Flying Devils

"Ace" Murray, "Speed" Hardy, and Speed's wife Anny Hardy are the leaders of The Flying Cats, an aerial flying circus. Speed is a drunken womanizer. Anny falls in love with Bud Murray, the younger brother of Ace, who wants to quit the law for the flying. The love triangle sets off some high flying dangers.

This is basically a barn storming tour on film with a slice of romantic melodrama inserted. Ralph Bellamy is the most charismatic character which isn't saying much. I don't care about these people like I should. The plot isn't much. I do like the flying, the real flying. The audience of the day was probably in love with the flying. This hints of an era. Otherwise, this is fine if not unremarkable.

This is a competent, tidy, short action film and romance from the time when pilots were daredevils. Law student Eric Linden, "Bud," wants to join his older brother Bruce Cabot, "Ace," as a barnstorming stunt pilot with Speed Hardy's Flying Circus. Cabot thinks it is too dangerous a job for his brother, especially with a second-rate group like Speed's. (The group's symbol, which they wear on their jackets, symbolizes their luck; it's a black cat.) The other two pilots with Cabot are Speed Hardy (Ralph Bellamy), the boss, and Cliff Edwards, "Screwy," who is perpetually drunk. But the most dangerous thing that Bud does is not his parachute jumps, or even his two-person parachute jumps; it is falling in love with Arline Judge, Speed's wife, because Speed is seriously jealous.

The plot, dialogue, and acting are just serviceable, but there are plenty of thrills from the ample footage of biplanes flying in formation, twirling and corkscrewing, crash landing, and just crashing.

David O Selznick brought in Merian C. Cooper as Executive Producer to get RKO back on its feet and in the Black. Cooper is best remembered for masterminding the production of KING KONG. He also had a heavy duty interest in airplanes being a flyer himself in World War One (WWI) and was a pioneer of commercial aviation in the U.S.A. So it was natural for RKO to feature a slate of air minded pictures once he was in charge.

FLYING DEVILS combines all the features needed for such a 'B' level action-ere. Flying Circus with veterans of WWI having excitement in the air and conflicts on the ground. RKO standbys Bruce Cabot, Ralph Bellamy with Cliff Edwards are the 'vets'. Arline Judge the wife (Bellamy) and kid brother Eric Linden (Cabot). Faster then you can say CONTACT triangle forms with Bellemy, Judge and Linden with Cabot as referee and Edwards the comedy relief. In between true love plenty of air action with period planes.

RKO made many air films under Cooper's aegis and continued to do so after he left. FLYING DEVILS is well worth a look as are other RKO efforts.

Flying Devils (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

RKO drama has a carnival of flying daredevils at odds. The star pilot (Bruce Cabot) doesn't want his younger brother (Eric Linden) joining the troop but the crooked boss (Ralph Bellamy) talks him into it. Then the younger brother ends up falling in love with the bosses sweet wife (Arline Judge), which leads to a climatic showdown. Once again, I wasn't expecting too much out of this 60-minute "B" film but it turned out to be pretty entertaining due in large part to the cast. Bellamy was just getting his acting chops down but he adds to the entertainment as does Cabot who's as stiff as ever but it makes for a unique performance. The air flight scenes are very well done, although it's clear they're stock footage from another film.

I could imagine that about 90 years ago, the flight stunt scenes might have pulled this movie to another level. Unfortunately, asides from that there just isn't much going on.

The romance story itself, along with some of the acting, reminds me most of an elongated episodes of a soap series... Especially Arline Jude delivers most of her lines with so little passion, that it's hard to get attached to these characters and feel for them or with them.

The stunt scenes spice up the movie a bit, but overall the directing is very bland, almost like a stage play. Not much camera movement and nothing much in terms of exciting cinematography.