User Reviews

I rather liked this film, although it did have a few problems.

The biggest problem was Joan Fontaine, who is so young here that if I didn't know she was in the film, I wouldn't have recognized her! Here, in her second starring role, I found her to be rather stiff and awkward, and not as asset to the film.

On the other hand, I thought John Beal was superb! I've never been very aware of him before, and I know that he never became an A list actor, but seeing him here, I'm not sure why.

The only other actor here whose acting is of note is George Irving. One of those character actors that you recognize but probably don't know his name. Quite a good performance as the father.

The story here is just unique enough to score a few extra points from me. A young, rather brilliant doctor is repeatedly chided by his respected doctor-father, particularly for his interest in flying. Rather than continue in the charade of working in a field he has come to despise, he walks away from medicine and goes to work for a small airline out west. Joan Fontaine, a nurse, falls in love with him even before finding out who he actually is. She attempts to bring son and father back together, and oddly enough that happens during a train wreck, which is nicely staged.

There are places all the action doesn't seem quite logical, but overall the story works. The only significant problem is Joan Fontaine...she "gets by". In my view it is not until 1940-41 that she comes into her own as an actress with "Rebecca" and "Suspicion".

Give this one a try. It's no masterpiece, but it's quite entertaining.

When first introduced here, it is very apparent that young doctor/pilot John Beal has had all the advantages in life and taken advantage of them, becoming an entitled, spoiled rich kid whose medical career will involve patting the hands of needy socialites. But when a quick, bad decision leads to the death of one of those females (in a plane crash piloted by Beal during a horrible thunderstorm), Beal is suspended and simply walks out on his hospital, his career and his father (George Irving). He is suddenly hitchhiking across the country, hoping to get from New York to Los Angeles, with no real plans. Arrested and sentenced to a state road project upon his arrival in sunny California, he is soon spotted by old friend Philip Huston who helps him get a job as a mechanic at the local airport.

A rather forward nurse (Joan Fontaine in one of her earliest leading parts) becomes curious about him and even though he spurns her, she won't leave him alone. Pesky reporter Jimmy Conlin discovers the facts on Beal as he goes from mechanic to pilot (taking over in a medical emergency on a single piloted plane from the frazzled Fontaine), and as his past becomes about to be exposed, Beal once again tries to run out. A medical emergency that ironically has both Fontaine and Beal's father on it forces Beal to snap out of his lost world of self pity and self hatred, also involving the socialite fiancee (Jane Walsh) who dumped him after the initial scandal broke.

So much happens here in this enjoyable but convoluted medical drama that it takes on far too many themes for a rather short B movie. There are moments of light comedy involving Fontaine, although her character at the beginning is unbelievably intrusive, deserving every snub that Beal gives her until she finally makes him laugh. The scenes with Beal and the hobos (Billy Gilbert among them) are absolutely ridiculous, and the fact that Huston would discover Beal working on the road just so out of the blue is beyond absurd. When the film settles down to get away from these unbelievable plot twists, it seems quite like another film. Beal tries hard to show this character's transition, but the lack of screen magnetism makes him an awkward hero, even if there is a sense of triumph in watching his character grow up and become a real man.

I like the idea of this story even though it is handled in a clumsy manner typical of many a "B" movie of the day. For example, the reporter "Nosey" seems to be set up as someone who could cause big trouble for the hero, but his role is rather inconsequential in the end. The only drama the script writers were able to dream up seemed to be via plane crashes and train wrecks. I saw this movie described in my local TV listings as being about a doctor who gets into trouble and who then becomes a "hitchhiker with a beard." I wanted more hitchhiking and more beard in the story. In the end I think I would have preferred for Jim to have stayed lost.