(1935)
3
Craig Butler
Ceiling Zero is a film that only Howard Hawks could have made. Though it's based, and apparently quite faithfully, on a play by Frank Wead, the whole set-up has an unmistakable Hawks-ian feel to it. First, there's the eternal male camaraderie thing, with its spoken and unspoken codes of conduct. There's the importance of honesty and maturity. And there's a rapid-fire delivery to much of the dialogue that could only come from the man who helmed His Girl Friday. Indeed, the first half of Ceiling feels like a dry run for Friday, with quips flying left and right, actors practically falling over themselves to get one line out right on top of the other and a constant feeling of one-upmanship. But the tragic centerpiece of the film changes the tone, and while the switch is convincing, it doesn't feel right; Hawks did not yet know how to pull it off with 100% success. The sequence itself is masterful; it's just the way it fits into the film that doesn't feel totally right. The dramatic aftermath of that centerpiece is also a trifle mechanical, more due to the writing than anything else, and this keeps Ceiling from being as fine a film as it could have been. But there's no faulting the lead performances, with James Cagney and Pat O'Brien practically perfect, and valuable support from Stuart Erwin and June Travers.
Ceiling Zero on AllMovie
Ceiling Zero (1935)
