Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

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.

While "Dirigible" (1931) is notable as Frank Capra's best early film, the real credit for making something that was both a huge hit during the early years of talking pictures and an old film that will interest even today's jaded action movie fans should go to Editor Maurice Wright. Wright had to assemble this early blockbuster from what Capra shot and what the U.S. Navy provided in the form of stock and promotional footage. He did a great job and you rarely are aware that you watching a movie, let alone a fictional drama. The story is a historical concoction, mixing elements of Robert Falcon Scott's sledding disaster at the South Pole and Nobile's ill-fated North Pole expedition in the airship "Italia". It is likely the producers of "The Red Tent" (1970) borrowed heavily from Capra's technique when they dramatized the crash of Nobile's dirigible for their film. The destruction of the fictional dirigible "The Los Angeles" is the most interesting sequence in the film but the Navy's promotional footage is also quite interesting, particularly to viewers 75+ years later. There is extensive coverage of operations on the first USS Lexington; which would be sunk during WWII (The Battle of the Coral Sea). The rest of the simulated action stuff leaves something to be desired but was no doubt quite credible to viewers at the time of the film's release. I wouldn't pay much attention to complaints that the back-story is lame and boring. It features a pre-Kong Fay Wray. She is younger and has her natural darker hair color. As such, I think you will find her about as beautiful as any actress in film history, especially in profile. Apparently Capra quickly figured out what he had with Wray as he makes extensive use of close-ups during her scenes; a technique that would not really come into fashion until the 1970's. And Wray exhibits considerable acting talent in these scenes, earnestly sincere as the wife of a glory-seeking Navy pilot. And since you can't take your eyes off her, any complaints about scripting and content are pretty much irrelevant.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Here's the sequence that led to this in my life: I read about the Scott disaster, an amazing story. Then last night I saw the 1958 film of it, an extraordinary story and an interesting film. For those who don't know the story it is of a British expedition to be the first to the south pole. They were beaten by a month by a Norweigian explorer, and on the return lost their lives. They made extraordinary errors, but they were loved by the Brits because, well because they were so heroically aristocratic and gentlemanly in their bearing. This story was huge, just huge.It was huge enough to serve as the basis for this film, which I saw following the 58 UK film. That film showed the sleds as pulled by humans, as cooking with certain pots, as the sleds with odometer wheels, as certain surely genuine clothing. It shows a man dying of wounds after being pulled in exhaustion; another knowing his fate was sealed and going off into the cold to die in sacrifice. We have all that here.This is three films in one, two of them palatable. I usually get annoyed at Capra, but this is before he developed his sugary world for us.One film is of a crew wrecked at the south pole and having to recreate the doomed Scott voyage, in evocation of that great adventure. Keep in mind that this was only 20 years before (and its over 75 years since this film!)Another is an equally amazing adventure sequence. The story here is that the top dirigible pilot and top plane pilot ("Frisky") are buddies. They plan a joint trip to the pole. The sequences that have these two flying are still darned impressive today, three quarters of a century later. The flying cameras are great. The flying balloons are shown with convincing reality. If all we had were the shots of the real facility and its devices and sailors, this would be worth it. The third story grows to take over the thing. Its the story of Frisky's wife, played by Fay Wray a couple years before "King Kong." She's upset that Frisky is away so much doing his stunts. The dirigible pilot is his best friend and in love with her. While Frisky is on his way to the pole, she plans to divorce Frisky and marry his buddy. Naturally Frisky is saved by his buddy making a dangerous flight over Antartica, and he generously arranges to hide the affair, knowing that Fay has discovered her "love" for her husband. All this is rather horrible in every dimension.But see it for the other two components. Darn worthwhile.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

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.