Pretty good story of airmen in the First World War, flying desperate missions against German troops and superior German airplanes and pilots, including the dreaded Baron von Richter. It's bloody suicide. Yet there is gallantry in the air and on the ground. Pilots who are going down in flames salute the enemy pilot who has brought them to this sorry state. There was little of that gallantry left in World War II, except in one instance in which an American P-47 pilot damaged an enemy fighter. The pilot bailed out and sailed past the American's canopy, upright and in full salute.
The British pilots we see -- almost all of them American -- are jovial enough in their day room or whatever it is. If someone is shot down, the loss is overcome by an excess of booze and song. The gramophone plays a scratchy "Poor Butterfly" (how apt) and the men drink and sing "The world is made up of lies/ So hurrah for the next man who dies." The pilots are in good shape, pretty chipper, compared to their commander, who is filled with guilt and rapidly becoming a neural shambles. He snaps at the men, barks out orders, and has no sense of humor. The men can't understand this until one of them, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., is promoted to Flight Commander and takes his place.
The film is an early talky. There is no underscore: we hear only the men singing and the gramophone playing. And it's stagy. There aren't many outdoor scenes; the men swill booze and argue and play cards in the day room. The message itself is overstated.
But, ah, the scenes of flight. Great whirling masses of biplanes, some spinning down and trailing smoke. Lots of stunts with airplanes too. It's more like a comic book than like reality but, well, consider the period. The special effects aren't bad. More realism and a more complex message can be found in a relatively recent movie like "The Blue Max." Howard Hawks is uncredited but listed as a German pilot. Well, there is only one German pilot we get to see anything of. He's a victim of one of the fliers on our side and has been brought to the day room for a bash before being taken off to the Gefängnis, where he must have woken up with a terrible hangover. He looks nothing like a young Howard Hawks. True, Hawks was trained as a flier in the Army but somebody is pulling the wool over somebody's eyes around here.
The British pilots we see -- almost all of them American -- are jovial enough in their day room or whatever it is. If someone is shot down, the loss is overcome by an excess of booze and song. The gramophone plays a scratchy "Poor Butterfly" (how apt) and the men drink and sing "The world is made up of lies/ So hurrah for the next man who dies." The pilots are in good shape, pretty chipper, compared to their commander, who is filled with guilt and rapidly becoming a neural shambles. He snaps at the men, barks out orders, and has no sense of humor. The men can't understand this until one of them, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., is promoted to Flight Commander and takes his place.
The film is an early talky. There is no underscore: we hear only the men singing and the gramophone playing. And it's stagy. There aren't many outdoor scenes; the men swill booze and argue and play cards in the day room. The message itself is overstated.
But, ah, the scenes of flight. Great whirling masses of biplanes, some spinning down and trailing smoke. Lots of stunts with airplanes too. It's more like a comic book than like reality but, well, consider the period. The special effects aren't bad. More realism and a more complex message can be found in a relatively recent movie like "The Blue Max." Howard Hawks is uncredited but listed as a German pilot. Well, there is only one German pilot we get to see anything of. He's a victim of one of the fliers on our side and has been brought to the day room for a bash before being taken off to the Gefängnis, where he must have woken up with a terrible hangover. He looks nothing like a young Howard Hawks. True, Hawks was trained as a flier in the Army but somebody is pulling the wool over somebody's eyes around here.