Flying Padre: An RKO-Pathe Screenliner

---

You'll find Harding County

in northeastern New Mexico.

It's here that

our story begins.

Over the plateaus and canyons

near the village of Mosquero,

the sound of an

airplane can be heard,

a single-motor ship, flying low.

To many of the people here this

plane, the Spirit of Saint Josef,

has a special significance.

It's the plane that

brings their priest,

the Reverend Fred Stadtmuller.

This is the story of 2 days, he'd call

them 2 ordinary days, in his life.

For 6 years, Father Stadtmuller

has been piloting his own plane.

Today he's on his way

to Gallegos to conduct

a funeral service for a ranch hand.

Two men wait for him at the tiny

field he uses for an airstrip there.

Although his 11 mission churches

are spread out over a 4,000

square miles area, the Padre

can overcome the handicap of

distance by flying from his main

parish, Saint Josef's in Mosquero,

to wherever his duties take him.

Later, Father Stadtmuller officiates

at solemn services for the deceased.

Friends from nearby

ranches join the family

as the simple wooden coffin

is carried to the tiny

graveyard alongside the mission church.

To the main parish in Mosquero,

Father Stadtmuller returns in his

plane in the late afternoon,

to conduct evening devotions.

Most of his parishioners are

Spanish-Americans, the majority of

them small farmers or ranchers... and

he's been their priest now for 8 years.

Next morning as he's eating

breakfast in the parish house,

a young girl from the village

comes to see the Padre.

She brings a very special

and difficult problem.

The wise and friendly counsel of the

priest is always available to his flock,

and he listens attentively

as the girl tells her story.

"Her playmate Pedro is a bully.

He teases her, fights with her,

is cruel to her. Won't

Father talk to him?"

The Padre says that he will, at once.

And his questioning soon discloses that

the girl is right: Pedro's conduct in

the matter leaves something to be desired.

An amicable settlement, even though Pedro

soon drops the arm around the shoulder.

At any event, peace seems

momentarily restored.

When his work and studies permit, Father

Stadtmuller turns to his chief hobby,

his birds. He raises canaries, occasionally

sells them to members of his parish.

He's also a crack shot, likes

to hunt deer and other game.

Much of his spare time is spent

keeping his plane in constant readiness.

He borrowed 2,000 dollars from a friend to buy

it, and it served him and his neighbours well.

He's grown accustomed to

emergency messages like this:

a sick baby, a telephone call,

a mother's plea for help.

The Padre talks to the young

mother:
husband away on business,

baby's sick, getting

worse, no doctor nearby.

Please hurry Father!

She's at an isolated

ranch 50 miles away.

He can get there in

less than an hour.

While the mother comforts the ailing

baby, the priest heads for the ranch.

He'll have to land in a nearby

field, but he's used to that.

He flies 12,000 miles a year, has

more than 1,200 hours in the log.

the mother sees the Spirit of

Saint Josef bank over the house.

prepares to take off with his precious cargo.

His destination is Tucumcari,

where an ambulance is waiting

at the airport to rush

the child to a hospital.

This is the end of the journey:

the airport at Tucumcari.

The ambulance is waiting. The

hospital is only minutes away.

There's no brass band here,

no cheering crowds,

no newspaper men clamouring for a

headline. Just an ambulance driver,

an anxious mother, a sick

baby and their priest.

In the hospital the baby will be treated

and nursed back to health. And that, really,

is the only reward ever asked by the

Spirit of Saint Josef's flying Padre.

Rate this script:1.5 / 2 votes