The Air Mail
Encyclopedia
The Air Mail is a 1925
silent
film directed by Irvin Willat
and starring Warner Baxter
, Billie Dove
, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
. It was produced by Famous Players-Lasky
and distributed through Paramount Pictures
. Filmed in Death Valley National Park
and the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada
, it was released in the United States on March 16, 1925. Only four of eight reels survive in the Library of Congress
making this film incomplete.
To make the film, the movie company, Famous Players-Lasky
, traveled by train to Beatty
, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Rhyolite, where it set up temporary headquarters on January 10, 1925. Airplanes used in the film arrived from Reno
via Tonopah
. The filming was completed by the end of January. During the filming, Famous Players-Lasky restored the Bottle House, one of the deteriorating buildings in the ghost town.
The plot involves a crook named Russ Kane (Warner Baxter), who gets a job as a pilot in order to steal cargo. However, after making a forced landing at a "Ghost City" in the desert, he falls in love with Alice Rendon (Billie Dove) and decides to become law-abiding. When her father (George Irving
) needs medicine, he flies to get it but on the way back is chased by ruffians in other airplanes. As a result, Kane's friend, Sandy (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), parachutes from Kane's plane with the medicine. Meanwhile, escaped prisoners have invaded Alice's home. All is resolved when a sheriff's posse confronts the invaders, Kane destroys the bandit planes, and Sandy becomes a pilot.
Reviewer Mordaunt Hall
, writing for The New York Times in 1925, said that although Dove and Baxter "deliver creditable performances", the story is "only mildly interesting and often quite tedious". While he thought the scenes of planes taking off from the ground were "quite inspiring", he found improbable the stock villains, Deadwood Dick
adventures, and romantic conversations between a man at 4000 feet (1,219.2 m) in the air and a woman on the ground. "This picture", he concluded, "is interesting because of the modern touch to an ordinary Western story, but the idea deserves to be more thoughtful and sincere."
1925 in film
-Events:*November 5: The Big Parade holds its Grand Premier*December 30: premier of Ben-Hur the most expensive silent film ever made costing 4-6 million dollars -Top grossing films :...
silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
film directed by Irvin Willat
Irvin Willat
Irvin Willat was an American film director of the silent film era. He directed 39 films between 1917 and 1937. Early in his career Willat worked as a cinematographer on several films...
and starring Warner Baxter
Warner Baxter
Warner Leroy Baxter was an American actor, known for his role as The Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona , for which he won the second Academy Award for Best Actor in the 1928–1929 Academy Awards. Warner Baxter started his movie career in silent movies...
, Billie Dove
Billie Dove
Billie Dove was an American actress.-Early life and career:She was born as Bertha Bohny in New York City to Charles and Bertha Bohny who were Swiss immigrants. As a teen, she worked as a model to help support her family and was hired at the age of 15 by Florenz Ziegfeld to appear in his Ziegfeld...
, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. KBE was an American actor and a highly decorated naval officer of World War II.-Early life:...
. It was produced by Famous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company created on July 19, 1916 from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company -- originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays -- and Jesse L...
and distributed through Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
. Filmed in Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is a national park in the U.S. states of California and Nevada located east of the Sierra Nevada in the arid Great Basin of the United States. The park protects the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and contains a diverse desert environment of salt-flats, sand dunes,...
and the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada
Rhyolite, Nevada
Rhyolite is a ghost town in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada. It is located in the Bullfrog Hills, about northwest of Las Vegas, near the eastern edge of Death Valley. The town began in early 1905 as one of several mining camps that sprang up after a prospecting discovery in the surrounding...
, it was released in the United States on March 16, 1925. Only four of eight reels survive in the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
making this film incomplete.
To make the film, the movie company, Famous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company created on July 19, 1916 from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company -- originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays -- and Jesse L...
, traveled by train to Beatty
Beatty, Nevada
Beatty is a census-designated place along the Amargosa River in Nye County in the U.S. state of Nevada. U.S. Route 95 runs through the CDP, which lies between Tonopah, about to the north, and Las Vegas, about to the southeast. State Route 374 connects Beatty to Death Valley National Park, about ...
, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Rhyolite, where it set up temporary headquarters on January 10, 1925. Airplanes used in the film arrived from Reno
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
via Tonopah
Tonopah, Nevada
Tonopah is a census-designated place located in and the county seat of Nye County, Nevada. It is located at the junction of U.S. Routes 6 and 95 approximately mid-way between Las Vegas and Reno....
. The filming was completed by the end of January. During the filming, Famous Players-Lasky restored the Bottle House, one of the deteriorating buildings in the ghost town.
The plot involves a crook named Russ Kane (Warner Baxter), who gets a job as a pilot in order to steal cargo. However, after making a forced landing at a "Ghost City" in the desert, he falls in love with Alice Rendon (Billie Dove) and decides to become law-abiding. When her father (George Irving
George Irving (American actor)
George Henry Irving was an American film actor and director who made over 200 films in his lifetime. Some of his best known movies were Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Hearts Divided, A Night at the Opera, Son of Dracula, Hangmen Also Die!, Once Upon a Honeymoon, and Maid's Night Out.-Death:Irving...
) needs medicine, he flies to get it but on the way back is chased by ruffians in other airplanes. As a result, Kane's friend, Sandy (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), parachutes from Kane's plane with the medicine. Meanwhile, escaped prisoners have invaded Alice's home. All is resolved when a sheriff's posse confronts the invaders, Kane destroys the bandit planes, and Sandy becomes a pilot.
Reviewer Mordaunt Hall
Mordaunt Hall
Mordaunt Hall was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for The New York Times, from October 1924 to September 1934....
, writing for The New York Times in 1925, said that although Dove and Baxter "deliver creditable performances", the story is "only mildly interesting and often quite tedious". While he thought the scenes of planes taking off from the ground were "quite inspiring", he found improbable the stock villains, Deadwood Dick
Deadwood Dick
Deadwood Dick is a fictional character who appears in a series of stories, or "dime novels", published between 1877 and 1897 by Edward Lytton Wheeler...
adventures, and romantic conversations between a man at 4000 feet (1,219.2 m) in the air and a woman on the ground. "This picture", he concluded, "is interesting because of the modern touch to an ordinary Western story, but the idea deserves to be more thoughtful and sincere."