China Clipper

China Clipper
I have looking for this movie for years.
Great film. Lots of PanAm clipper shots from the 1930s.
I am a San Francisco native who remembers that era as a small kid.
Story and acting also enjoyable.
A must for airplane buffs.

The Clipper Returns
This is a so-so movie with excellent views of period aircraft and airborne photography. The movie is a fictionalized version of Juan Trippe's founding of Pan American Airways and its expansion across the Pacific. Excellent photography of the original Martin M-130 China Clipper and of it flying over San Fransisco while the Oakland Bay Bridge was under construction. If you are a fan of period seaplanes and flying boats, add a star to the rating.

The Movie appears to be a very good copy of a very good original print. It does not appear to be cleaned up or remastered, but image quality is very good. I was disappointed that there were no special features or historical data other than the 1936 movie trailer.

China Clipper - a glimpse of early commercial aviation
This movie has the only available moving pictures of the Martin 301 flying boat. As a model builder, this previously long-unavailable movie provides me otherwise unavailable information about the aircraft as it was actually built. In addition there are priceless sequences of vintage air traffic (Ford trimotors, etc.) activities at the very dawn of commercial aviation. The plot also is a thinly disguised (the early Pan Am logo is on several of the aircraft) and deserved ode to Juan Tripp and his heroic efforts to build commercial intrnational aviation. By all accounts he was truly driven. Finally, the movie triggers a truly eerie feeling as one looks at Guam and Midway in the late 1930''s as PRE WW II sleepy, quaint seaplane refueling stations. What an absolutely incredible change all of the above would experience in the next 10 years.. In sum, for the early aviation enthusiast, this is a treasure trove with unique content! .

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