Sky Bride (1932) User Reviews

It Isn't Wings (1927) but it still Flys

[Deloreanguy79 · 8/10 · 9 March 2019]

Richard Arlen gives a damn good performance as a stunt pilot dealing with loss and guilt. His chemistry with Jackie Oakie really works and the story moves at a decent pace. Arlen starred with Clara Bow in the classic Wings about pilots in World War 1 but this movie seems forgotten. Hard to find but worth the time if you can find it.

When the Battle's Lost And Won

[boblipton · 6/10 · 12 July 2019]

Richard Arlen is the lead pilot in a troupe of pilots who barnstorm across the country, offering shows for county fairs and rides into the sky for adventurous people; business isn't very good, since a ride is marked down from $10 to $5, or perhaps that's just a come-on to convince the rubes they're getting a bargain. Jack Oakie is their ground man, the barker. They wing-walk and hold mock aerial duels and razz each other in the privacy their cheap hotel rooms. When one of their number is killed in a stunt, Arlen quits the troupe, walks to Los Angeles and gets a job as a mechanic in an airplane factory. He's good at his job, but no one likes him, because he's glum and stand-offish and won't go near a plane about to fly.

There are some very good aerial stunts in this movie, shot at a distance. It brings to mind, of course, Arlen's performance in WINGS; Randolph Scott has a half-minute walk-on as an army pilot, clearly meant evoke Gary Cooper's cameo in the early film. It's a serious film. Arlen's depression is well-performed, understandable in the movie's situation, but it's a symbolic dog at how far aviation had fallen, from knights the skies to itinerant performers.

Make it 6.5!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 11 July 2014]

Despite a screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (among others), plus some really thrilling aerial stunt-work, this expensively produced "B" picture does not shape us as first-class entertainment. The main problems are the cliché-ridden script and a cast of players who seem to be relishing every corny moment rather than sending the whole thing up. Jack Oakie and Richard Arlen are the worst offenders, but – not to be outdone – Louise Closser Hale attacks her share of pathos with almost equal gusto. Just to complete the picture, there's a young boy in the cast, Bobby Coogan, who tackles his share of corny emoting with as much gusto as any of the grown-ups. But at least Virginia Bruce survives the movie with a bit of credit, as does Tom Douglas and most of the minor support cast. Stephen Roberts is credited as the director and it must be admitted that he does stage the action most effectively – if he did stage it at all. I suspect that some unsung specialist handled all the actual aerial and location scenes – or maybe they were pieced together from the stock library and it is actually a team of editors I should be thanking. There is no editor credit at all on the movie itself or at IMDb, which certainly indicates the wholesale use of stock material with everyone in the department hunting up suitable shots from Hollywood's many stock specialists. For all that, the actual crash is certainly well staged. I practically jumped out of my seat! The movie was formerly available on a very good VintageFilmBuff DVD.

The skies have souls.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 26 November 2020]

Blue skies aren't smiling on carnival stunt pilot Richard Arlen in this emotional story that shows his fall from grace with the upper stratosphere when he turns in his helmet and goggles after a sudden tragedy in the air. He becomes morose and reclusive, even walking away from barker pal Jack Oakie as his depression increases. He finally returns to the field as a mechanic, and it's only a matter of time before it happens again. The pretty Virginia Bruce steps in to become his guardian angel, but when tragedy strikes again, the news is kept from him so he won't return to despondency.

Arlen is equally memorable here as he was in the first oscar-winning film, "Wings". His performance as the emotionally troubled pilot is very realistic as it examines how close his up and down moves are to the plane he flies. But the best performance is by Oakie, initially his typical bombastic self but showing real depth of character when he confides his fears of another breakdown to the lovely Bruce. The aviation scenes are very good and there is plenty of suspense.

Future leading men Charles Starrett and Randolph Scott have smaller parts (pretty minor), and there is nice support by Louise Closser Hale as the mother of one of the pilots killed (sort of a surrogate mother to all pilots) and young Robert Coogan as her enthusiastic grandson who considers all pilots as his heroic uncles. While this may have come out before the production code, it is completely clean in every way and gripping both physically and emotionally.