Car enthusiasts know this unique machine as the Phantom Corsair, but in a classic romantic comedy of 1938 it was the Flying Wombat. See it in action here.

The Young in Heart, produced by David O. Selznik in 1938, was one of the classic screwball comedies of the era. As such, the movie is far too zany and complicated to summarize here, but It involves a family of con artists, a wealthy spinster, and numerous plot twists and character reversals executed by an ensemble cast that includes Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Janet Gaynor, Paulette Goddard, and Billie Burke. Rather, our focus here is on an eye-catching plot device in the film, an exotic automobile called the Flying Wombat. Of course, the Flying Wombat was in reality a now-famous custom car of the period, the 1938 Phantom Corsair.

Built on an extended Cord 810 front-drive chassis, the Corsair was designed and commissioned by Rust Heinz, a ketchup heir whose true passion was automobile design. While it weighed more than 4,600 lbs with its Bohman & Schwartz-built bodywork, top speed was a claimed 115 mph due to its aerodynamic shape. Heinz intended to put the Corsair into limited production, but his death in a 1939 auto accident ended the plan. The single prototype now resides in the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.

Nearly 20 feet in length with dramatically sweeping lines, the Corsair made an exciting movie vehicle, no doubt thrilling 1930s moviegoers. In one scene below, through a  bit of Hollywood magic we see an entire showroom full of Corsairs aka Wombats in frame. Meanwhile, in the comically speeded-up action scenes from inside the cabin, we find that the left-hand drive Corsair ihas now become the right-hand drive Wombat, and now it has a different instrument panel, too. More Hollywood magic, we suppose. The excerpts below, courtesy of the Romano Archives, are a lot of fun. Please enjoy.