Blaze of Noon
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
John Farrow
Anne Baxter
William Holden
Sonny Tufts
William Bendix
Sterling Hayden
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the early 1920s, brothers Colin, Roland, Tad and Keith McDonald have been performing as a stunt flying team with a carnival, when Colin convinces his brothers to sign up with Mr. Gafferty of Mercury Airlines in Newark, New Jersey, who has been contracted by the government to carry the mail by air. All the brothers are given physical examinations, and Colin falls in love with the attending nurse, Lucille Stewart. After knowing her for only eight hours, Colin proposes marriage, and Lucille accepts with encouragement from the local pastor. Porkie, the McDonalds' friend and fellow aviator, graciously finances the wedding, and shortly afterward, the mail pilots start work along the East Coast. When Lucille expresses frustration because Colin and his brothers are preoccupied with flying, Colin promises that they will soon have their own home. Just before his twenty-first birthday, Keith becomes the first victim of their dangerous occupation, crashing his plane into a water tank during a thick fog. Roland feels responsible for Keith's death, as he taught him how to fly, and he quits to work as a car salesman. Porkie is then fired after performing a dangerous stunt over a passenger train, and he joins Roland in car sales. Tad, who has fallen in love with Lucille despite his best efforts not to, crashes his plane during a violent storm. Tad survives, but can no longer fly. Lucille and Colin's marriage is tested when Colin's old girl friend Poppy asks to see him, but Colin remains true to Lucille, and they soon celebrate the birth of their son. Although Colin promises to quit flying once he is a father, he is induced to stay with Gafferty when he offers him a raise, and because he believes that flying is safer as the pilots can now communicate by radio. Colin loses his life during his first flight with a passenger, however, when his wings ice over and he crash lands. That night, Gafferty and Tad arrive at Lucille's housewarming party with the sad news. Lucille and Colin's son is later baptized as Colin.
Director
John Farrow
Cast
Anne Baxter
William Holden
Sonny Tufts
William Bendix
Sterling Hayden
Howard Da Silva
Johnny Sands
Jean Wallace
Edith King
Lloyd Corrigan
Dick Hogan
Will Wright
Helen Chapman
James Burke
Bob Kortman
Don Beddoe
Forbes Murray
Frank Ferguson
Jim Davies
Minerva Urecal
Joe Whitehead
Marie Thomas
Earl Hodgins
Beverly Shaw
Billy Curtis
Tom Plank
Ferrell Lester
William Meader
Lester Dorr
Julia Faye
Robert Stephenson
Len Hendry
Hal Rand
Jerry James
Joey Ray
Byron Poindexter
Gene Ashley
Milton Parsons
Billy Wayne
Nanette Parks
Darlene Mohilef
Helen St. Rayner
Donya Dean
Stanley Andrews
William Haade
George Carleton
Billy Burt
Kernan Cripps
George Anderson
Broderick O'farrell
Boyd Davis
Nell Craig
Eula Guy
Geraldine Wall
Carolyn Butler
Margaret Field
Betty Allen
Joseph J. Greene
Franklin Parker
Lee Phelps
Vera Burnett
Ralph Brooks
Frances Morris
John Sheehan
Jean "babe" London
Tex Swan
Lorna Jordan
Dori Marland
Major Sam Harris
Paul Lees
Crew
Roland Anderson
Harry Caplan
William H. Coleman
Sam Comer
Stanley Cooley
Adolph Deutsch
Hans Dreier
Farciot Edouart
Robert Fellows
Sally Forrest
Bert Granger
Edith Head
Devereux Jennings
Gordon Jennings
Roy Kreuger
Paul Mantz
William C. Mellor
Walter Oberst
Arthur Sheekman
Col. Clarence A. Shoop
Thomas Tutwiler
Eda Warren
Frank Wead
Wally Westmore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Ernest K. Gann's source novel was the Dollar Book Club selection for December 1946.
Notes
Although Sonny Tufts' character is listed as "Ronald McDonald" in the film's final credits, he is called "Roland" in the film, and listed as such in the CBCS and copyright records. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, director John Farrow conducted research for this film by flying on American Airlines' freight lines. A review in Time magazine noted that stunt pilot Paul Mantz flew cross-country in record time "for a single-engine propeller-driven aircraft" in order to help publicize this film. An October 1945 Hollywood Reporter news item noted that this was one of the first films produced by Paramount which was based on an unfinished story. The news item noted that "Paramount is stimulating creative writing for ultimate screen usage by commissioning authors in advance of completion of story material or at its inception...." and that the studio intended to "reach...even deeper into the field of plays and novels from the moment of the birth of the idea on which they are built."
