There's not much to say about this little known movie except what's been said before: Bette Davis, when not treated like one of the guys, was given the ingenue roles she came to detest with a passion because they gave her little to do but look pretty, enunciate her lines, and do no more. As "Alabama", there is nothing she can do here but play second fiddle to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as he soars into the skies and smuggles drugs. Of their acquaintance, Fairbanks is reported to have tweaked Davis in a private area -- her chest -- and told her to ice them so they could be erect as his (then) wife Joan Crawford. Whether this happened before or during the filming of this movie I can't say, but it had to have sparked some dissatisfaction within the insecure Davis who already envied the glamour within Crawford, and it's a double irony that in later years this would be one of the clips used to describe just how bad Davis character Baby Jane had been when out-growing her cnild-star status. In any case, PARACHUTE JUMPER is just another bad Warner Bros. movie, short, to the point, with by-the-number performances and a vague HELLS ANGELS' feel.
Review of Parachute Jumper
