Sky Giant

JOAN FONTAINE struggled through some pretty dismal roles during her starlet days at RKO, but at least SKY GIANT gives us a look at Fontaine as an attractive heroine with the capability of making us sit up and take notice in a strictly ingenue role that is not particularly well written or original. However, she is blond and pretty and makes the most of it.

Like her sister, she had to make do with the kind of role that supplied the romantic interest while the men (RICHARD DIX, CHESTER MORRIS) move the plot forward. And while they do move forward, it's still a rather plodding aviation story that had been done many times before with a bigger cast and budget.

Dix and Morris do well enough as the male buddies who antagonize each other with practical jokes (think Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy in TEST PILOT or Errol Flynn and Fred MacMurray in DIVE BOMBER). The flying scenes are fun to watch and provide a modicum of suspense, especially for the finale where their plane crash lands in the Arctic. The only other matter to be cleared up is whether Joan will end up with Dix or Morris as a suitable mate. For that, you have to watch the film.

Sister Olivia de Havilland was starring in the same sort of film the following year when she did WINGS OF THE NAVY at Warner Bros. with George Brent and John Payne as rivals for her affection. But in 1938, while Joan was playing this kind of starlet role at RKO, Olivia was already riding a horse in Sherwood Forest for what became one of her most famous roles opposite a charmer called Errol Flynn in a little gem called THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD.

As programmers go, SKY GIANT is above average in appeal, clearly a film made on a small budget but showing that Joan Fontaine was an ingenue who had promise.