Skyway

Ray Walker is a daredevil carny pilot, helping George Hayes, who thinks there's big money to be made in air transport. Before any of their plans come through, Walker and Kathryn Crawford fall in love. She makes him retire from the skies and take a job at the bank owned by her father, Claude Gillingwater. Walker is a poor fit for the business. He also doesn't know he's being set up as a patsy.

It's a cheap second feature from old Monogram, but the script by Albert DeMond from a story by Paul Franklin gets the details right. Also, director Lewis Collins has some good comedy, both in the meet cute between Walker and Miss Crawford, and Walker's fouling up under the despairing eye of Lucien Littlefield. Collins never got out of the Bs, and in the thirty years before his first directorial credit and his death in 1954 at the age of 55, he was in charge of almost 130 movies, mostly westerns. Judging by this one, he could have directed some fine comedies. With Arthur Vinton, Tom Dugan, and Jed Prouty.

When the film begins, Flash Norris (Ray Walker) ends up getting in a couple fights and punches people. While the folks seem like they deserve it, you soon realize that Flash is ALWAYS punching someone and he's a menace. Oddly, when he meets Lila (Kathryn Crawford), she falls for him. I say oddly because quite frankly, Flash is a real jerk. But she plans on remaking him--by getting him a job in her father's bank and civilizing him. But little does Flash know that one of his bosses is NOT a particularly nice guy...and sets him up to be accused of embezzlement.

There is one HUGE problem with this film....you are bound to hate the main character. Flash is an angry, slap-happy guy whose first reaction to nearly EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is to start hitting people....hardly the stuff of heroes! Plus believing that Lila or ANYONE would fall for Flash seems ridiculous! Add to that some, at best, mediocre acting by this leads and you've got a film that isn't especially memorable.

By the way, Flash's partner is played by George Hayes...later known as 'Gabby' Hayes and sporting a beard. He played in a lot of B-movies before moving on to westerns.