Movie Review: Non-Stop New York (England, 1937)


Figure 1.-- English child star Desmond Tester plays child violinist prodigy Arnold James who liked to play the saxophone in 'Non-Stop New York' (1937). Arnold is suposed to be abour 14-years old. Sesmond was about 18 years old at the time. He tended to play younger boys. This crime thriller is about a young woman who is the target of a murder plot.Desmond was dressed in a short pants suit. His overcoat was a black cap with ornate fasteners. His white shirt had large collars. His hair was curly and he wore spectacles.

English child star Desmond Tester plays child violinist prodigy Arnold James who liked to play the saxophone in 'Non-Stop New York' (1937). Arnold is suposed to be about 14-years old. Desmond was about 18 years old at the time. He tended to play younger boys. . In the film as an older teenager, he can still be seen eating sweets in several scenes. He has quite a good role in the film. This crime thriller was directed by Robert Stevenson. It is about a young woman who is the target of a murder plot. This is an early airline film. The main female character is on a trans-Atlantic flight from London to New York. Before this film, such films were always set on trains or ships. Trans-Atlantic flights were very new. Desmond was dressed in a short pants suit. His overcoat was a black cap with ornate fasteners. His white shirt had large collars. His hair was curly and he wore spectacles.

Filmology

This crime thriller was directed by Robert Stevenson. It is about a young woman who is the target of a murder plot. The film is based on the novel Sky Steward by Ken Attiwill. We do not know how faithfully it was reproduced in the film.

Setting

This is an early airline film. As air travel was very new, it was not very acurately depicted, but would have probably added some interest on the part of 1930s movie goers. The main female character is a stowaway on a trans-Atlantic flight from London to New York. Before this film, such films were always set on trains or ships. Trans-Atlantic flights were very new. The plane pictured is a luxurious flying boat, not at all like modern air travel. I know that the flying boats were used in the Pcific. I am less familiar with their use in the Atlantic. This is a futuristic airliner and not a plane actually inservice at the time. The plane has an outdoor observation decks so you can go outside while the plane is actually in flight! The Pan Am clippers in the Pacific were luxurious, but not that luxurious. But the film needed space in which the action can take place.

Cast

English child star Desmond Tester plays child violinist prodigy Arnold James who liked to play the saxophone in 'Non-Stop New York' (1937). Arnold is suposed to be about 14-years old. Desmond was about 18 years old at the time. He tended to play younger boys. Arnold played by Desmond Tester is an older teenager,but plays a younger boy. He still wears short pants. He can still be seen eating sweets in several scenes. He has quite a good role in the film. Also of interest is the billing in the credits. Young Desmond was billed with the main actors in bold lettering. He must have been 17 or older yet his clothes did not look out of place. He must have had very youthful looks and his physic was such that he was able to play these parts as a boy aged between 12 and 14. The female lead is a storeaway on the Flying Boat but she meets James who points out that she did not show her ticket. There is then dialogue about the tickets James collects. He wishes to swop her several tickets so he can add the converted Southampton New York ticket. He also has a bag of sweets which he is shown eating from.

Plot

'Non-stop New York' is a gangster film. The herine is Anna Lee who stows away on an airliner. She is able to clear an innocent man of the charge of murder, but is running from gangsters. The gangsters are protecting one of their members and want the innocent man to be hanhed for the crime. They pursue her onto a luxurious transatlantic flying boat where a child prodigy, Arnold James, is travedling to New York for a concert tour. Arnold's dialogue about his violin playing was forth right and spoke about how he loathed music and was not looking forward to playing in the concert. The practising in which he would if he could play the Saxophone. It is this instrument that saved the day later in the film. He was going to use it to knock out the gangster but James was unsuccessful and got punched and knocked to the ground. Later when Arnold, the key woman witness and a Scotland Yard detective were locked in a room his Saxophone playing brought the steward to the cabin to unlock it and saved the doomed flying boat. James tampered with his aunts parachute and it is subsiquently stolen by the New York Gangster who uses it to make his escape but sadly found out it was useless when he pulled the chord for it to open. Oh dear what a calamety.

Dialog

There is witty dialogue from the actors. James: I'll see you later. Principal female lead. ' Yes, make it much later!' Gangster on learning James is a musical prodigy and plays like an angel. ' We shoot them in Bolivia!' James says some cheeky dialogue too wich makes the film good fun to watch. The Scotland Yard detective saving the plane makes an exciting climax.

Musicology

The musicology of the film us interesting. Appealing to popular images in Ameriva and Britain, Arnold is depicted as disliking clasical music. The general public viewed people that liked classical music as egg heads. I think this is unrealistic. I don't know of a prodigy that really disliked clasical music. Some wanted to experiment with different musical forms, but this id different than disliking classical music. But his like of the saxaphone which meant jazz music was designed to make Arnold;s cgaracter more appealing.

Costuming

The cast wears fauirly standard 2930s costuming. Desmond costuming for the Arnold role is interesting was dressed rather like the producers thought a child prodigy should look, even though he was an older teenagers at the time. Arnold wears a dark short pants suit and knee socks. It is true that some ptrodigies were dressed in short pants into their teens, in part to extend their careers as prodigies. e also wore a black cap and a overcoat with ornate fasteners. His white shirt had large collars. His hair was curly and he wore spectacles. Tester did not wear glasses. The glasses were added as part of the prodigy image. At the time kids were teased for wearfing glassess. Healthy strapping, althetic youth did not wear them. But they were seen as suitable for a boy interested in music.I'm not sure if these costume elements were a part of the film.

German Showings

One question we have about British films made in the 1930s was the extent to which they were shown in Germany after the NAZIs seized control (1933). We know some were shown, but we do not know to what extent the Propaganda Ministry piv\cked and chose what was shown. Basically this was not a problem because neither American or British studios criticized the NAZIs. Warner Brothers was the first to do so with Confession of a NAZI Spy (1939). British studios did not begin to depict the NAZIs until after the outbreak of the War. We do not know how carefully the Propaganda Ministry scrutinized films before authorizing their showing. This film might have been apprioved because the NAZOs like to depict criminal behavior in America and to a lesser extent Britain. But the favorable depiction of Jazz music would have been something with wehich they disapproved. We do not know if the film was chosen in Germany. It would be interested to know what films were approved and rejected, but do not know of a source where this can be checked.

Musical Prodigies

HBC has collected information on musical prodigies. We have a great deal of information on their careers, music, performznces and clothing. There are many famous child music prodigies. The most famous is certainly Mozart in the 18th Century, but there have been many others in the 19th and 20th Century. The clothing they wore for their performances were often examples of contemporary formal boys' clothing. Often as they began to grow up their parents liked to keep dressing them in juvenile clothes to emphasize that they were childhood prodigies. Readers may want go have a look at actual prodigies.







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Created: 4:47 AM 3/7/2011
Last updated: 8:24 PM 3/10/2011