Sort of the pinhead's version of ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, this is more like a pastiche of all of the other classic flying films of the thirties. FLIGHT LIEUTENANT just gobbles up the cliché's of whole sub-genres and plops them down in shorthand fashion. These films can be reduced to a few archetypal scenes so its rather like channel surfing.
Pat O'Brien plays a pilot whose crash which opens the film (1932) kills his co-pilot, the shame of which (he's an obvious alcoholic flying drunk) causes him to abandon his son, change his name and take a freighter to Dutch Guiana to fly in primitive conditions (a-hole boss, a Ford Tri motor he calls Betsy). But instead of Richard Dix or Richard Barthelmess who usually took on the redeeming role, we have Pat O'Brien, after his priest roles so its not even the fast talking, brash O'Brien but the dreary milksop. This Baranca even contains a priest, who is everywhere, especially up in O'Brien's face
This sounds like the backstory of the Richard Barthelmess character from OAHW but instead of showing up in a shroud of mystery with Rita Heyworth in tow, O'Brein's story is specifically delineated and he's flying in SA in order to provide a living for his son and the daughter of the man he killed. So instead of existential hubris we have sentimentality laid on with a trowel. While the population of the Hawks film may be stylized it's done to represent something real about men and the way they face danger and life. Here they're just actors playing parts doing what they have to do to move this turkey along. These are not men.
The years pass, literally, in a montage of marching numbers (the crash was followed by, can you take it, spinning newspaper headlines). Its 1940 and O'Brien's son, Glenn Ford is in flying school. Actually it seems like he's doing air corps training but when he precipitously leaves to join his father in SA there is a big AWOL "Wha?" hanging there. Luckily in this day and age of videos and DVD's its possible to go back and check. The students are all in uniforms and are in a hierarchal system where they take orders from superiors in uniform who are identified by rank, they sleep in barracks, the planes they fly have US military markings, they salute, do roll call, are given demerits etc. However a quick check reveals a shot of the sign in front of the base calling it a flying school, suggesting a late change to correct a hole in the plot logic. The important thing is that we've switched sub-genres, changing from a personal redemption film to a military training film. Of course Ford's girlfriend turns out to be the daughter of the man his father killed and the new flight examiner his brother. So when O'Brien comes to see his son get his wings he has to skulk out lest his terrible secret etc.
The son is so freaked when someone blabs the truth (the whole movie is about O'Brien running away from the truth to protect his son and everyone else thoughtfully filling the son in on each and everyone of pop's secrets). The son takes his test, which he passes with flying colors (sorry) . While pop does see him do it for some reason he doesn't let his son know and disappears right after. Ford doesn't wait to find out if he passed but takes off immediately to find his pop. Somehow that five minute head start turns into about two weeks because Ford's arrival in Dutch Guiana finds O'Brien in the midst of a two week bender. In OAHW Barranca is a port town and flying is into the interior. Here the airfield is located "a six hour donkey ride" inland, a strange place for an airfield. Now the film turns into My Little Margie with an absurd plot to pretend O'Briens' the station chief. O'Brien tells the priest not to let his son know and the son tells the priest not to let pop know he knows. The priest blabs.
O'Brien is so ashamed that he leaves SA and enlists in the Army and you'll never see a doughier doughboy than O'Brien as an Army private. Meanwhile his son is now a Lieutenant in the Air Corps and a hot shot test pilot. O'Brien gets himself assigned to the test base and now the film changes sub-genres once again and becomes a test pilot movie. The challenge here is just how many scenes have to be filmed to delineate a test pilot film? These are the bare bones, a string of absolutely essential scenes. The reunion scene in Ford's rooms also includes a wind tunnel model of the "hot ship" where a crack in the rudder is found. Tail flutter is mentioned. There's the scene where O'Brien pleads with the C.O. (the brother of the man he killed, natch) not to send a boy up on a suicide mission like that, and the scene where O'Brien takes Ford aside and slugs him to fly the plane himself (see The Dawn Patrol et.al.) Of course the biggest joke is the "hot ship" itself. Little more than a customized primary trainer, its the 2cv of airplanes, barely able to go 60 mph, downhill. It would have been passé in 1932 no less touted to go 600 mph in a dive. Its fabric covered fuselage has fixed landing gear, external struts and even wire bracing! O'Brien takes it the required 600 then pushes it until it breaks up and he dies happy. Ford, in the control tower with the other featured players, hears his father's crash and answers the hilarious line :"Who was that man?" with "He was my father" without the requisite emotion knowing his father was now the consistency of Ragu Spaghetti Sauce at the end of the runway.
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