DIVE BOMBER (1941)

Made prior to America's involvement in WWII, DIVE BOMBER is an extravagant propaganda piece filled with wall-to-wall with airplanes, bombastic music blaring, cigarette smoke, dedicated men willing to give the greatest sacrifice for their country and women who just love a man in uniform.  The story is pretty entertaining: a military doctor (Flynn) wants to solve the problems of altitude sickness, especially the blackouts that occur during a steep dive.  He enters flight surgeon school, but his dashing ways clash with pilot/teacher MacMurray (whom he had a previous run-in with) and senior doctor Bellamy.  After some headbutting they see how dedicated he is to the cause and help him.

DIVE BOMBER is dated, but I still enjoyed it.  The vivid Technicolor photography wonderfully captures all of the great older aircraft and Navy ships as well as the sprawling military base.  Strong acting and the interesting subject matter make the film fly by despite the 132-minute running time.  Is it historically accurate?  I have no clue, but it is a fun watch. Check it out!

As best I can tell this is the filming location.

CANYON PASSAGE (1946)

Set in a frontier town in 1856 Oregon, CANYON PASSAGE doesn't really have any canyon passages but it does have a whole bunch of smaller stories going on.  Most, if not all, of them involve freight company and general store owner Dana Andrews.  He's courting one girl when it's obvious that his best friend's girl likes him much better; his friend is in debt thanks to gambling debts; Ward Bond wants to kill him; his businesses are barely getting by; there's a house to build and Indians are a constant threat.

CANYON PASSAGE is a passable western, but I can't really see any reason why I would want to watch it again any time soon.  The characters (with the exception of that annoying singing dude) were fine, but the story (or should I say stories?) didn't really do anything for me.  Good acting, reasonable pace, beautiful scenery, familiar faces from a strong cast...too bad about the weak script.  Entertaining enough for a single watch.

THE MIND READER (1933)

Down and nearly out hucksters Warren William and Allen Jenkins hit the jackpot when they come up with the idea of changing their carnival act to a psychic mind reader act.  Almost immediately, they're rolling in cash and life is sitting pretty...until Warren falls for an innocent girl who actually believes in his psychic powers.

Made in 1933, THE MIND READER is one of the last Pre-Code films and although it's extremely tame by today's standards it's pretty easy to see how this film could have irked the morality police.  The entire mood of the film is dismissive towards the public in general; one of the main ways the psychic makes money is from talking about cheating husbands; a carnival worker discusses the negative part about messing with girls on the road by saying “The minute they get in court, they’re all 16 and under!” and then when one guy is sent to prison he says “It sure must be tough to be going away just when beer’s coming back!”; one girl is upset that the psychics advise ruined her marriage so she opens an elevator shaft door and jumps to her death!  Wow.

For those interested in films from this era, THE MIND READER is a lot of fun and it still feels kinda modern in a weird way.  Strong performances, daring script, the underrated Allen Jenkins, quick pace, Mayo Methot before she married Humphrey Bogart.  Recommended.