In the 1920s and 30s, the types of heroes that the public latched onto were quite different than today. A great example were aviators. Nowadays, no one cares much about pilots but back in the day, they were among the most celebrated folks of the day. Take the stars of "Atlantic Flight", Dick Merrill and Jack Lambie. While it's obvious they couldn't act (particularly Merrill), they landed these roles because they were real life pilot and co-pilot who set some flying records. In fact, their life-saving flight at the end of this very dull film is taken from their real life Atlantic flight. And to give the two an excuse to do this, a friend is injured in a wreck and the doctor intones "If he were in England, he might have a chance"...and the pair race there to return with some serum. The bottom line is that although Merrill and Lambie's exploits were exciting in real life, they sure aren't here!! Tiny Monogram Studio tried but failed in making these guys matinée idols...and I can easily see why.

When Hollywood gets on board a recent news event and rushes to make it a movie, there's a certain element of exploitation which can't be denied, and in the case of Dick Purcell playing himself here "recreating" these heroic flights is nothing short of self-promotion. Sometimes, the actor playing themself is sincere (like Babe Ruth in "The Pride of the Yankees" and Audie Murphy in "To Hell and Back"), but here, the screenplay seems rushed, the film is too episodic to maintain interest, and the acting seems forced. Purcell even gets to sing a bit, with Paula Stone, acting as his love interest here. There's no denying that based upon this film, Purcell did some heroic deeds (like flying a sick boy to a hospital and another pilot across the Atlantic to a specialist in England), but based upon what was seen here, the results would have been better as a documentary short. The conclusion contains an idiotic tagline that only proves the ego involved.

Dick Merrill was a famous flyer, who did one of the first transatlantic round trips, and had a long and successful career as an airline pilot. Sadly he couldn't act for toffee when more or less playing himself. In this cheapo he flies a dangerously ill child through a storm to safety (interesting flying in an Electra, landing in a high-wing tri-motor, and taxi-ing in the Electra!) The bulk of the film is devoted to the socialising and womanising of a group of pilots in New York, with occasional bouts of flying out of a local airfield backed by the High Sierras of New England(?). These flying sequences, and some of the old cars, are the only things of interest in the film. When a friend crash lands during an air race, the doctors give him 48 hours to live unless a serum only available in England can be obtained. Dick immediately flies over to Croydon, collects the serum and returns. Owing to bad weather he loses radio contact and is given up for lost (cue lots of newspaper headlines, thankfully not rotating), but then flies in in the nick of time, to the relief of the friend's girlfriend and a bevy of beautiful nurses in the hospital. The landing back at New York used actual footage of one of Merrill's returns. In the air race sequences, the bad guy in the film, Baron Hayygard, flies a Northrop Gamma 2H - instantly recognisable by the huge fairings over the wheels. The good guy, whose plane has been sabotaged by the baron, flies a Ryan ST-A. On a safety note, the heroine would hardly be allowed to make a parachute jump today without proper training. As it was, after she jumps, her boyfriends have time to land their planes, get into their cars and drive miles across desert scrub, to be there when she lands into a tree.

Probably the only way to appreciate Atlantic Flight is to understand why it was made at all. In 1937 when pilots were treated like Apollo astronauts would be 30 years later, 43-year old Dick Merrill was the second-most famous aviator in the country. He'd flown the first two commercial round-trip Atlantic Ocean flights, first, the so-called 'Ping Pong Ball Flight' with millionaire nightclub singer-owner Harry "Puttin' On the Ritz" Richmann (who'd placed thousands of ping pong balls inside the wings in hopes of added buoyancy in the event of a water "landing") in 1936 (the plane ended up crashing in a peat bog in Nova Scotia thanks to Harry accidentally dumping the fuel in a panic and enraging the ordinarily ultra-calm Merrill) and the second, the so-called 'Coronation Flight,' doing a quick turn around to haul newsreel film back from England with a far more capable co-pilot (and movie co-star! Jack Lambie. Atlantic Flight proves why they never quit their day jobs with Eastern Airlines (they'd both end up retiring from EAL, Dick in 1961 and Jack in the early 70's). This movie was made by Monogram (the company then temporarily working out of leased space in the "New" Universal studio lot)--- which had just reformed after a brief troubled merger with Herbert J. Yates' Republic--- as a chance to capitalize on Dick's fame. Merrill spent the rest of his life joking about his terrible performance in his one shot as a movie star--- he was right, it's awful! Dick's acting range could be compared to 3/8" plywood. He'd actually make one more appearance in a 1953 telefilm, 'Flying With Arthur Godfrey.' The only actor showing any real talent is a young Milburn Stone (co-star Paula's cousin) who easily outshines everyone else in the cast. An interesting curio for aviation buffs for the 1930's aircraft and shots of the actual Vultee used by Dick and Jack. Merrill, an inveterate gambler, was said to have blown his $2500 movie pay at Santa Anita the weekend after the film wrapped up--- fortunately, he'd soon marry gorgeous 22-year old actress Toby Wing and go on to enjoy a remarkable 45-year life together. Atlantic Flight is a B-movie tribute to an A-list pilot.