Air Patrol

It's an interesting film technically, but the story and characters are very insignificant. An invaluable painting is stolen and collected from a skyscraper roof by a helicopter, and all the rest of the film is the trouble of the police to trace this helicopter and the painting. The motive is obvious, someone needed money, and used the painting for blackmail. We learn about the crook at a rather early stage, and there is no doubt about it when he pushes someone off that same roof of the theft. It's a very ordinary plot of hide and seek, but the end chase is very exciting for its very unusual procedure, and you can follow the entire manhunt from the air. The criminal has no chance of course, his end is inevitable, and the romance of the film does not succeed in making it more interesting. The film is actually only interesting from a technical point of view.

Despite a rather low budget and mostly actors you probably are not familiar with, this is a decent police drama.

The story begins with a robbery of a valuable painting and the getaway part is interesting...the thief leaves via a helicopter late in the night. After investigating, the police are able to determine that a helicopter must have been used. In the meantime, the thief has contacted the company that has insured the painting and the man who owned it...demanding ransom. Can the police get back this painting AND catch the man responsible?

The film is not a film noir caper, but a rather straight forward police film. The only real gimmick is the use of helicopters both to commit the crime and catch the thief. Well worth seeing, though not a must-see either.

This film Air Patrol looks like a pilot for a television series involving the Air Patrol of the Los Angeles Police Department. Robert Dix plays a retired Air Force helicopter pilot now doing the same thing for the LAPD.

The plot concerns the theft and then ransom demand for a valuable painting. The thieves slugged Merry Anders and made off at night with the painting from a helicopter off the roof of the Los Angeles building it was in.

Willard Parker of the robbery detail and Dix of Air Patrol handle the theft and the demand for ransom. The surveillance of the Air Patrol is of course the key to solving the case and recovering a painting.

Routine action film, obviously no television series came from this. Nothing terribly special.

In AIR PATROL, one of many low-budget movies directed by Maury Dexter, the wheels of justice move slowly, and the blades even slower. Scenes with the police helicopter dotting the blue sky of what seems like the rural suburbs just beyond a skyscraper-laden landscape, takes some time, but are still suspenseful and entertaining...

Beginning with a soundtrack like any cop program of that era, though leaning on a jazzy upbeat over the usual forceful punch... other times providing bits of Halloween horror flick Tiburon sounds... as a faceless male thief steals a painting, and then takes off in a helicopter that meets him on that high-rise building's roof...

The one-man knockoff went easy enough, and only one lady, working late, got in the way: but only for the amount of time to get bonked unconscious in this breezy Late Noir with a beautiful, edgy, cranky, cop-hating ingenue, with old school chops of one of those brisk and edgy Femme Fatalle's, or the curt best friend of the leading lady on here, she's in the lead...

Waking up after the heist with a feeling liken to a hangover, or worse, and she's our primary starlet, looking better than ever: that being Merry Anders, as part of our ongoing "Merry Anders Cinema" and/or, on other flicks sans the exotically wide-eyed ingenue, Maury Dexter Cinema, for her already covered in b-movie write-ups of THE HYPNOTIC EYE and RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA, here playing Mona, under questioning in the same office building by a wise, patient yet assertive veteran cop Lt. Taylor played by Willard Parker and then our hero, a mellow, younger lawman whose primary task is a flier in the AIR PATROL. Bob Dix's Sgt. Castle slowly melts Anders down into not being so feisty and aggravated... But that's skipping ahead...

Merry has the best role here, or at least the most rounded, delivering a character-arc as she's questioned several times, going through a barrage of emotions in several offices and her home/budding art studio as well: She slowly melts from being a young generational rebel to a more sincere and understanding "gal" of the previous era... but without losing her independence...

Other soft-interrogations occur in the low budget fashion, mostly indoors after an establishing shot of either apartment buildings or houses...

Nothing fancy, and yet the storytelling's sparse and effective, aided by a Film Noir style narration by Dix, explaining not only the mysterious case of who could have possibly acquired a copter to pull off such a scheme, but also providing a sort of "TV Pilot" vibe throughout... And yet PATROL doesn't try winning over the audience with gunshots, car chases or testosterone...

Instead, it's a vehicle that goes beneath the catapulting aftermath in a manner to realistically show the meticulous, detailed precision of how cops work rather than the daydream of what it'd be like to live an adventurous life - fans of the standard Cop Movie, beware of this sleeper. "I'll tell you about the Force as a career," Dix smoothly tells Anders, "and you can tell me about the town where nobody paints." Belated pulpy new noir at its most obscure finest!

Maury Dexter, who went on to direct LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE and HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN, began his career with Lippert Productions and cranked out many exciting B films. AIR PATROL is one of them, a film all about aerial cops who fly around Los Angeles, attempting to nail the bad guys.

A famous painting, worth a fortune, is the center of attention here where some real nasties are out to get their hands on it. Lots of familiar faces in this one, but at the top is veteran Douglas Dumbrille, at his crafty best. There's a terrific scene where he meets a "colleague" and pushes him off a 10 story building --just for starters.

This is really a great film, campy and fun as you watch the cops vs. The robbers and some excellent aerial footage of helicopters, especially a car chase as they hover over Dumbrille's station wagon as he makes his getaway. A big thank you to FXM retro channel for re-running this little gem of late, and perfect viewing for late night weekends. Some great shots of 60s Hollywood, especially the famous Hollywood Bowl, eerily empty and very quiet.

Dexter would next go on to direct the cult classic THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH. These two films make a fantastic back to back feature. You have to shop around as this may be on a private label dvd.