The Flying Ace

A railroad detective turned WWI Ace returns to his job. His assignment today is to find out who stole the railroad's $25,000 payroll and kidnapped the company's paymaster at a small station near the swamps of Florida. Is it the station master? His pretty daughter? The mysteriously rich man who owns his own airplane? Whoever it is, the movie will feature fights, flights, daring rescues in mid-air and a comic policeman.

It would be a well written and performed programmer from a major Hollywood studio, and largely forgotten today. However, it isn't from one of the majors, it's from Norman Studios in Florida, and it features an all-Black cast. Certainly it wasn't the first feature-length race film; writer-producer-director Richard Norman had been producing them at his own studio at least since 1919. What's extraordinary about it, is that Norman was making films that stand up purely as entertainment. There's no message about the tiny world the Black people were crammed into, like Oscar Michaeux was fond of: just good, clean entertainment.

Or was there a message? We see Black railroad executives, and Black women wanting to fly planes, and Black flying aces.... wasn't this movie saying, in effect, that its audience was capable of all of these things?

The Flying Ace is available on a restoration 35mm print from The Library Of Congress to theaters equipped with dual projectors for changeover projection as no cutting or showings using a platter system are permitted. The film is about 62 minutes in length and is on three 20-minute reels. Enjoy!

Much of 'The Flying Ace' is shot out of doors on attractive Floridian locations and generally well acted apart from the broad and unfunny comic relief supplied by Lyons Daniels as a dim-witted policeman wearing a uniform several sizes too large for him that he looks as if he's been sleeping in and wielding an enormous night-stick, and Steve Reynolds as a one-legged war buddy of the hero (interesting to see a veteran who's returned minus a limb, as so many actually did), whose crutch contains a long-barrelled gun out of which he spays bullets like a character in a spaghetti western. (Another exotic weapon employed is nitryl chloride squirted in a couple of peoples' faces that immediately knocks them out like the purple gas in an episode of 'Batman'.)

Unfortunately the identity of the villain is obvious from the word Go, and the budget simply can't begin to deliver the spectacle promised by the film's title and poster, with the result that the "action" at the climax has to be staged in a manner that resembles a one-reel short made a quarter of a century earlier.

The Flying Ace (1926)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Capt. Billy Stokes (Laurence Criner) is a war hero and when he returns home he goes back to his detective job for the railroad. It's just in time because $25,000 in payroll has been stolen so he must try and figure out what happened even though it seems like it might have been an old man behind the crime.

THE FLYING ACE comes from the Normal Film Manufacturing Company and is an all black cast melodrama. Clocking in at just 65-minutes the film is certainly worth watching as an early example of a race film but there's no question that there are a few flaws to be found here. The biggest flaw is the fact that there are a few too many characters here and I can't help but eliminating one or two probably would have been beneficial to the film.

As far as the mystery itself goes, this here is actually pretty good and I thought director Richard E. Norman did a pretty good job keeping you interested in what's going on in regards to the story. The lead character is a very strong one as he's a war hero and I thought Criner did a very good job in the role. Kathryn Boyd plays the daughter to the man (George Colvin) accused of the crime. Boise De Legge also offers up a nice supporting performance.

THE FLYING ACE is certainly rather routine in ways and there's no question that it's not a masterpiece or even a very good film. With that said, considering the budget it was probably working with the film is certainly entertaining enough to make it worth watching.

Why the hero was made a "Flying Ace" I don't know. The only black American flyer in the Great War was never allowed into the U.S. forces and so flew for the French.

But, so what? The hero here looks both heroic and like a flyer, and he and his one-legged buddy get back home just in time to help solve a robbery.

The one-legger, playing a character known as Peg, is Steve "Peg" Reynolds and I think he steals the movie: Just watching him scurry around on his left leg and crutch is alone enough to make a viewer want to see this movie.

An introductory title card mentions all the players are "colored artists," and they truly are artists. Perhaps not great, still all are competent or better, all are worthy of more and better parts, and that they mostly didn't get more chances speaks badly of the motion picture business.

Florida was in competition for movie production with California for a while, and such big stars as Oliver Hardy began their careers there. So the players of "The Flying Ace" could and should have gone on to bigger and better billings, perhaps especially Kathryn Boyd.

She was cute, fun to watch just walk into and out of a scene, and visually charming. It was easy to understand why one of the villains was so taken with her, and that the hero decided to stay around to get to know her better.

That hero, Laurence (here "Lawrence") Criner, kept acting through 1950 and "The Jackie Robinson Story," racking up 27 credits. As the "Ace," he did most of his acting with his arm, but somehow still came across as a believable strong leading man.

(Ironic historical note: In one movie, his character was "Bull Connors," awfully close to "Bull Connor," the public safety commissioner of Birmingham, denounced for his acts against civil rights demonstrators, and later a Democrat member of the Alabama legislature.)

The production company, the Norman Film Manufacturing Company, was apparently Richard Norman, who wrote, produced, and directed "The Flying Ace," and I think he showed enough ability here, except for the static camera, he could have made many more movies. In fact, he could have taught a few lessons to Oscar Micheaux.

Since Mr. Micheaux seemed to be better at raising money for film production, and Mr. Norman was better at creating and producing moving pictures, they would probably have been a team we'd all be cheering these decades later.

"The Flying Ace" is not a great movie. It can never be considered a classic, but it is a fascinating bit of motion picture history. I recommend you watch it because it's a creation of a little-known production company, with little-known cast and crew, in a state barely known for movie production. It's a real horizon widener.