here: "Phrasing…" Pictured are Muir, Hull and Oliver. [TCM]