Love on the Run 1937

[Bill Mangus]

This photo and caption are from:

http://www.aerovintage.com/mantz-bio.htm

"Paul Mantz moved with the rich and famous during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, flying many of them in his discrete Honeymoon Express charter service to Las Vegas or Mexico. Here is Mantz with Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, probably around 1940."

Maybe it's from around the time of filming "Love on the Run".

[Matt Revington]

Does anyone recognize the airport that the scenes on Love on the Run were shot at ( I can't believe that the Electra was brought to MGM's back lot where the rest of the movie would have been shot).  Is it the Burbank  airport where the Electra was normally kept?

[Ric Gillespie]

Seems like the filming for Love On The Run must have taken place in the week between August 21 and August 28, and probably closer to the 28th than the 21st.  It's not the sort of thing you'd think would happen while Elliott was there.

But here's something odd. In the Love On The Run clip, at :46, there are numbers on the upper surface of the right wing.  Looks like " - 2".  At :56 you can very briefly see something on the top of the right wing.  Maybe "16". At 1:02 there is definitely nothing painted on the top of the right wing.  At 1:08 the top wing is marked R16020 (although the middle 0 looks a bit funky). At 1:19 the right wing is marked "16 -2" but you can see where the "R" has been removed.

So the aircraft was photographed in three different iterations:
• With the right wing unmarked
• With the right wing marked R16020
• With the right wing markings altered to 16 - 2

Possible explanation.  They shoot the scene before the wing is painted and they think they're done.  The wing gets painted but the director decides he needs another take, so they shoot the scene again.  Somebody then notices that R16020 can be seen in the new take.  Damn! So they alter the number on the wing and shoot the scene a third time.  The final cut is an amalgam of all three takes.  It seems like this would all have taken at least two days.

[Daniel R. Brown]

Los Angeles, Aug. 22 (Universal Service)- Love on the Run "went into production" on Wednesday, August 19, 1936. (The San Antonio Light, Saturday, August 22, 1936)

Dan Brown, #2408

[Ric Gillespie]

Los Angeles, Aug. 22 (Universal Service)- Love on the Run "went into production" on Wednesday, August 19, 1936. (The San Antonio Light, Saturday, August 22, 1936)

Bingo!

[Hal Banks]

There may have been editing on the film itself to "white-out" some of the registration numbers, perhaps in an attempt to disguise the registration.  That might also explain the varying numbers that appear in different frames.

[Bruce Thomas]

So the aircraft was photographed in three different iterations:
• With the right wing unmarked
• With the right wing marked R16020
• With the right wing markings altered to 16 - 2

Possible explanation.  They shoot the scene before the wing is painted and they think they're done.  The wing gets painted but the director decides he needs another take, so they shoot the scene again.  Somebody then notices that R16020 can be seen in the new take.  Damn! So they alter the number on the wing and shoot the scene a third time.  The final cut is an amalgam of all three takes.  It seems like this would all have taken at least two days.

If repainting was done, I agree with the thought of the filming spanning multiple days. In that light, it is intriguing to read the biographical sketch of the movie's director, Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke II, known as "One-Take Woody," on IMDB.com. The lead paragraph reads:

For the better part of his career, Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke lived up to his sobriquet "One-Take Woody" by steadfastly adhering to his credo of shooting each scene as quickly and efficiently as possible. Over his 25-year career, he economically directed over 90 diverse entertainments, which not only saved the studios vast amounts of money but turned out to be some of the most interesting motion pictures created during this period.

And near the end,

In addition, he was known as a "film doctor", who would be called upon to re-shoot individual scenes with which the studio was dissatisfied

[Harbert William Davenport]

The French reviewer of the film in Aeromovies, Christian Santoir, speculated that the two colors decorating the engine cowlings in the film are black and gold, which are the school colors of Purdue University:
-l'avion ne porte aucune décoration, à l'exception du bord des capots moteurs peint en deux tons (peut être noir et vieil or, les couleurs de l‘université de Perdue qui avait payé l'avion ?).

This conjecture takes on even greater plausibility in light of the info that the plane was shown to President Elliott of Purdue University, right about the time that filming began, right?

Are we seeing here a convergence of interests?  Earhart & Putnam want to impress President Elliott, and the producers of Love on the Run want to jazz up the appearance of the plane for the movie??
Is anyone else wondering who actually paid for the new paint job? 
Maybe the same ones who paid to have R16020 painted or masked over into 16-2?

[Harbert William Davenport]

I should add that I found the link to the review by Christian Santoir of Love on the Run in the amazing French website, Aeromovies, as endnote 3 in the Wiki article on the film that was referenced earlier by Greg Daspit.  Thanks for that, Greg.  And yes, Wiki can be amazingly useful at times.

http://www.aeromovies.fr/articles.php?lng=en&pg=1316

[Russ Matthews]

at :46, there are numbers on the upper surface of the right wing.  Looks like " - 2".

That would be consistent with the plane's fictional registration of "16-2" which seems to have been accomplished by the simple expedient of masking or painting over the "R" and both "0"s (with a hyphen inserted). In fact, if you look closely you can still make out the last "0" in this shot as a lighter and less reflective outline of the numeral.

At :56 you can very briefly see something on the top of the right wing.  Maybe "16".

That would make sense for "16-2". In fact at :57 you can also make out that same fake registration on the bottom of the left wing.

At 1:02 there is definitely nothing painted on the top of the right wing.

So it would seem .. thanks to the magic of the movies  :)

Actually the image has merely been flipped by reversing the negative. It's one of the oldest tricks in the film making book for creating two shots for the price of one. Good enough to fool most of the audience (and even the odd world renowned aviation history expert!) Take a closer look at you'll see a backwards "16-2" on the upper surface of what now appears to be the plane's left wing. The effect is most obvious at :59 when the shot begins and you can make out a mirror image of the words "THE LONDON" on hangar in the upper left of frame (part of the set dressing for the movie which is seen in an earlier shot to read "THE LONDON METROPOLITAN AIRPORT")

At 1:08 the top wing is marked R16020 (although the middle 0 looks a bit funky).

I'm not sure what's going on there. I suspect it was either the first or last shot of the day and the art department got caught in the middle of applying or removing the alterations (the "16-2" is present on the right horizontal tail).

At 1:19 the right wing is marked "16 -2" but you can see where the "R" has been removed.

The "R" is still there, but masked or covered (probably with a temporary water-based paint). The ghost outline is a little more discernible at 1:20 (especially around the "legs" of the letter).

It seems like this would all have taken at least two days.

All in all, the airport (probably Burbank Van Nuys) shoot appears to be no more than about a dozen individual set ups. Even if they weren't carrying multiple cameras, I doubt it would have taken a full day to shoot. I'm also fairly certain it would have been handled by a second unit crew while "One Take Woody" remained at the studio with his stars.

Russ Matthews
#0509ECBA

[Ric Gillespie]

Good enough to fool most of the audience (and even the odd world renowned aviation history expert!)

What do you mean "odd"!!!

All in all, the airport (probably Burbank Van Nuys) shoot appears to be no more than about a dozen individual set ups. Even if they weren't carrying multiple cameras, I doubt it would have taken a full day to shoot. I'm also fairly certain it would have been handled by a second unit crew while "One Take Woody" remained at the studio with his stars.

Thanks Russ.  Mystery solved.

[Russ Matthews]

What do you mean "odd"!!!

It means I couldn't remember how to spell "occasional"  :D

[Andrew M McKenna]

Ric

What is the "round" port/object that can be seen on top of the fuselage at 0:14 in the video you posted on Facebook?  It aft of the door that the actor is entering the aircraft.  Is that an air scoop?  Seems to be visible at 0:55, one of three on top of the aircraft.

Seems odd that it appears round.  Maybe it is the shadow playing with me.

Andrew

[Ric Gillespie]

What is the "round" port/object that can be seen on top of the fuselage at 0:14 in the video you posted on Facebook?  It aft of the door that the actor is entering the aircraft.  Is that an air scoop?  Seems to be visible at 0:55, one of three on top of the aircraft.

The round thing on top of the cabin at 0:14 is a little round window in the ceiling of the lavatory.  The three things you see at 0:55 are exhaust vents for the cabin ventilation system.

[Harbert William Davenport]

At least two people have correctly identified the airport in Love on the Run as the Van Nuys Airport, known in 1936 as the "Metropolitan Airport."

First, Christian Santoir, in the Aeromovies review of Love on the Run:
"Les avions du film :
Il conviendrait mieux de dire, « l'avion » du film, qui apparaît au début de l'histoire, sur l'aéroport de «London Metropolitan airport », en réalité, le « Metropolitan airport »  de Los Angeles...."
http://www.aeromovies.fr/articles.php?lng=en&pg=1316

Russ Matthews was the first to do so in our Forum, in Reply # 24 above, his brilliant analysis of Ric's YouTube clip from the film.

One way to verify this for ourselves is to find the YouTube version of the 1941 film Power Dive, which is documented to have been filmed at the Metropolitan - Van Nuys Airport:
http://www.aeromovies.fr/articles.php?lng=en&pg=1316
Then look for the Van Nuys control tower in the background of the scenes at 2:31 & 52:37.
You will see that it is the same tower that shows up in the Love on the Run clip at 0:02 & 1:27.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dvJFAlPdNM&feature=em-uploademail

The Van Nuys control tower that appears in both these films was replaced in the late 1960s by the one still in use:
http://www.lawa.org/welcome_VNY.aspx?id=1128