User Reviews

This is a remarkable low-budget production from a talented cast and crew, with a plot anticipating that of Howard Hawks' ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939) and Henri-Georges Clouzot's THE WAGES OF FEAR (1953). A group of self-exiled pilots have accepted the dangerous job of flying supplies from a central base camp to isolated mines, using antiquated aircraft to power them over the rugged Andes mountains. The men are sequestered by boss Stevens in an austere, womanless compound (virtually a company town, its occupants enslaved by debt), but the potentially volatile situation is held in check through the quiet strength of chief pilot Morris, who watches them fly to ultimate death, one by one. One day, Heflin, who has lost his pilot's license for an infraction that resulted in a death, appears with Bourne, his lovely young wife, the only woman worthy of fantasy to have been seen by the group in years. With difficulty, Morris restrains the tinderbox situation her presence represents, though falls in love with her in the process. When the brash but weak Heflin shows signs of breaking up, Morris shoulders the added responsibility of attempting to keep him alive. In a final effort at redemption, Heflin takes the pitiless Stevens on a terminal flight, ramming his plane into an Andean peak. Morris and Bourne finally escape the confines of the camp.

Thirty three years before he brought a bomb aboard the doomed jetliner in the first "Airport" movie, Van Heflin delivered another fantastic performance in this RKO programmer, only his third film, and already proven to be a sensational actor. He plays an alcoholic pilot, transferred to an airline service in the Andes where other "rejects" have been moved there for one reason or another, usually as a disciplinary measure, basically the Hell's Island for pilots. Married to the beautiful Whitney Bourne, he can't seem to stay sober long enough to meet his obligations, and this puts him in conflict with boss Onslow Stevens and the embittered Chester Morris whose aggressive attitude hides a past that seemingly wronged him.

The other pilots have their share of issues, and includes a veteran Russian fighter pilot (Solly Ward), "pretty boy" Richard Lane, and another drunkard (Paul Guilfoyle) who is obviously as bitter as Heflin is who pretends to be happy. Bourne quickly finds herself resented by cook Rita La Roy, used to being the center of attention, and her marriage goes from strained to unfixable as Heflin falls more into the bottle because of the desolate location and memories of the past which lead to his being sent there. Heflin's few attempts at sobriety are further damaged when his inability to fly leads to another pilot's death, and it is clear that he has no chance of sobering up due to where he has been placed, causing his marriage to be in jeopardy as well.

Even though Chester Morris and Whitney Bourne are top billed, it is obvious from the moment Heflin is introduced that he will walk off with the film. His character is polite and seemingly educated and well spoken, but the darkness within him lingers over him like a nightmarish echo. Ward gets a hysterical line at La Roy's expense, telling her that the one courtesy his late wife gave to him that she hasn't is that his late wife died. After her cold behavior towards Bourne and rather curt demeanor, it is a great way to end the film (a la Marie Dressler's comeback to Jean Harlow in "Dinner at Eight") after the depressing twist the film takes at the end of its short running time.