Murder in the Clouds

The airline in the film flies Ford Trimotors. One in particular, an AT-4, is identified: NC5578. Full details of the history of this aircraft can be found in the Davis-Monthan Aviation Field Register. It was apparently exported to Ecuador in 1945; there is no further information after that.

Three Star flew a biplane, registration NC406N which would indicate it was a Travel Air D-4000. The company, founded in 1925, initially built a series of sporting and training open-cockpit biplanes, including the Model A, Model B, 2000, 3000 and 4000. It was forced into liquidation in 1929 and its assets were purchased by the Curtiss-Wright corporation, which continued to manufacture some of its designs.

The airline company's base is said to be Los Angeles, but it doesn't look like that today.

The main reasons for watching this film are the excellent flying and aerobatic sequences, and the extremely attractive Ann Dvorak who certainly knew how to act in this sort of film.

The plot of this film revolves around "3 Star" a show-offy pilot at an airport. 3 Star likes to drink and likes to gamble as well as show off. Even though he's been grounded because of his stunts, 3 Star is brought in to fly a very important scientist to deliver his new explosive to the government. 3 Star is waylaid before the flight and another pilot is substituted by the bad guys. When the plane explodes in mid air its a race to find the wreckage and the cylinder containing the explosive before the bad guys do.

This is a breezy 60 minutes thats more than likely to keep you interested to the end. Although the plot may sound clichéd the characters and their interactions are not. Every character is quirky, but in a non-clichéd sort of way. 3 Star's gambling is atypical Hollywood, I don't know when I ever saw a character who said that he had been locked up for two days for gambling. The romance is decidedly off center, though it is very real. There seems to be more going on than just witty repartee between Judy and 3 Star, and they seem to have a long history before the film started that you can feel (which is something I rarely sense even in better movies).

I liked this movie a great deal.Granted its not the best movie ever made, but as a breezy hour long thriller its worth taking the time out to try.

This is a 7 if compared with other hour-long B features of the day, not when compared with the A features of the same time period. There are plot holes big enough for ace pilot 3-star (Lyle Talbot) to fly his plane through, but that's OK, because the pace is brisk and the film is full of action. I won't list all of the questions that the characters - not to mention the screenplay writer - should have been asking, because I'd give too much away.

Suffice it to say that pilot Bob 'Three Star' Halsey gets himself grounded for hot-shotting in the air near the airport where he is based. His boss would love to fire him, but both the boss and Three Star know he's too good a pilot for him to lose him to another airline. Of course Halsey has a girl, Judy Wagner (Ann Dvorak), and Judy has a brother who is also a pilot based out of the airport. Up to now Judy has been having to share Bob with his love of the air, but along comes an espionage plot centering around an important invention needed by the military that is to be transported by the airline that soon changes everything.

There are some great aerial scenes here, and although the laws of reason - and sometimes physics as well as the limitations of human eyesight - are being violated left and right, it turns out to be fun although somewhat formulaic without being corny.

Murder in the Clouds (1934)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Bob "Three Star" Halsey (Lyle Talbot) is suspended due to his dangerous stunts as a pilot but he's given a second chance when the government needs to transport a scientist carrying explosive material. Three Star gets jumped in a bar so that he misses the flight and the bad guys blow the plane up in order to get the material. This film has some of the biggest plot holes I've ever seen but the screenplay tries to explain them, which leads to one of the dumbest stories ever. There's one terrific bar fight but that's about all this film has going for it as Talbot is pretty poor here as is the supporting players.

A Mickey Finn saves Lyle Talbot from "Murder in the Clouds" in this 1934 B movie from Warner Brothers. Talbot plays a daring pilot named 3-Star, who is capable of great stunts in the air. His boss chooses him to transport a secret weapon; but the situation is manipulated so that his harmless drink is spiked, and two other men go up in his place, one of whom is the brother of his girlfriend (Ann Dvorak).

Not very realistic but some really fun aerial scenes and a good cast. The film moves quickly and isn't overly long. I remember Lyle Talbot from his TV days when I was growing up, and I love seeing him in these early films. He lived to be 94 years old, which is pretty impressive. A long and prolific career.

Enjoyable.