At a negative cost of one million dollars (and that's in 1931 money), Dirigible still rates as a mighty impressive aerial spectacular. Aside from the obvious use of a hand-cranked camera in some of the location scenes, it is beautifully made by director Frank Capra, no less, from a first-class shooting script by Jo Swerling. Admittedly, Fay Wray is not as attractive;y made up or costumed as she was in her later encounter with King Kong, but nevertheless, some of her close-ups are very appealing. It's also good to see Jack Holt as the number one star. Under Capra's direction, he is far less wooden here than in many of his later 1930's vehicles. He's not the hero, of course. That role is ably undertaken by the now unjustly forgotten but highly personable Ralph Graves. True, this is not a typical Capra outing, but I found it just as interesting and absorbing as his better-known movies.
Review of Dirigible
