At a negative cost of one million dollars (and that's in 1931 money), Dirigible still rates as a mighty impressive aerial spectacular. Aside from the obvious use of a hand-cranked camera in some of the location scenes, it is beautifully made by director Frank Capra, no less, from a first-class shooting script by Jo Swerling. Admittedly, Fay Wray is not as attractive;y made up or costumed as she was in her later encounter with King Kong, but nevertheless, some of her close-ups are very appealing. It's also good to see Jack Holt as the number one star. Under Capra's direction, he is far less wooden here than in many of his later 1930's vehicles. He's not the hero, of course. That role is ably undertaken by the now unjustly forgotten but highly personable Ralph Graves. True, this is not a typical Capra outing, but I found it just as interesting and absorbing as his better-known movies.

Okay, I know, they are not blimps. They are Zeppelins. "Airships" was the preferred term by the U.S. Navy.This is a very exciting action film for 1931. Apparently made with quite a high budget. I saw model shots, large sound stages filling in for Antartica, thousands of extras, real airships, and a gigantic ticker tape parade shot on location in New York City. All of these things cost much money. The U.S. Navy's use of airships was so brief that this film also marks one of the few stories about this chapter in our military history.This film proves that Capra was also adept at high intensity action directing (for 1931) as well his usual character-driven morality plays that he became so well-known for.The one thing that is the most striking to me about (some) early talking pictures, of which this is one, is that they have hardly any music score. This is true here, and only adds to the isolated feeling in the scenes of the doomed expedition struggling to escape from the frozen tundra. Plenty of sound effects in the scenes of the doomed Pensacola going down, but no music. In fact, the film even uses a few silent film style narration cards.Anyway, in spite of this film dating from 1931, it has aged really well and doesn't seem too dated at all. A nice action/adventure film. The print they showed on TCM on television was in very good shape, even the sound was strong in most places. Yes, the love story seemed tacked on, but there are thousands of films in the history of Hollywood that could have survived artistically with their romantic subplots (probably inserted at the insistence of cigar-chewing studio bosses to get "the female market") jettisoned. In any case, this movie is quite entertaining and Worth checking out.

The great Frank Capra manages to make a melodrama in a nice piece of escapist entertainment. Of course, you wish that they put Faye Wray on the dirigible! Both have an ethereal quality that rise above the mediocre script. The aerial shots remind me of the magic of Hells Angels.Can you imagine the fascination for an audience unused to radio let alone air-flight? The shots of her on the beach are simply insufficient for this beauty. I guess you have to be satisfied to ogle her along with King Kong!The scene with the aircraft taking off from the aircraft carrier is definitely prescient, coming at a time when Billy Mitchell was being courtmartialed for pushing air-flight. And yet the Hindenburg with its giant swastika tail changed everything. There is a gritty quality in this movie toward life and death that seems to elude modern filmmakers. This is not a great movie, but give it a chance and it will hold your interest.

I liked this film for it conveys a can-do-attitude that was so prevalent in America at that time. This movie was made (1931) in a time when man was just beginning to test the limits of himself, machine, and the elements (it was only 5 years earlier in 1927 that Limbergh crossed the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis.) This movie focused on the race to the south pole and it made for good entertainment. The special effects for the time were very good.The human interest aspect of the film showed the negative side of ambition (how it affected a marriage and a friendship)this I found interesting. The character development in the one, Frisky, was especially satisfying.I would recommend this movie to anyone--however do not compare it to the movies of our time--that would be a disservice to the movie.