In South America, the daunting mountains and dangerous weather have hampered the operations of Trans-Andean European Air Mail, a 1930s-era airline. Charged with delivering a serum to stem an outbreak of infantile paralysis in Rio de Janeiro, Auguste Pellerin (Robert Montgomery) conquers his fears, but is reprimanded by the airline's stern director, A. Rivière (John Barrymore) for coming in late. Determined to make the night flight program work, Rivière sends pilot Jules Fabian (Clark Gable) and his wireless operator on another dangerous flight. The pair are caught in a torrential rain storm and when Madame Fabian (Helen Hayes) comes to the headquarters, she realizes that her husband is overdue. The two airmen, flying blind over the ocean, run out of fuel and choose to jump, but drown. Rivière refuses to quit and orders a Brazilian pilot (William Gargan) to take the mail to Rio, but the pilot's wife (Myrna Loy) pleads with him not to go. Despite the dangers, the night mail is delivered on time. The pilot despairs that his flight only meant that someone in Paris can get a postcard on Tuesday instead of Thursday, but its real value is proven when the serum is also delivered and a child is saved. The mother weeps for joy at her child's bedside, and the scene dissolves to two parachutes floating on the ocean. A ghostly plane appears with Fabian, smiling, at the controls. He soars up into the sky, followed by a host of phantom biplanes; the following words appear on screen: "And such is human courage...that men died...so others might live...and so, at last, man's empire might reach triumphant to the sky!"

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• Plot Synopsis

• rio-de-janeiro-brazil
• child's-coffin
• sick-child
• santiago-chile
• package-tied-with-string
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• Belgium:AL/Tous (visa#26.109)
• Germany:12
• Norway:A
• United Kingdom:A
• United States:Passed (National Board of Review)