COMEDY-DRAMA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 186, 7 August 1936, Page 10

COMEDY-DRAMA

LAUGHTER AT REGENT. “THIRTEEN HOURS BY AIR.” A light-hearted comedy - drama that provides plenty of laughter, thrills, and romance, is “Thirteen Hours by Air,” which is to commence screening to-morrow at the Regent Theatre. As is suggested by the title, the action takes place aboard a trans-con-tinental passenger airliner travelling between New York and San Francisco, and many adventures are destined to break the monotony of what would ordinarily be a humdrum journey. Fred Mac Murray has the role of the pilot who is attracted by a lovely young passenger (Joan Bennett), who he considers is in danger and is anxious to protect. When the machine takes off from New York there is a very motley collection of passengers aboard, including a desperate murderer, and a doctor whose actions are very suspicious. Zasu i Pitts has the role of guardian to a spoilt child heir to a fortune, and the young hopeful himself sets out to annoy the passengers right from the start. All goes well until the final stages of the trip, when snow forces the great machine down into a snowcovered field among the mountains. To make matters worse the murderer takes charge of the situation, and shoots the co-pilot, and the doctor. How the pilot and passengers finally escape from their perilous position is due largely to the spoilt young heir, who thus atones, to some extent, for his many misdeeds.