The Silver Screen Oasis

On Tuesday morning, insomnia again had me watching TV at 4:00 a.m. I watched The Flying Fleet all the way to only Tommy and Steve left. I'm assuming Tommy ended up with the job and the girl. Am I right? If so, how did it happen? Steve was pulling another of his rotten 'deals' on Tommy when I finally caved in, so can anyone tell me the last half hour?

I can't find it on imdB or TCM data base.

Anne

Anne, I wasn't able to watch the film, so I can't help you with the ending, but here are links to the IMDb and TCMDb listings about The Flying Fleet (1929):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019886/
http://www.tcmdb.com/title/title.jsp?stid=1882

Here's an article from the TCM site about the film as well:
http://tinyurl.com/2rwrnb

I'd really like to have seen it. I think Ramon Novarro was kind of endearing and I'm interested in the real Spig Wead, the Navy guy who was invalided out of the service due to the circumstances depicted in John Ford's Wings of Eagles and who later became a scriptwriter. I see that this movie is among his credits.

Thanks moira, but I saw that stuff, unfortunately, none of those give the ending, and that's the part I'm curious about, and you know by now, I'm not real big on silents, but at 4:30 a.m., I'm not doing a whole lot of crocheting or cross-stitching, lucky I can still see the TV. So it irks me that I missed the ending.

It's funny how once you know who or what someone is, how their name just jumps out at you after the fact. Since I've seen the story about Spig Wead several times now, I've noticed his name as either the writer, or based on his writing in a couple of movies. In addition to Flying Fleet, he also wrote the one last week about flying with Robert Young in the lead, can't recall the name, but it was in color.

Directors and supporting players whirl through my head so fast during the credits now, that I practically need to take notes to remember what I'm seeing. I've always watched credits, but only to see how many actors I could notice in their starting bit roles, but since reading the info contributed in this and TCM, there is so much more to look for now. In the words of Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon movies; "I'm too old for this!"

Anne

Sorry I couldn't find that info about the ending for you, Anne. I know what you mean about there being more to look for in films. Those interconnections in film help to make the history of the studio period consistently interesting to me. I think we'll both have to hope that TCM airs this film again to see it in its entirety, though as you mentioned, I bet the story played out as you guessed!

mrsl,

Hi, I have THE FLYING FLEET on DVD-R. I would gladly send you a copy. That way you can see the ending for yourself. I will say this much, allot more happens than you probably anticipated in the last half hour, or so!

I could give you the information, but wouldn't you rather watch it instead? Contact me through the PM's, if you are interested in my sending you a recording? Hope to hear from you shortly.

Jeffrey

moirafinnie,

That goes for you too. TCM had not showed this movie since 2004! They probably will not air THE FLYING FLEET again for awhile? So I wouldn't wait around if I were you. Especially since there is no need to!

Incidentally, I have several other Ramon Novarro Silent's besides this one. Rex Ingram's THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1922), SCARAMOUCHE (1923), THE RED LILY (1924), and BEN HUR (1925), Ernst Lubitsch's OLD HEIDELBERG (1927), with Norma Shearer, and THE PAGAN (1929). of these, only BEN HUR has been released on commercial DVD so far. Both OLD HEIDELBERG, and THE PAGAN are probably among my favorite Silent's