Ceiling Zero (1935)
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Ceiling Zero is an adaptation of the Broadway play by Frank "Spig" Wead. James Cagney and Pat O'Brien are supremely typecast as, respectively, Dizzy Davis, a cocky civil aviator and Jake Lee, a sober-sided ground commander. Dizzy ducks out of a dangerous mission in order to dally with pretty Tommy Thomas (June Travis). Texas Clark (Stuart Erwin) takes Dizzy's place, and the unpolished young pilot dies in a fiery wreck. Disgraced in the eyes of his co-workers after Clark's death, Dizzy redeems himself by taking a crucial test flight in fog-laden "ceiling zero." Dizzy dies a hero, leaving behind his pal Jake to deliver the eulogy. Isabel Jewell co-stars as Clark's wife, given yet another opportunity to shake the rafters with her emotionally supercharged acting. Ceiling Zero was remade in a wartime setting as International Squadron (1940). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Complete Cast:
- James Cagney - Dizzy Davis
- June Travis - Tommy Thomas
- Barton MacLane - Al Stone
- Martha Tibbetts - Mary Lee
- Craig Reynolds - Joe Allen
- Carlyle Moore, Jr. - Eddie Payson
- Edward Gargan - Doc Wilson
- James Bush - Buzz Gordon
- Mathilde Comont - Mama Gini
- Garry Owen - Mike Owens
- Frank Tomick
- Don Wayson
- James Barnes
- Jerry Jerome - Mechanic
- Louise Seidel
- Helen Ericson - Hostess
- Harold Miller - Pilot
- Pat O'Brien - Jake Lee
- Stuart Erwin - Texas Clark
- Henry Wadsworth - Ted Lawson
- Isabel Jewell - Lou Clark
- Dick Purcell - Smiley Johnson
- Addison Richards - Fred Adams
- Robert Light - Les Bogan
- Pat West - Baldy Wright
- William "Wild Bill" Elliott - Transportation Agent
- Carolyn Hughes - Birdie
- Michael Lally
- Mary Lou Dix
- Howard Allen
- Paul Mantz - Stunt Flier
- Margaret Perry - Girl
- Francis McDonald - Office Worker
- Director(s):
- Howard Hawks
- Writer(s):
- Frank Wead
- Producer(s):
- Harry Joe Brown
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