| Flying Padre | |
|---|---|
 Title card fromFlying Padre | |
| Directed by | Stanley Kubrick |
| Written by | Stanley Kubrick |
| Produced by | Burton Benjamin |
| Starring | Fred Stadmueller |
| Narrated by | Bob Hite |
| Cinematography | Stanley Kubrick |
| Edited by | Isaac Kleinerman |
| Music by | Nathaniel Shilkret |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 9 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Flying Padre is a 1951short subject black-and-whitedocumentary film. It is the second film directed byStanley Kubrick. The film is nine minutes long and was completed shortly after Kubrick had completed his first film forRKO, the short subjectDay of the Fight (1951). The studio offered him a follow-up project for their Screenliner series.[1]
The subject ofFlying Padre is aCatholicpriest in ruralNew Mexico, Reverend Fred Stadtmueller. Known to his parishioners as the "Flying Padre", his 4,000-square mileparish is so large, he uses aPiper Cub aircraft (named theSpirit of St. Joseph) to travel from one isolated settlement to another.
The film shows two days in his daily life, with the Reverend providing spiritual guidance, saying a Funeral Mass, and other glimpses of his life such as his breakfast routine at the parish house. His days include a funeral service for a ranch hand, and counseling of two young parishioners who have been quarrelling. In the climax of the film. the "Flying Padre" also operated as an impromptuair ambulance by flying a sick child and his mother to hospital.
After Kubrick sold his first short film, the self-financedDay of the Fight, to RKO in 1951 for $4,000 (pocketing a $100 profit),[2] the company advanced the 23-year-old filmmaker money to make a follow-up project, a documentary short for theirPathe Screenliner series which specialized in short human-interest documentaries. He originally wanted to call the filmSky Pilot but the studio did not like the title.[1][3]
Flying Padre is narrated byCBS announcerBob Hite.[N 1]
In an interview in 1969, Kubrick referred toFlying Padre as a "silly thing".[2]Flying Padre, however, was an important landmark in his budding career as a filmmaker. "It was at this point that I formally quit my job atLook to work full time on filmmaking," Kubrick stated in an interview."[1]