Happy Landing (1934) User Reviews

Jacqueline Wells Never Looked Prettier

[boblipton · 5/10 · 16 January 2019]

Robert Bradbury takes a break from directing B westerns to wrangle this chestnut for Paul Malvern. Ray Walker is the son of passenger liner captain Noah Beery. He's in love with Jacqueline Wells (long before she changed her name to Julie Bishop), who's the daughter of Border Patrol colonel William Farnum -- Walker's boss; he's a pilot for the service. The first half of this 61-minute quickie has him going through the usual hijinks, taking his plane larking about with fellow pilot Hyram Hoover and replicating Keaton's losing-his-pants-at-a-dance routine from COLLEGE..

The plot kicks in about halfway through. Some bank robbers hijack Walker's plane at gunpoint, have him fly over the border, knock him out and flee in a car. When he's back at base, he can't satisfactorily explain what happened, and Farnum allows him to resign.

20-year-old Wells never looked prettier, and the stunt flying is well shot by Archie Stout. There are a few plot holes that the more forgiving viewer will accept in the more exciting sequences, but I found the rhythms more suited to a horse opera than an aviation picture. Even so, it's a pleasure to watch Mr. Beery in a more sympathetic role, and Farnum gives a far more naturalistic performance than he usually offered in the early talkies. It's certainly no classic, but it has its moments.

Unfortunately, the take-off took it off the runway.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 1 October 2014]

While the subject matter of this action film would make you think that it should at least be somewhat fast moving, the result is a slow-moving drama that ends up being until the end deadly dull. It is a typical military buddy picture (in this case the border patrol) where the two pals (Ray Walker and Hyram A. Hoover) play pranks on each other so they can each get a chance with the same girl. One such comic attempt has one of them having to borrow a suit two sizes too small because the other one took it upon themselves to have the good suit sent to the cleaners. This results in a fight between the two pals, but no sooner have punches been exchanged then the two are laughing about it.

For serious story, one of the two is accused of aiding some criminals in making an escape to the border, and this ends up with them all on a cruise ship where the thieves threaten to bomb it unless the pilot is left on a raft with a payroll delivery. Jacqueline Welles (later known as Julie Bishop) is the feisty heroine with an overly dramatic father (William Farnum) who happens to be the two friends' supervisor. There's better acting from Noah Beery Sr. as Walker's father, who happens to be the cruise ship's captain.

Action wise, this film is strictly lacking in the key scene where Walker is forced at gunpoint to escort the criminals to 10 miles of the Mexican border. In fact, long scenes without camera edits make it seem eternal. The final sequence on the cruise ship with the villains above threatening to drop bombs gives the film the higher rating which would have been close to zero had it not all of a sudden switched gears. Paul Malvern Productions, an independent producer associated with Monogram, was in and out of business within two years, and if this film is any example, you can see why.

Noah Beery to the rescue!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 4 February 2018]

By the humble standards of Monogram Pictures, "Happy Landing" is not only first class entertainment, but an astonishingly expensive undertaking, making great use of real locations and filling the screen with plenty of action, both humorous and suspenseful.

The breezy screenplay deftly combines comedy and action, while the director not only raises good performances from all his players, particularly from gruff Noaj Beery's captain, and the lovely Julie Bishop as the captain's daughter, but also from the whole cast led by Ray Walker and William Farnum.

The lovely Julie Bishop is in there pitching too.

Director Robert North Bradbury not only handles both action and levity with a sure hand, but keeps the movie moving at an agreeably steady pace from first to last.

Not a bit like a typical Monogram picture at all, this one was very expensively and dare I say it, tastefully made