Russell is a pretty young woman enthralled with flying who learns the tricks of the aviation trade from Marshall, her devoted instructor. Marshall cautions Russell early on to never fall in love with flyers, because "they live at 10,000 feet." But after her first solo flight, Russell bumps
into MacMurray and does exactly that. He's a hotshot pilot who is amused by her ambitions as well as being competitive with those aims. Russell and MacMurray have a brief affair, and then she's off flying in the cross-country Bendix race. Next she breaks the Los Angeles-to-New York record, then
announces she will fly around the world and break that record, too. MacMurray is rarely seen through the middle of the film as Russell goes about her frantic aviatrix business, but he meets up with her just before her last venture ends in disaster. At that time the US Navy approaches Russell and
asks her to fly over the mandated islands in the Pacific to photograph secret military installations created by the Japanese, this in 1937, four years before Pearl Harbor. Moreover, she is asked to crash her plane near these islands so the Navy can conduct a widespread search for her and gather
further information about Japanese operations. Russell patriotically agrees and does crash in the Pacific, and the Navy ostensibly gets its vital information, while the world honors the dead aviatrix as a heroine.
Of course the film is based upon the life, times, and disappearance of Amelia Earhart, as well as flyer Jacqueline Cochran, wife of RKO studio head Floyd Odlum, who took a special interest in this film. Earhart's widower, George Palmer Putnam, allowed FLIGHT FOR FREEDOM to use his vanished wife's
career as long as her name was not used; he was paid, according to one report, $7,500 for the privilege. Russell is good in her heroic role, but Marshall and MacMurray are merely love interest props. Director Mendes does a commendable job of moving the story along, and Garmes' photography is
excellent. Ironically, Katharine Hepburn appeared in a prophetic film, CHRISTOPHER STRONG, in 1933, which closely profiled Earhart's career and strange fate. The film earned an Oscar nomination for its art direction. leave a comment