Our semi-deep dive into vintage aviation continues with the extraordinary 1931 Hal Roach comedy ‘Air Tight’. The film is one in the series of short comedies known as ‘The Boy Friends’, which starred Mickey Daniels, Grady Sutton, Mary Kornman and other Roach-trained veterans of the silent incarnation of ‘Our Gang’. Fifteen ‘Boy Friends’ shorts were made between 1931 and 1933 and, as always with early short comedies, part of the pleasure of watching them is imagining what it was like to be out on location on a sunny day in LA ninety or so years ago trying to shoot the damn thing. In that respect, ‘Air Tight’ is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. Directed by George Stevens, who was only a few years away from his RKO rise to stardom, the film is almost entirely a series of air stunts, each growing progressively more complex and inventive, finally topping itself with a climax that…well, just watch it. Remember that this was shot without any–and I mean ANY–visual effects; no rear-screen projection, no matte work, no digitally enhanced shots (duh). It was created by just using the great ingenuity, cunning and tenacity that these young filmmaking craftsmen possessed. The only information on the film’s making I’ve found is a precious short paragraph in an interview with Stevens conducted by Leonard Maltin in 1970. I will quote the pertinent portion. Read it, then watch the movie, then read it one more time for full effect.

“You know, we had no process shots so how do you pretend that glider is up in the air? How do you get it up there in the first place? There was a cliff, where the top of Marina Del Rey is now, that had an edge where we could move along. We got two big sticks which they use to hoist girders. I hooked the glider on a hundred-foot one and the camera on an eighty-foot one. We ran it along the edge of the cliff! It was absolutely terrifying because when it would start to roll. you had the camera boom over you. At least the actor (Grady Sutton) had a glider…”