Inadvands Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

morrison-dylan-fan Originally hearing with deep disappointment that the many exciting sounding titles on the label could only be brought on the US exclusive website,I was thrilled to recently discover that Amazon UK had put up a good number of titles from the Warner Archive label onto its own site,which would give the opportunity for non-US citizens such as myself to take a look at the "burred" titles being dug up by the label.With being keen on choosing an intro title to the label that was at a mid-level price,I was pleased to stumble upon a 1931 Comedy going at a surprisingly cheap price on Amazon UK,which would hopefully allow me to enter the Archive world at its Pre-Code Comedy best.The plot:Attending an air show where inventors display their inventions in the hope of attracting people willing to invest in "the world of tomorrow",slick businessman Sport Wardell hears about a creation that is getting laughed out of the building.Pushing aside all of the other businessmen howling with laughter,Wardell discovers that the cause of their laughter is a aero-copter invented by Emil "Rusty" Krouse.Taken by Rusty's nervous and overly excited manner about his creation,Sport decides to take a roll of the dice by investing money in Emil's "mad" invention,and also promises to find more people who will be happy to invest in the project.A few days later:Struggleing to get any fellow businessmen interested in investing,and also finding questions of "loan repayment" starting to be asked for the cash he has put into Krouse's invention,Wardell begins to remember a waitress (named Pansy Potts) who he met near by the air show,who said that she would pay good money to anyone that agreed to get married to her.View on the film:Along with showing an ahead of its time slickness in riffing pop culture icons, (from Sport making Pansy believe that she will soon be getting married to Clark Gabel thanks to him showing a pic of her new "husband",to Potts calling Rusty Scarface!) the screenplay by A.P. Younger,Robert E. Hopkins,lyric writer Dorothy Fields and co- writer/director Charles Reisner , (based upon the stage musical by Lew Brown,Buddy G. DeSylva,Ray Henderson and John Mcgowan) strikes a terrific balance of free-falling,delightful Screwball moments, (such as Rusty messing everything up on his first meeting with Wardell,to Rusty almost falling out of a window when attempting to escape from Pansy's wedding night plans) with a real sense of "World Fair" wonderment which was going on at the time.With the writers also cleverly making sure,that no matter how many times he messes up,the centre of the movie stays on Rusty getting his invention to work,which leads to the viewer rooting for Rusty to set his aero-copter into the air right to the end.Directing 2 songs for the movie,Busby Berkly gives an early preview of what he was to become famous for in a few years time,with each of Berkly ultra-stylised showing immense precision,with a particular highlight being Berkly creating multiple spinning circles,just by having the extremely talented dancers move what looks to be pieces of wood in different directions.Whilst Berkly goes full flow for his distinctive moments,the directing by Charles F Riesner initially appears surprisingly detached,with Resner shooting a good amount of the films opening from wide shoots,which make the film feel very "stagey" and also leads to the film not fulling being able to pull the viewer into the story.Shortly after the films first 30 minutes,a noticeable amount of skin and double entoundras begin to get exposed,which thankfully leads to Riesner waking up from his slumber and delivering an ending,that whilst funny is also pretty nailbitting.Reconising the sound of Rusty's voice,I quickly began to relies that the person who was bringing Rusty to life here,was also the actor who would bring The Cowardly Lion rawing to life in The Wizard of Oz.Showing in his debut performance that he had a real sharpness with slap-stick, (with a great highlight being Rusty trying to get away from Potts at every turn) Bert Lahr also gives Rusty a big heart,with his interest in his invention being a success changing from just wanting it to work for himself,to Lahr showing Rusty desperately trying to make Sport's roll of the dice on him pay off.Working in a wonderful double team with Lahr,Charlotte Greenwood (who beat Lahr to the world of Oz by having a large role in the L.Frank Baum co-written play The Tik-Tok Man of Oz) impressively keeps Pansy from becoming a grating character,by showing Potts to be someone who is offbeat,but also keen in ending her search of finding Mr.Right,so that she and Mr.Right can go on flying high adventures together in life.

bkoganbing For those who only associate Bert Lahr with The Wizard Of Oz this film from MGM gives one a chance to see him repeating his role on Broadway from one of the many shows he starred in. Lahr other than The Wizard Of Oz was far more a success on Broadway than on the big screen.Flying High ran for 355 performances on Broadway during the 1930-31 season and on Broadway Lahr's co-star was Kate Smith. Lahr's barbs whether they came in the script or were ad-libbed for the performance about fat girls caused some wounding to Kate. It was here she decided that radio would be her best medium of expression.Rawboned Charlotte Greenwood of the Bruce Lee like kicks in her dancing takes Kate's role and she's looking for a husband and she'd like to settle a dowry on him. Lahr becomes the object of her attentions. And Lahr needs the money in order to help his partner and friend Pat O'Brien promote the aero-copter that Lahr's invented. DeSylva, Brown and Henderson wrote the Broadway score which was completely chucked for the film with new songs by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields. I was disappointed not to hear items like Without Love and Thank Your Father on the screen. Nothing memorable came from Fields and McHugh. Busby Berkeley did the choreography and there is a definite hint as to what would be coming in the way gaudy numbers like in his Warner Brothers period.Pat O'Brien played Bud Abbott in this film, but Lahr's comedy style was more like Curly Howard than Lou Costello. During the Thirties, O'Brien was a fast talking promoter of something even if it was himself until he slowed down the pace to a crawl when he played a priest. O'Brien was new on the big screen himself after playing Hildy Johnson in The Front Page.Flying High didn't quite weather the transfer from the Broadway stage to the big screen. Still it's a chance to see a Broadway hit with its original star and that's rare enough for the era this film came out in.

Lone_Prospector As a huge fan of pre-codes, I was disappointed with FLYING HIGH. Bert Lahr's performance was way over the top. Yes, as other reviewers have noted, Bert's 'act' pretty much foreshadows his role of a lifetime as the Cowardly Lion in THE WIZARD OF OZ. But still, I did not find him funny at all. He was rather annoying actually.Pat O'Brien is great in the straight man role and Charlotte Greenwood is her usual awkward self. Even these decent performances can't save this one.As far as controversial pre-code scenes, I found the 'It'll Be the First Time for Me' duet to be one of the most suggestive pieces of film around.One last thing. Is it just me, or does Bert Lahr's schtick seem patterned after Curly Howard of the Three Stooges? It feels at times like Bert is doing a spot on impersonation of Curly. I used to think that Bert as the Cowardly Lion flat out stole Curly's routine. But given that FLYING HIGH was released before Curly, Moe, et al. made it big, now I wonder who copied who.

Ron Oliver A slightly unscrupulous promoter hopes to be FLYING HIGH after selling stock in a half-crazed inventor's aerocopter.The rather bizarre humor of comic Bert Lahr is showcased in this fast-moving little comedy. Rather an acquired taste, Lahr's antics will either delight or depress the viewer, who should not be expecting to see an early version of the Cowardly Lion. Lahr's style of humor might be best described as moronic and those who enjoy laughing at the feebleminded should find him quite amusing.What helps to ameliorate Lahr's antics is his teaming for much of the film with the great Charlotte Greenwood, who excelled in deadpan physical comedy. With her long legs and horsy features, Greenwood makes her man-crazy character into a real source of fun. Whether it's chasing Lahr around an airport, enduring a riotous Wedding Morning, or flailing about in his contraption thousands of feet in the air, Miss Greenwood never fails to pack in the laughs.Pat O'Brien seems rather uncomfortable as Lahr's straight man and his romantic scenes with spunky Kathryn Crawford are somewhat less than enthralling. Charles Winninger catches the viewer's attention as a naughty, pre-Code doctor interested in examining a bevy of young aviatrixes. Cherubic Guy Kibbee & stately Hedda Hopper do credit to their short screen time as Miss Crawford's parents.Movie mavens will recognize an uncredited Clarence Wilson as Greenwood's bad-tempered lunch counter boss.Busby Berkeley has provided some fairly decent dance sequences whose sole motivation seems to be to reveal as much feminine flesh as possible, but the overhead kaleidoscopic shots are pleasant harbingers of the classic work he would perform a few years later at Warner's.Lahr's aerocopter, which may or may not be technically feasible, is based on the gyrocopter or Autogiro, both of which actually did fly but have now been almost completely superseded by the helicopter.