And only the dead will be dancing with me

[sovay]

I am home from Providence. Autolycus himself supervised the decontamination process, painstakingly ensuring that I smell like him and his sister, not like other cats. The other cats include the Tattooed Lydia, who is longer and more muscular even than the last time I saw her two months ago. She wrestles with Selwyn, who is the size of a small couch; she is having a heroic childhood, like Paul Bunyan or Achilles.

I got back to Boston just in time to meet my mother for Michał Waszyński's The Dybbuk (דער דיבוק‎, 1937), newly restored by the National Center for Jewish Film and showing as part of their annual film festival. Today would have been my grandmother's ninety-fifth birthday. My first intimation of The Dybbuk was a poster that hung in one of the basements where Congregation Bet Ha'am used to meet, when I went to Friday night services with her; I remember that she or my grandfather or both of them told me the story first. I did not see the movie itself until Brandeis; I hadn't seen it since. I will write about it. Watching that movie hurts like looking at the sea.

Dear Hollywood, please make a movie of the California Clipper and its first commercial circumnavigation of the globe in December 1941 and January 1942, under truly ridiculous circumstances. The story is brimful of heroic engineering, it comes with white-knuckle suspense built in, and while the flight was made during wartime, the enemy was geography and mathematics, so we can skip the stereotyping. There's a home front angle. There's human interest all over the place. I regret only that it couldn't be filmed with a real plane, because the last Boeing 314 Clipper was scrapped in 1951. Otherwise, you would need to invent nothing.

Comments

[davidgillon]

There must have been some unstated reason (inter-company politics most likely) they didn't talk to either Imperial Airways, who had the fully surveyed Kangaroo Route from London to Australia for the Empire Class flying boats, or KNILM, who had had a fully surveyed route from the Netherlands to Java before the Germans invaded, and who were still operating in the Dutch East Indies. They couldn't have used the original Med segments, but IIRC by that time the Kangaroo Route had been diverted to fly via Freetown in Sierra Leone to Khartoum, and Freetown is about the closest point in Africa to Brazil.

[choco_frosh]

I did wonder about that, at least on the Kinshasa-Natal leg. Inter-company politics is one possibility; but another is the briefly-alluded-to fact that they were also trying desperately to find routes where no one on the Axis side would think to look for them.

[sovay]

but another is the briefly-alluded-to fact that they were also trying desperately to find routes where no one on the Axis side would think to look for them.

That.

[sovay]

There must have been some unstated reason (inter-company politics most likely) they didn't talk to either Imperial Airways, who had the fully surveyed Kangaroo Route from London to Australia for the Empire Class flying boats, or KNILM, who had had a fully surveyed route from the Netherlands to Java before the Germans invaded, and who were still operating in the Dutch East Indies.

Inter-company politics plus now having to consider themselves a strategic military resource operating as anonymously as possible? I'm also wondering if they would have had the opportunity, honestly, to consult anyone from either of these airlines before they had to leave Auckland, since everything about this trip seems to have operated on last-minute seat-of-the-pants flying blind—see the way they almost got shot down at Surabaya just because they didn't have the local frequency guides and the call-ahead from Darwin never got through.

They couldn't have used the original Med segments, but IIRC by that time the Kangaroo Route had been diverted to fly via Freetown in Sierra Leone to Khartoum, and Freetown is about the closest point in Africa to Brazil.

I'm pretty sure they used Leopoldville as the jumping-off point for the transatlantic leg because it had an actual Pam Am base: it might be a longer flight, but they could be guaranteed of refueling with 100 octane first.

[davidgillon]

It's difficult to tell what was driving their reasoning, IIRC Juan Trippe (head of Pan Am) was fiercely competitive, and Imperial and KNILM would be seen as Pan Am's big rivals in the Pacific. But they were basically committed to flying a part of the Kangaroo Route (and similarly the Dutch version) as there's not much variation possible on routes from Australia to Sri Lanka, so Imperial would have had the charts and bases en route. By flying to Darwin they missed Sydney, which was the terminus of the Kangaroo route, and likely the best base for them to seek help from, but that's fairly logical given the diversion to Noumea, which would bring Darwin almost as close as Sydney, and Darwin's on their way to Java.

The Dutch fighter pilot wanting to shoot them down wasn't completely unreasonable, the Japanese had a four-engined flying boat of the same configuration.

BTW: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Clipper_(1936_film)

[sovay]

IIRC Juan Trippe (head of Pan Am) was fiercely competitive, and Imperial and KNILM would be seen as Pan Am's big rivals in the Pacific. But they were basically committed to flying a part of the Kangaroo Route (and similarly the Dutch version) as there's not much variation possible on routes from Australia to Sri Lanka, so Imperial would have had the charts and bases en route.

I am almost certainly going to try to track down Ed Dover's The Long Way Home, which the author of the Medium articles cites as a primary source, so if it sheds any light on this question, I will let you know.

The Dutch fighter pilot wanting to shoot them down wasn't completely unreasonable, the Japanese had a four-engined flying boat of the same configuration.

I didn't think it was completely unreasonable on the Dutch pilot's part—just striking that the crew of the California Clipper had to rely on the bases and stations they stopped at to pass the word along for them. (Again, I understand they started from Auckland without the relevant frequency guides, but was there no way to obtain them en route?)

China_Clipper_(1936_film)

Nice! I've never seen that. Definitely falls into the category of movies I would watch just for the technology captured on film, like Frank Capra's Dirigible (1931). I can't say much for that one on the story level, but it's a pre-Code Antarctic adventure movie that now feels like steampunk even though its use of airships is totally historical, because at the time of filming—the summer into fall of 1930, so even before the disaster that ended the Imperial Airship Scheme—they were considered the wave of the aerial future and the script treats them accordingly. Major scenes were filmed at Lakehurst Naval Air Station; the USS Los Angeles doubled as itself and as the fictional U.S. Navy airship whose breakup in a storm eerily and accurately foreshadowed the fate of the USS Akron in 1933. It's a fantastic document of a future that stopped short. It just has a dreadful exploration-romance plot that stars some perfectly talented people; it's not their fault that the movie feels like it's just marking time between the air scenes.

[davidgillon]

Dirigible sounds fascinating, even if dreadful!

[sovay]

Dirigible sounds fascinating, even if dreadful!

It is totally worth watching for the airships! Just if you want to make a sandwich or something during a love scene, you have my blessing.

[moon_custafer]

That was the flying, more-or-less civilian version of Anabasis, wasn’t it?

[choco_frosh]

Or the more-or-less serious version of Airplane!, but yes.

[sovay]

That was the flying, more-or-less civilian version of Anabasis, wasn’t it?

Yes! I'd never heard it, despite knowing a decent amount about aviation history and a decent amount about World War II. Do the movie right and I think a lot of people would want to know. I'm frankly surprised there wasn't a movie already in the 1960's.

[edit] My brain actually seems to envision this movie as a cross between The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) and Only Angels Have Wings (1939).

[moon_custafer]

I'd never heard it, despite knowing a decent amount about aviation history and a decent amount about World War II.

Well, the article did say it was kept semi-secret at the time, and I suppose after the war the crew all thought it would be tacky to bring up their civilian exploit, no matter how heroic.

[choco_frosh]

Dear Hollyood, please make a movie of the California Clipper

< Reads about the truly ridiculous circumstances for like ten minutes, to the extreme detriment of actual work >

D'ac, but that almost sounds like less "movie" than "$%^*& miniseries". Wow.

I regret only that it couldn't be filmed with a real plane, because the last Boeing 314 Clipper was scrapped in 1951.

On the other hand, if you built a new one, I bet you could totally sell it afterwards to some dieselpunk enthusiast who'd been trying to decide whether he wanted a yacht or a private plane.
ETA: The cost of actually building one would probably be prohibitive: I forgot the "roughly the size of a 727" thing.
Uhhh...it worked for Waterworld? ohwait.

[sovay]

D'ac, but that almost sounds like less "movie" than "$%^*& miniseries". Wow.

If it were a good miniseries, I'd watch it! I just like movies and I would enjoy seeing the takeoff over the Congo gorges on a big screen.

ETA: The cost of actually building one would probably be prohibitive: I forgot the "roughly the size of a 727" thing.

This is like the one time in the world you want Howard Hughes backing your movie.

Although then he would probably insist on some kind of love interest, so maybe it's for the best.

[lauradi7dw]

Waterworld eventually made back all its costs, after video and TV and so forth. And they used custom-made vessels, and filmed in Hawaii. (The Hawaii film board protested against claims of gouging, but the state did do pretty well by the production - 35 million 1995 dollars added to the economy, according to Wikipedia). Still might not be anything like the cost of a new Clipper.

[choco_frosh]

On...fourth hand?...you're going to need to do a bunch of it in CGI or whatever ANYWAY. There's no way anyone is gonna ever replicate that Star Wars pre-enactment in the Congo gorges.

[gwynnega]

I haven't seen The Dybbuk since 1990 or so. I really should see it again.

There definitely should be a movie about the California Clipper saga. Wow.

[sovay]

I haven't seen The Dybbuk since 1990 or so. I really should see it again.

That was probably the last time it was restored by the NCJF—they put together the first complete print since the '30's in 1989. The restoration is gorgeous and currently touring festivals, so it may well come to a theater near you. After that, there will be a Blu-Ray/DVD and I have designs on it.

There definitely should be a movie about the California Clipper saga. Wow.

Even allowing for the obscurity of the story, I'm really startled there hasn't been one already. Fingers crossed.

[moon_custafer]

Uh-oh, now I have “Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines” stuck in my head.

[sovay]

Uh-oh, now I have “Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines” stuck in my head.

I'm afraid I can't help. Standing Room Only played the 1960 original Broadway cast recording of "It's Legitimate" on Saturday and my internal soundtrack ever since has been Phil Silvers.