The Flying Padre (1951)

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Notes | My Summary

Written and Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Produced by Burton Benjamin

Notes

Made by RKO
The film is not a real documentary, it's all setup.

Harding County, Northeastern New Mexico. Over the canyons a sound of a small airplane can be heard - The Spirit of St. Joseph and Reverend Fred Stockmiller is the pilot. This is the story of two days of his life. For two years he's been flying his own plane. His 11 mission churches are spread out over a 4000 mile area and by flying he can get to all of them, whenever he is needed. Today he is flying to oversee a funeral at a small mission church. He returns to his main parish where he's been the priest for eight years and gives mass that night. They are mostly Spanish Americans in the congregation.
The next morning a young girl comes to see him as he is always available for counsel. The girl says that Pedro is a bully and wants Fred to talk to him. He goes and questions the boy and finds the girl is right. He talks to him and the kids walk away together. His favorite hobby is birds and has many in cages. He's also a good shot and likes hunting deer. He has to take care of his plane the most, which he borrowed $2000 to buy. He then gets a call from a mother whose husband is not home and no doctors are around. Her baby is sick and she wants him to come. She is 50 miles away, but he can get there in under an hour if he flies. He lands in a nearby field at the woman's house, he does it all the time. He flies 12,000 miles a year and has 1200 hours of flight time. Ten minutes later he has the woman and child in the plane and lands near an ambulance at an airport that will rush her to the hospital. At the hospital the baby will be nursed back to health - that's all he asks.