Skybound

Colossaly idiotic absurd made by imbeciles for imbeciles

"Skybound" is a perfect example of a true B-movie. While today folks take 'B' to mean a bad film, this isn't the original meaning. A B-movie was the second film shown as a double-feature. Usually the other film shown is an A-picture...meaning it had a larger budget, shorter running time, and more famous actors. This B, in contrast, runs only 55 minutes, is made for tiny Puritan Pictures, and features a cast of unknowns or lesser-known actors. Such films were intended to be fast and entertaining....and some were quite good.

The film begins with a so-falled 'Apache Dance'...a French dance number where a couple pretend to fight and it's very athletic. After tossing her around a bit, the story itself begins. Captain Kent is a pilot whose job it is to patrol the US-Mexican border in order to look for smugglers and other crooks. However, Morley and Faber, two crooks, decide the bestway to get to the Captain is through his younger brother, Doug. What's next? See the film...or don't.

While the basic story idea wasn't bad, the execution was terrible. The overuse of stock footage (some of which featured the wrong planes, such as US Army Air Corps planes), scenes of the pilots 'flying' (where they obviously weren't), and the overuse of public domain music were obvious signs this was a super-cheap production. Additionally, the fight scene is awful. It's obvious they used some silent footage and when it was edited into the movie, it was WAY too fast...which is what happens when silent film stock is run at talking picture speed. It honestly looks like MOST of the movie wasn't actually made by these filmmakers...they just filmed a few scenes and relied on stock footage for the rest! This also meant that little, if any, time was left for character development. Overall, you could EASILY do better. A watchable B which is pretty bad...which is a shame as it confirms what too many think...that B means BAD!

This movie has a couple of decent action scenes, but is only fair overall. The plot is not much, and what there is moves slowly - the story is really just a device to set up a couple of aerial chase/shoot-out scenes that are the main highlight of the film. The airplane scenes are not bad at all for a 30's B-movie, and give some life to an otherwise bland film.

The cast is adequate, though they and the characters are mostly one-dimensional. Lloyd Hughes is believable, though quite stoic, in the role of a pilot in charge of the border patrol. Eddie Nugent is likable, but not much more, as Hughes' brother and fellow pilot. Grant Withers plays the usual not-too-bright villain, and there are a couple of attractive women competing for Nugent's attention.

As a whole, "Sky Bound" is not bad, but will probably be of interest only to those who are already interested in low budget films from this era.