Criminals of the Air

Pilot and copCharles Quigley is ordered by Border patrol boss John Hamilton to investigate smuggling from Mexico. As he is a pilot, he gets a job flying "The Honeymoon Express" between the States and Hernandez, where people can get quickie marriages. Reporter Rosalind Keith is covering the story, and spots Quigley in his elaborate uniform taking a payoff from the boss of the cafe where Rita Hayworth -- renamed between the previews and the release of the picture -- dances in three sets.

It's a quickie in all senses of the word, putting the former Senorita Cansino in her first Columbia picture under contract and timing in at precisely an hour. There are a lot of shots of triplanes in the air; one, at least, is equipped with machine guns. Marc Lawrence is a hood, Patrricia Farr chews gum, and Ralph Byrd and Russell Hicks also show up. All the characters have nicknames.

When smugglers set up operations near the border, the border patrol agents join the local pilots in bringing couples over the border for a quick mexican marriage. Of course the thugs are pretty smart, and will catch on pretty fast. The story is okay. Did the u s border patrol really have the budget for fighter planes, with mounted guns in 1937? Maybe. It's all fun, silly, and pretty simple. Directed by charles coleman. He worked on some HUGE films, but always as second unit. This is the first film i had seen that he directed himself. Charles quigley died pretty young at 58. And this appears to be the first film where rita cansino was credited as rita hayworth. At 19, with columbia pictures.