Watch Non-Stop New York For Free
Non-Stop New York
A young woman finds herself as the intended victim of a murder plot on a transatlantic flight from London to New York.
Release : | 1937 |
Rating : | 6.6 |
Studio : | Gaumont, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Director of Photography, |
Cast : | John Loder Anna Lee Francis L. Sullivan Frank Cellier Desmond Tester |
Genre : | Drama Thriller Crime Romance |
Watch Trailer
Cast List
Related Movies
Reviews
Strong and Moving!
Awesome Movie
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Anna Lee is a cute English blond, who kept her looks as she aged, stranded in New York after her show closes. She witnesses a murder. An innocent vagrant is convicted and sentenced to death, but Lee, who has by this time returned home to London, knows the real murderer. She runs to Scotland Yard but the Inspector, handsome young John Loder, dismisses her as just another publicity-seeking showgirl.Desperate to save the vagrant, who will be executed in two days, Lee stows away aboard a flying boat. Other passengers, by the most improbable coincidences, include Loder, the actual murder (Francis L. Sullivan), a small boy who is a violin virtuoso, a blackmailer, and assorted others.Sullivan is not the blustering hefty ham of his later years. Here, he's elephantine but soft spoken, almost effete, well greased. Anna Lee is no more than another pretty English girl. Nova Pilbeam or Madeleine Carol could have handled the role. But Lee's allure had an interesting feature in that its zenith lasted for twenty years or more. Her career, in fact, lasted 71 years, from 1932 to 2003.There are bits of drollery in the dialog, none of it overdone. The setting -- the remnants of the Great Depression in 1938 -- are neatly evoked. Lee can't afford the cup of coffee and the ham sandwich she orders at the drugstore counter -- total, twenty cents.And the airplane taking all those passenger to New York is a sight to behold. Private compartments, as on a train, a dining room, an observation deck. Surely Hitchcock would have handled it differently but this isn't to be dismissed as junk by any means. The plot is its weakest part, but it doesn't torpedo the rest of the film.
An epitome of a nice long-forgotten filmie from the 1930s. Most of the cast and the crew also appeared in some of Hitchcock's flicks (especially in Sabotage), so be ready for some justified deja vu. Of course, you may find it very similar to Hitch's carefree yet gripping thrillers of that period, but it definitely has some charm of its own. The humour here still works, especially in the scenes with fake eyewitnesses. The cast is also solid, as is the script. I also enjoyed the amusing plan of Jennie's getting on a boat. The reason why I give it a 3/5 is that at times it lacks logic (as it always happens with thousands of thrillers) and the flying boat seems to be a paradise for criminals. And, of course, it'd have been a far well-known film that it is, if it was somehow connected with Alfie.Available on YouTube and Archive.org.
I first heard of Non-stop New York while browsing, of all things, the Aurum Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction films. The only reason that this film was included in that book was because it is 'futuristic' by 3 years; it was made in 1937 while the main action takes place in 1940. One interesting point is that the filmmakers did not know that WW2 had started by then and so there is no mention of it.For some reason, the film is very obscure, only 39 viewers (including me) having voted for it on IMDb at the time of this writing. But is a fast moving little thriller full of incisive British wit. The film is so quintessentially British that one cannot help but notice that even the 'Americans' are local actors wincing with their attempts at transatlantic accents. But for this one minor flaw, the film is thoroughly enjoyable with perfect casting and good, if lightweight performances. An added bonus, certainly from my own perspective, is that most of the action takes place on board a Transatlantic Clipper, one of those seaplanes that were so glamorous in the 1930s. A definite Collector's item and I am the proud owner of a good quality VHS tape.
I saw this film some years back on PBS and only wish I could find a copy of it now. A young woman witnesses a murder in New York, and promptly leaves for England. She sees the news in a London paper about a man in New York about to be executed for the murder, and she knows he is innocent. She has to get back to NY as fast as possible to save an innocent man from the electric chair, and so she stows on the Air Boat, Non-stop to New York. Some of the lines are so good that years later, they still echo in my head.Much of the movie takes place on this incredible aircraft, which takes off from the Thames in London, and is like a flying..., well, boat. Dining room, state rooms, close quarters, nasty travel companions. It's all here.Borders on Film Noir, but with a wry sense of humor.If you like the style of the 1940s, and slightly outlandish stories so characteristic of the period, I dare say you will enjoy this English trifle quite a bit!I won't reveal the ending, so you'll have to see the film to know if she arrives in time!