The Eagle and the Hawk (Leisen, 1933)

[myrnaloyisdope]

The film's a personal favorite, I adore March in his drunken roles and this is among the best of them. Perhaps because it remains so bleak, whereas most of his films of the era tend to veer towards an upbeat ending. This film is unrelenting.

I thought Grant was serviceable enough, certainly he's a presence, but I still have trouble with his early work, simply because I keep waiting for him do be Cary Grant and he usually isn't. You could argue that his role in this film is a spiritual predecessor to Geoff Carter in Only Angels Have Wings, in the sense that he's so hard nosed (and the flying I suppose), embittered, and workmanlike. But his role in Eagle is written without a love interest, without the opportunity to charm or be likable. Though the closing sequence is quite well acted by Grant.

I can't think of another film of the era that questions the myth of valor so strongly. It's not simply the horror of death that drives March to despair, it's that he is being rewarded for it through repeated commendations. It's the kind of cynicism that is so overtly present in many of the pre-codes I love.

It makes a great double bill with William Dieterle's The Last Flight from 1931, a similarly cynical WWI story of battered pilots, though much more whimsical. Not coincidentally both were sourced from John Monk Saunders' stories.

Both films are lovingly written about in Mick LaSalle's pre-code tome "Dangerous Men", which is a solid introduction to the actors of the era such as Richard Barthelmess, Lee Tracy, March, and even offers a detailed review of John Gilbert's pre-codes.