Dirigible (1931)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Frank Capra

Writers:

Frank Wead (story) and
Dorothy Howell (continuity)

Release Date:

8 April 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure

Plot:

A French explorer enlists the help of the US Navy in an expedition to the South Pole. There is competition...

Plot Keywords:

Dirigible | Blimp | Actor Shares First Name With Character

Cast

Jack Holt	...	Cmdr. Jack Bradon
Ralph Graves	...	Lt. 'Frisky' Pierce
Fay Wray	...	Helen Pierce
Hobart Bosworth	...	Louis Rondelle
Roscoe Karns	...	Sock McGuire
Harold Goodwin	...	Hansen
Clarence Muse	...	Clarence
Emmett Corrigan	...	Rear Adm. John S. Martin (as Emmet Corrigan)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate not issued at release)

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Originally planned by Paramount as a sensational follow-up to Wings (1927), but they couldn't get the production off the ground. The story was sold to Columbia Pictures, and its final "lighter than air" plot reached theaters in 1931.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Lady with the Torch (1999)

Historically valuable

Aside from featuring Fay Wray BEFORE she became famous in King Kong, the movie has value as historical record, because of the scenes of the U.S. Navy's dirigible, LOS ANGELES. The LOS ANGELES served a dual role in the film, first as the fictional PENSACOLA, destroyed in a storm at sea, and then as her real self. The loss of the PENSACOLA is prescient in a way, because her successors, the very real AKRON and MACON, which had yet to enter service when the movie was made, were subsequently both lost at sea in storms, bringing an end to rigid airships in the U.S. Navy. A predecessor, the SHENANDOAH was lost in 1928 in a storm over Ohio.

When this movie was made, only the LOS ANGELES was in service. The movie shows excellent closeup film of the ship mooring at Lakehurst N.J. as well as her experimental trapeze which allowed an aircraft to moor to the ship while in flight. This feature was incorporated in AKRON and MACON, along with a hanger to stow the planes aboard. These two, the biggest in USN service at 800 feet could each carry 3-4 planes. The planes could be "captured" on the trapeze, brought inside and then launched from their trapeze. An amazing sight to see!