GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

MartinHafer As I watched this film, my wife sat nearby and made MANY comments about why she hated this movie. Among the many things she said about the film, words like subtle and entertaining were NOT among them! And, in hindsight, she was right--this is an awfully bad film.Originally, "Flying High" was a stage production put on by George White. Much of the staginess remains--along with some bizarro song and dance numbers where no audience could have possibly seen the choreography. Like so many films of the day, there are lots of Busby Berkeley-style overhead shots--and they are all pretty ridiculous. Only two years later, RKO also made an airplane theme musical, "Flying Down to Rio" and although it's also totally ridiculous, these over the top dance numbers were fun. In "Flying High" they become a bit tedious.The plot is slight. Sport (Pat O'Brien) has built an 'aerocopter' (an early type of helicopter) and is trying to get the money to market it. So, in a last-ditch effort, he gets his subhuman friend, Rusty (Bert Lahr) to romance Patsy (Charlotte Greenwood) because she has some money to invest. Unfortunately, all of Sport's contributions to the plot are minor and the main focus on the film is on Lahr and Greenwood. I say unfortunately because Lahr is simply awful most of the time--making nonsense noises like Curly from the Three Stooges and over-acting incredibly. Greenwood comes off a bit better as the man-crazy spinster--but they aren't the least bit interesting as a couple. Combine this with the god-awful use of rear projection in the amazingly unfunny 'funny' finale and you've got a film that is just tedious in every way. By the way, the only interesting thing about this film is its pre- code sensibilities. In the doctor skit there is some risqué language and later, there are some double-entendres about sex in some of the scenes with Greenwood and Lahr. This doesn't necessarily make the film good...but at least it is interesting to hear words like asinine and narcotics--words you simply wouldn't have heard in films post mid- 1934.

morrison-dylan-fan Originally hearing with deep disappointment that the many exciting sounding titles on the label could only be brought on the US exclusive website,I was thrilled to recently discover that Amazon UK had put up a good number of titles from the Warner Archive label onto its own site,which would give the opportunity for non-US citizens such as myself to take a look at the "burred" titles being dug up by the label.With being keen on choosing an intro title to the label that was at a mid-level price,I was pleased to stumble upon a 1931 Comedy going at a surprisingly cheap price on Amazon UK,which would hopefully allow me to enter the Archive world at its Pre-Code Comedy best.The plot:Attending an air show where inventors display their inventions in the hope of attracting people willing to invest in "the world of tomorrow",slick businessman Sport Wardell hears about a creation that is getting laughed out of the building.Pushing aside all of the other businessmen howling with laughter,Wardell discovers that the cause of their laughter is a aero-copter invented by Emil "Rusty" Krouse.Taken by Rusty's nervous and overly excited manner about his creation,Sport decides to take a roll of the dice by investing money in Emil's "mad" invention,and also promises to find more people who will be happy to invest in the project.A few days later:Struggleing to get any fellow businessmen interested in investing,and also finding questions of "loan repayment" starting to be asked for the cash he has put into Krouse's invention,Wardell begins to remember a waitress (named Pansy Potts) who he met near by the air show,who said that she would pay good money to anyone that agreed to get married to her.View on the film:Along with showing an ahead of its time slickness in riffing pop culture icons, (from Sport making Pansy believe that she will soon be getting married to Clark Gabel thanks to him showing a pic of her new "husband",to Potts calling Rusty Scarface!) the screenplay by A.P. Younger,Robert E. Hopkins,lyric writer Dorothy Fields and co- writer/director Charles Reisner , (based upon the stage musical by Lew Brown,Buddy G. DeSylva,Ray Henderson and John Mcgowan) strikes a terrific balance of free-falling,delightful Screwball moments, (such as Rusty messing everything up on his first meeting with Wardell,to Rusty almost falling out of a window when attempting to escape from Pansy's wedding night plans) with a real sense of "World Fair" wonderment which was going on at the time.With the writers also cleverly making sure,that no matter how many times he messes up,the centre of the movie stays on Rusty getting his invention to work,which leads to the viewer rooting for Rusty to set his aero-copter into the air right to the end.Directing 2 songs for the movie,Busby Berkly gives an early preview of what he was to become famous for in a few years time,with each of Berkly ultra-stylised showing immense precision,with a particular highlight being Berkly creating multiple spinning circles,just by having the extremely talented dancers move what looks to be pieces of wood in different directions.Whilst Berkly goes full flow for his distinctive moments,the directing by Charles F Riesner initially appears surprisingly detached,with Resner shooting a good amount of the films opening from wide shoots,which make the film feel very "stagey" and also leads to the film not fulling being able to pull the viewer into the story.Shortly after the films first 30 minutes,a noticeable amount of skin and double entoundras begin to get exposed,which thankfully leads to Riesner waking up from his slumber and delivering an ending,that whilst funny is also pretty nailbitting.Reconising the sound of Rusty's voice,I quickly began to relies that the person who was bringing Rusty to life here,was also the actor who would bring The Cowardly Lion rawing to life in The Wizard of Oz.Showing in his debut performance that he had a real sharpness with slap-stick, (with a great highlight being Rusty trying to get away from Potts at every turn) Bert Lahr also gives Rusty a big heart,with his interest in his invention being a success changing from just wanting it to work for himself,to Lahr showing Rusty desperately trying to make Sport's roll of the dice on him pay off.Working in a wonderful double team with Lahr,Charlotte Greenwood (who beat Lahr to the world of Oz by having a large role in the L.Frank Baum co-written play The Tik-Tok Man of Oz) impressively keeps Pansy from becoming a grating character,by showing Potts to be someone who is offbeat,but also keen in ending her search of finding Mr.Right,so that she and Mr.Right can go on flying high adventures together in life.

bkoganbing For those who only associate Bert Lahr with The Wizard Of Oz this film from MGM gives one a chance to see him repeating his role on Broadway from one of the many shows he starred in. Lahr other than The Wizard Of Oz was far more a success on Broadway than on the big screen.Flying High ran for 355 performances on Broadway during the 1930-31 season and on Broadway Lahr's co-star was Kate Smith. Lahr's barbs whether they came in the script or were ad-libbed for the performance about fat girls caused some wounding to Kate. It was here she decided that radio would be her best medium of expression.Rawboned Charlotte Greenwood of the Bruce Lee like kicks in her dancing takes Kate's role and she's looking for a husband and she'd like to settle a dowry on him. Lahr becomes the object of her attentions. And Lahr needs the money in order to help his partner and friend Pat O'Brien promote the aero-copter that Lahr's invented. DeSylva, Brown and Henderson wrote the Broadway score which was completely chucked for the film with new songs by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields. I was disappointed not to hear items like Without Love and Thank Your Father on the screen. Nothing memorable came from Fields and McHugh. Busby Berkeley did the choreography and there is a definite hint as to what would be coming in the way gaudy numbers like in his Warner Brothers period.Pat O'Brien played Bud Abbott in this film, but Lahr's comedy style was more like Curly Howard than Lou Costello. During the Thirties, O'Brien was a fast talking promoter of something even if it was himself until he slowed down the pace to a crawl when he played a priest. O'Brien was new on the big screen himself after playing Hildy Johnson in The Front Page.Flying High didn't quite weather the transfer from the Broadway stage to the big screen. Still it's a chance to see a Broadway hit with its original star and that's rare enough for the era this film came out in.

calvinnme This is the rarest of beasts - a musical comedy film from 1931. Hardly any were made in either 1931 and 1932 due to the bad reputation the earliest musicals had earned in 1929 and 1930. However, almost all of the American musical films made in 1931 and 1932 featured the choreography of Busby Berkeley, and indeed this one does too.Pat O'Brien is the best known of the three stars here, but he basically plays a supporting role in this one, prior to his recruitment by Warner Bros. first as a smart guy in the precode era and then as a father figure after the code. Sport Wardall (O'Brien) rescues Rusty Krouse (Lahr) from a group of bullies. The two team up with Wardall looking for financial backing for Rusty's aerocopter, a flying machine that ascends straight up. Ultimately Wardall finds backing from homely but man-hungry waitress Pansy Potts (the lanky Charlotte Greenwood). Her fee for the needed five hundred dollars - marriage to Rusty sight unseen.If you've seen Greenwood chasing Buster Keaton in "Parlor, Bedroom, and Bath" or Eddie Cantor in "Palmy Days" you've seen this act before, but it's always funny. What must have seemed very odd to the audiences of 1931 was Lahr's brand of humor. Here he is carrying on just exactly like the cowardly lion in "Wizard of Oz" right down to his voice and mannerisms, so modern audiences will probably not be put off by his performance since most people today are familiar with Lahr in that part.I rate this 4/5 for fans of the early talkies and precodes, but if you are a modern film fan you just might not appreciate this one that much.