The Aviator (1929)
73 mins | Comedy | 14 December 1929
Director:
Roy Del RuthWriters:
Robert Lord, Arthur CaesarCinematographer:
Chick McGillEditor:
William HolmesProduction Company:
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.The screenplay was based on the 1910 play, The Aviator, by James H. Montgomery. The 3 Oct 1930 Film Daily credited a novel of the same name to actor Valentine Mandelstam. A news item in the 29 Jun 1929 Motion Picture News included Bert Roach, Walter Hiers, and Douglas Gerrard among the cast. According to the 3 Jul 1929 Var, veteran comedian H. A. “Kewpie” Morgan was working as a studio electrician when director Roy Del Ruth recruited him to appear in the film. Morgan explained that he preferred working as a stagehand rather than accept acting jobs below his minimum pay rate. The article referred to him as “Pee Wee” Morgan. Stunt pilot Frank Clarke was credited in the 22 Jan 1930 Var with performing the film’s flying scenes.
Principal photography began in late Jun 1929 at Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, CA, as indicated by a chart in the 29 Jun 1929 Hollywood Filmograph. Del Ruth employed a new camera “cloak,” described in the 27 Jul 1929 Exhibitors Herald-World as heavy felt cover designed to deaden shutter noise. It was hoped that the cloak would replace the bulky camera booths currently in use. The close of production was reported in the 13 Jul 1929 Hollywood Filmograph.
The Aviator was released on 14 Dec 1929, followed by a Los Angeles opening at the Warner Bros. Hollywood Theatre in late Dec 1929, and a New York City opening at the Beacon Theatre on 10 Jan 1930. ...
The screenplay was based on the 1910 play, The Aviator, by James H. Montgomery. The 3 Oct 1930 Film Daily credited a novel of the same name to actor Valentine Mandelstam. A news item in the 29 Jun 1929 Motion Picture News included Bert Roach, Walter Hiers, and Douglas Gerrard among the cast. According to the 3 Jul 1929 Var, veteran comedian H. A. “Kewpie” Morgan was working as a studio electrician when director Roy Del Ruth recruited him to appear in the film. Morgan explained that he preferred working as a stagehand rather than accept acting jobs below his minimum pay rate. The article referred to him as “Pee Wee” Morgan. Stunt pilot Frank Clarke was credited in the 22 Jan 1930 Var with performing the film’s flying scenes.
Principal photography began in late Jun 1929 at Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, CA, as indicated by a chart in the 29 Jun 1929 Hollywood Filmograph. Del Ruth employed a new camera “cloak,” described in the 27 Jul 1929 Exhibitors Herald-World as heavy felt cover designed to deaden shutter noise. It was hoped that the cloak would replace the bulky camera booths currently in use. The close of production was reported in the 13 Jul 1929 Hollywood Filmograph.
The Aviator was released on 14 Dec 1929, followed by a Los Angeles opening at the Warner Bros. Hollywood Theatre in late Dec 1929, and a New York City opening at the Beacon Theatre on 10 Jan 1930. The picture was listed in 19 Jun 1930 Exhibitors Daily Review and Motion Pictures Today as one of three Warner releases endorsed as suitable family entertainment by the Canadian Council on Child Welfare.
Several weeks after the release, the 26 Feb 1930 Var reported that Douglas MacLean Productions, which still owned “certain rights” to the original story, demanded $50,000 from Warner Bros. The studio ultimately paid MacLean a total of $55,000 for rights to The Aviator and one other story.
The picture was remade in 1930 as Going Wild, starring Joe E. Brown (see entry).
Articles in the 2 Nov 1930 Film Daily and the 15 Dec 1930 Exhibitors Daily Review and Motion Pictures Today revealed that a French-language version, L’aviateur (1931), was currently in production, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jeanne Helbling, and Vital Geymond, under the direction of William Seiter. An English-language silent version was released on 12 Apr 1930.
Wishing to assure the success of anonymously written wartime memoir, Brooks, a publisher, and Brown, his publicist, scheme to attribute the book to famous author Robert Street. Although he detests aviation, knows nothing about the book in question, and finds the situation socially embarrassing, Robert agrees to lend his name to the publication before retreating to a fashionable resort. Brown follows, bringing along Robert's friends, siblings John and Grace Douglas. When Robert poses for photographs in an airplane, he is frightened by the camera flash and accidentally starts the machine, giving an incredible demonstration before landing in a haystack. He is then entered in a race against French aviator Maj. Jules Gaillard. After a series of hair-raising and hilarious complications, Robert abandons the pretense for the charms of Grace. ...
Wishing to assure the success of anonymously written wartime memoir, Brooks, a publisher, and Brown, his publicist, scheme to attribute the book to famous author Robert Street. Although he detests aviation, knows nothing about the book in question, and finds the situation socially embarrassing, Robert agrees to lend his name to the publication before retreating to a fashionable resort. Brown follows, bringing along Robert's friends, siblings John and Grace Douglas. When Robert poses for photographs in an airplane, he is frightened by the camera flash and accidentally starts the machine, giving an incredible demonstration before landing in a haystack. He is then entered in a race against French aviator Maj. Jules Gaillard. After a series of hair-raising and hilarious complications, Robert abandons the pretense for the charms of Grace.
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