Devil Dogs of the Air

Pretty much a stock Cagney plot with the backdrop this time being the US Marine Corps. Pat O'Brien plays a disciplined and responsible officer who has to teach cocky young upstart pilot Jimmy Cagney the ropes. This time the girl that comes between them is Pat's girlfriend, Margaret Lindsay. It seems like it's always either Pat's sister or the girl Pat is in love with. Whichever it is, you can bet money that Cagney will win her heart by the end of the picture. Also we have Frank McHugh in a standard Frank McHugh role of the funny and likable sidekick. This is basically a remake of Here Comes the Navy. Despite the familiar plot, it's a good movie. The cast is great (Cagney is having a ball) and the aerial photography and plane stunts are impressive. It's a bit by-the-numbers for many people but chances are if you're watching this you're doing so because you like Cagney movies like this one.

Standard service triangle film centered around the United States Marine Corp (U.S.M.C.) and its Aviator training program, circa 1935. Warner Brothers (WB) standby director Lloyd Bacon provides his usual workmen like effort in another air oriented screenplay by John Monk Saunders. If it is in the 'air' either Saunders or Frank 'Spig' Wead was going to have a hand in it. Their plots are so similar as to be interchangeable.

The Nuts; Lieut. Bill Brannigan (Pat O'Brien) invites friend and hotshot pilot Tommy O'Toole (James Cagney) to join the U.S.M.C. Reserve Aviator training program. O'Toole arrives and promptly starts to move in on Brannigans main squeeze, Betty Roberts (Margaret Lindsay) and get under everybody else's skin. Usual competition in the air and for the attentions of Betty with a predictable conclusion.

The film featured the usual complement of the WBs contract players all who do a competent job. Except, Frank McHugh, who normally provides light comedy relief. In this film though he was way over the top and irritating, so bad that you wanted him to walk into a propeller (rotating). O'Brien also seemed too earnest, shouting most of his lines while Cagney was a little to coy. Margaret Lindsay a attractive and competent actress made the most her role. Ms. Lindsay by her own admission only took her career as seriously as it needed to be without the drive of Crawford, Davis, De Havilland or Stanwyck.

The best part of the film had little to do with the principals, but actual maneuvers (wargames) by the United States Navy (U.S.N.) and the U.S.M.C. In the film the U.S.N. represented the BLUE Force (true) while the enemy was BROWN Force (misnomer). Those familiar with WAR PLAN ORANGE know that the BROWN Force was actual ORANGE, Imperial Japan. The ORANGE (and other) war plans were a series of studies initiated by Theodore Roosevelt when he was Under Secretary of the Navy. They were continuously gamed and updated to reflect changing requirements and technology, up to their absorption by RAINBOW FIVE, war on a global scale. Watching the filmed maneuvers you can easily pick up on what the U.S.N. was doing and how it applies even today. For more detailed knowledge consult WAR PLAN ORANGE: The U.S. Strategy to Defeat Japan 1897-1945 by Edward S. Miller.

The real founders of the buddy film James Cagney and Pat O'Brien after making their debut in Here Comes the Navy essentially reprise their roles in Devil Dogs of the Air for the Marines.

O'Brien is the no-nonsense flight instructor for the Marines who's written to an old Brooklyn pal James Cagney urging him to join the Corps. Cagney is a circus flier who pretty much knows the flying game inside out.

But he's Cagney and of course he KNOWS he knows it. That does not make for good discipline. But it does make for good raffish, knockabout comedy that Cagney/O'Brien films are known for. Of course there's a girl involved, in this case Margaret Lindsay. Need I say who she winds up with.

The only jarring note in this film is Frank McHugh. During the hey day of the studios, I think Warner Brothers was incapable of making a film without either Frank McHugh or Alan Hale. I usually enjoy Frank McHugh, but in this film he's downright annoying. He's in the medical corps and frustrated because he feels his training is being wasted because no one is ever injured in a crash or otherwise. McHugh is positively ghoulish in awaiting some accident to befall SOMEONE in the film.

However James Cagney is his usual cocksure and charming best and that carried a lot of Warner Brothers films to profit. We the audience profit also by that bouncy Cagney charm.

This movie was directed by Lloyd Bacon and stars James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. This is probably one of Cagney's worst pictures and also one of the worst Cagney and O'Brien made together with the exception of The Irish In Us. Just a year later Cagney and O'Brien would go on to make Ceiling Zero with Howard Hawks which is a much better movie and you should watch that one instead. There isn't much to the plot like Cagney wanting to join the marines and winds up having to learn how to fly by his old friend O'Brien who is a Lieutenant. O'Brien is engaged to Margaret Lindsay but even after Cagney finds out he doesn't even care and still goes after her. There isn't much to the movie and you should watch one of Cagney's better movies instead.

Predictable and formula story that has been re-used by virtually the same cast. I personally ignored the story (partially due to the over-acting by Jimmy Cagney) and concentrated on the historic shots of early Marine Corps aviation and the Fleet Marine Force preparing for amphibious operations before there were Higgins Boats. Some really great flying shots. Who cares who got the girl! A must for aviation enthusiasts.