A pair of aviators flying from China to the United States spot a boat full of bathing beauties in peril. Rescue and romance ensue in this late silent era Mack Sennett comedy but feline comedian Pussums steals the show.
Home Media Availability: Released on DVD and Bluray.
Answer to a Maiden’s Prayer
By the late twenties, Mack Sennett had been in the funny business for almost two decades and had hit on a winning formula to keep afloat amidst his rivals: bathing beauties, stunts, special effects and pop culture references with a sprinkling of color sequences to spice things up.
Love at First Flight had all these ingredients and its chosen pop culture touchstone was Charles Lindbergh’s successful transatlantic flight, which had been accomplished just six months before the picture’s January 1928 release date. Pilots had been sex symbols since Kittyhawk and the movies had merrily showcased their appeal but Lindbergh’s popularity brought added new frenzy to the trend.
Pilot Jimmy Hawks (Joe Young) is flying the Spirit of Shanghai from China to the United States, aided by his co-pilot, Andy McCannick (Lige Conley) and his cat, Tom Sing Long (Pussums), who drinks milk from a baby bottle and is engaged in live action Tom and Jerry antics with a sturdy rat.
Meanwhile, Polly Polka (Daphne Pollard) has taken her dance class to the beach. (Students of fashion history should be very pleased by the lingering shots of stylish swimwear.) Miss Polka despairs of ever finding a man and throws herself into her work, taking her bevy of beauties on a row boat tour of the ocean. Chaos inevitably ensues but help is on the way from 5,000 feet above.
Jimmy saves the class, while Andy, who jumped out of the plane without his parachute, is rescued by Miss Polka, who straddles him and rows him ashore. Pussums, meanwhile, successfully lands the Spirit of Shanghai and runs off after her rat once again.
Jimmy is surrounded by beauty but abandons all of them when he spots Nita Nutty (Madeline Hurlock and, yes, her character’s name, a play on Nita Naldi, did elicit a chuckle from me), the beachside vamp. Miss Polka is trying to keep hold of Andy and has her class demonstrate their dancing skills. Chaos continues to ensue and Pussums has the last laugh…
Sennett has usually been hit or miss for me, even in his early-1910s glory days, and the hits tend to outnumber the misses during his last days as a silent film producer. I rather like the Smith Family series but, for the most part, have found his later work to be inconsistent, badly paced and generally employing the “throw everything to the wall and see what sticks” strategy badly. I would rather have three or four gags done very well than dozens of wisecracks that fall flat.
I was happy to discover that Love at First Flight is a tidy, tight little package that keeps its focus (pilots, dancers, cats) throughout. There’s nothing particularly new but it’s all put together well and flows nicely.
The main reason I gave this picture a shot was Daphne Pollard, the top-billed star. She could mug and pratfall with the best of the boys and was generally better than the films she was in. (See also: Dot Farley.) She plays her usual fussy character here, likely named because the polka was seen as the epitome of an uncool old fad by the twenties, but she is given clear motivation: Andy or bust! And she has the best gag in the picture during the color dance sequence.
The color sequence is not just an excuse to show off the beauties in color. I mean, that was a primary reason for it but then Pollard leaps in with her intentionally ridiculous dance. Color sequences in films of this period tended to be reserved for showstopper sets, dances, the grand finale, etc. (Think the Mask Ball in The Phantom of the Opera and the Roman festival in Ben-Hur.) They also tended to be a bit formal with everyone on their best behavior. So, having Pollard suddenly go wild is humorously jarring and the joke gets better if you have seen a fair number of silent films.
However, none of this can compare to the charm Pussums (spelled “Puzzums” in some sources) brings to the film. Most animals can be trained to some degree but very few of them can act and Pussums was a true actor. (I couldn’t find a definitive answer on Pussum’s gender, so I will defer to a single article that called the cat “her.”) Look at her reaction when she spots the rat while nursing her bottle. Look at the way she pops up in the window after she lands the airplane.
(Pussums also figured into the Daphne Pollard-Carole Lombard comedy Run, Girl, Run, a play on the phenomenal popularity of Olympic runner Paavo Nurmi. In that film, however, Pussums had bunion plasters stuck to her paws and it was rather unpleasant to watch the poor thing struggle with them. In contrast, she spends much of Love at First Flight batting at a rat-shaped finger puppet, chasing a cartoon rat, and interacting with the real deal. I far prefer this vehicle for her talents.)
It’s also interesting to look at Love at First Flight in contrast to the 1912 Sennett comedy A Dash Through the Clouds. That picture also featured a daring pilot, who charms Mabel Normand and frustrates her wishy-washy boyfriend. While Love at First Flight relies heavily on animation, color film and a full-size airplane prop, A Dash Through the Clouds just had Normand, a real aviator and his extremely in-real-life dangerous airplane. While I enjoyed both pictures quite a bit, A Dash Through the Clouds feels fresh, free and exciting after over a century.
Still, Love at First Flight isn’t exactly chopped liver. In my opinion, this is a far more successful Daphne Pollard comedy than either The Campus Vamp or Run, Girl, Run. Nobody goes to Sennett pictures for the plot but the thin story is considerably smoother in Love at First Flight and its 18-minute runtime flies by (ha ha). The gags are neatly arranged without any of the disjointed awkwardness of some other late Sennett silents.
I was amused and had some laughs and what more can you ask from a comedy short? Come for Daphne Pollard but stay for Pussums.
Where can I see it?
Released on DVD and Bluray as part of Undercrank Productions’ Accidentally Preserved series. It features a fine piano score by Jon C. Mirsalis. Undercrank provided a review copy to me.
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Movies Silently 
A live-action cat chasing a cartoon rat in a silent-era comedy? I’ll have to give that one a look.
It was a cartoon rat and cartoon cat as special effects standins for the real critters. The rat was doubled by both a puppet and a cartoon. Quite interesting stuff.
I’m always up for a Lige Conley film which is why I purchased this DVD from Undercrank Productions. Many amusing scenes (although I do squirm through many animal scenes from back then knowing they weren’t treated as carefully, but this one didn’t seem as bad). I am eager to re-watch it keeping your comments in mind.
Yes, I think the scenes with the real rat may have been stressful to the rodent but Pussums seems quite calm here.