Anna Lee is a chorine on her last legs on Broadway, when she sort of witnesses a murder. Before she realizes it, she has been framed for theft and spent several years as a guest of His Majesty. When she gets out and realizes that they're about to hang an innocent man. So she goes to Scotland Yard, where Inspector John Loder is unconvinced by her vague memories and inability to identify the actual murder. Since there's only a couple of days left, she stows away on a flying clipper to New York, and guess who else is there? Not only Loder, but Francis Sullivan, the actual murderer.The story is put together in a fairly clever way, and it's all given an appropriately Mid-Atlantic sound, what with Sullivan affecting a Uruguayan accent for his own purposes. Frank Cellier has a nice role as a blackmailer looking for material and Robert Stevenson directs in his usual competent but non-individual manner. It was clearly produced by British-Gaumont for distribution on both sides of the Atlantic, but other than making a few British actors a bit more familiar to American audiences, it didn't set any house records at the time.

An epitome of a nice long-forgotten filmie from the 1930s. Most of the cast and the crew also appeared in some of Hitchcock's flicks (especially in Sabotage), so be ready for some justified deja vu. Of course, you may find it very similar to Hitch's carefree yet gripping thrillers of that period, but it definitely has some charm of its own. The humour here still works, especially in the scenes with fake eyewitnesses. The cast is also solid, as is the script. I also enjoyed the amusing plan of Jennie's getting on a boat. The reason why I give it a 3/5 is that at times it lacks logic (as it always happens with thousands of thrillers) and the flying boat seems to be a paradise for criminals. And, of course, it'd have been a far well-known film that it is, if it was somehow connected with Alfie.Available on YouTube and Archive.org.

Robert Stevenson (1905-1986) was a superb British director, but his name is not widely enough recognised. He is probably most famous for JANE EYRE (1944) with Orson Welles and TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS (1940). Less well known are his excellent DISHONORED LADY (1947, see my review), and his truly magnificent OWD BOB (1938, see my review), which he made the year after this. In this year, he also made KING SOLOMON'S MINES with Anna Lee, who stars once again in this film of his. This really is a most fascinating film, because of the spectacular second half which takes place on a trans-Atlantic Clipper seaplane, the interior of which resembles that of a zeppelin, on multiple levels with individual sleeping compartments, bar and restaurant. It even has a little balcony where people stand outside to take the air and look down upon the ships which are not far below them. Francis L. Sullivan here gives one of his finest performances as the oiliest and least scrupulous of villains, truly hair-raising in his wickedness. Anna Lee is a typical 1930s English 'sweetie', but with more fibre and character than is usual for that time, and she handles the part of the courageous accidental heroine very well. She is determined to save the wrong man from being executed in America for a crime he did not commit. Anna stows away on the Clipper to get back to America to give her evidence, which Scotland Yard had refused to take seriously. This is very much a Hitchcock-style suspense thriller, and makes excellent viewing. It deserves to be more widely known, as it is certainly a British pre-War classic. If Britain had as many film buffs as there are in America, where almost any trivial B or C movie can achieve fame nowadays, films like this would be familiar and praised, rather than obscure and forgotten. But the British are lazy about their cinematic heritage, and films like this are never shown on British television, so no one even knows they exist. In this film, the child actor Desmond Tester is most amusing as an eccentric child musical prodigy who becomes entangled in the murderous intrigues going on aboard the Clipper plane. If only British films still produced wonderfully strange character actors like that! It was also amusing to see a young Peter Bull scowling with his heavy jowls as a blackmailer in this film. In real life, he was actually rather jolly, although extraordinarily bombastic and often too loud, and he was always available for a chat when he ran his astrological shop in Notting Hill Gate in the 1960s and 1970s.

This is a great "little" actioner set on a fabulous plane - complete with a balcony!!!!In one scene John Loder and Anna Lee go out on the balcony to see ships and planes going by - honestly, they are flying so low the boats can be seen quite clearly. It is utterly fantastic and I love it!!!There were a few English films made at this time that were pre-occupied with all things American ("Gangway" etc.)- complete with dodgy American accents.Pretty Anna Lee plays Jennie Carr, a chorus girl,stranded in New York. She becomes, unwittingly, involved in a murder and the wrong man is arrested. Jennie is the only one who can clear him but the villains arrange to have her arrested on a trumped up charge of burglary so she will be in prison and not be able to testify on his behalf. When she gets out it is a race to save an innocent man from being put to deathShe joins forces with a Scotland Yard Inspector (John Loder) and together they have to race back to New York to free him. They catch a fantastic plane "The Airmail" that goes non-stop to New York in 18 hours!!! (pretty good for 1937). It is like a flying luxury liner with cabins, dining cars and bars!!!!Desmond Tester (along with Nova Pilbeam,was one of the best British child actors of the 1930s) plays Arnold, a musical prodigy who helps the plot along a lot.There are some great British "heavies" involved - Francis L. Sullivan as the Boss and Peter Bull as a blackmailer.