Did you ever wonder what kind of films the art director Sal Romano (Bryan Batt) from Mad Men would have gone on to make after he left Sterling Cooper? Well, perhaps they might have been a bit like Propeller One-Way Night Coach, a febrile, immaculately period-accurate tribute to the glamour of air travel in 1962.
Only an hour long and rather charming, if more than a bit bizarre with its intrusive narration, this dose of nostalgia — John Travolta‘s directorial debut (he also wrote, produces and appears in it) — obsesses over wallpaper design and aircraft livery almost as much as its sweet protagonist, aviation-obsessed 10-year-old Jeff (Clark Shotwell). The story is nothing more and nothing less than a travelogue following Jeff flying cross-country for the first time with his soignée if somewhat Manhattan-sozzled mother Helen (Kelly Eviston-Quinnett), from New York City’s Idlewild to Los Angeles, making several stops en route. With such a short running time it’s hard to imagine this will ever take flight as a theatrical release, but the Apple-backed project will generate clicks once it hits the internet.
Propeller One-Way Night Coach
The Bottom Line
All up in the air.
