Sky Raiders

Captain Robert Dayton, former World War I ace, has started Sky Raiders, Inc. plane manufacturing and has created a new stealth flier. This plane has also caught the eye of Felix Lynx, enemy spy, who wants the plane to sell to a foreign power. Lynx' confederates try to capture the plane or get Dayton to give them the plans, but Dayton, and friends Ed Carey, secretary Mary Blake, and young flier Tim Bryant foil their pursuits. The serial is way too short on plot and character utilization, but goes way heavy on footage of stunt flying and way too much plot padding (especially from a early 40's Universal) Woods does not seem to be the effective serial lead (but that's mainly because of plot), Ciannelli is hardly in the serial enough to be effective, and the rest of the cast is only ho hum. The plot could have been filled out more if the villains were Nazis or Fifth Columnists, but its very weak here. The cliffhangers are practically all car or plane crashes, and even has one w/ Dayton jumping out of a low flying plane without a scratch or bruise. Rating, based on serials, 4.

The basic plot of Sky Raiders was frequently used during World War 2. An axis spy ring headed by Felix Lynx (Eduardo Cianelli) steals a new invention with military applications (in this case a fighter plane) and kidnaps its inventor Bob Dayton (played by Donald Woods). Universal actually used this plot at least five times during the first half of the 1940's. In addition to Sky Raiders, the studio used it in the three serials featuring the Little Tough Guys grouping and in the Great Alaskan Mystery.

Sky Raiders, as was the case with many Universal chapter plays, tended to use better actors than the other two studios (Columbia and Republic) that made serials at that time. The cast (especially Woods, Cianelli, Robert Armstrong, and Kathryn Adams) all perform quite capably.

Unfortunately, this serial suffers from a script that can best be described cluttered. This film includes a love triangle (between Adams, Armstrong and Woods). Bob is kidnapped by the spy ring and replaced by his identical double (played by Woods, of course). Several scenes end with the throwing of a book. There are also a few scenes between two wisecracking airplane mechanics. These are attempts at humor that aren't funny. At least three of the characters (two of Lynx's henchmen) and Bob's protege (Billy Halop) have little to do. Sky Raiders could have done without them. Dealing with all these characters and plot devices takes a lot of time and the pace of Sky Raiders is often sluggish.

Sky Raiders is not a bad serial, but it's not an exceptional one. I recommend it only for serial buffs.