Ace of Aces

I never liked Richard Dix very much. He's just awful in the wonderful film, Cimarron, which earned him an Oscar nomination. Any other film I've seen in him seems to show him off as a hammy, middle-aged actor just going through the paces. But Ace of Aces was a slight surprise. This WW I story about a pacifist artist who joins up and become a bloodthirsty killer under the guise of being a flying "ace" seems like the kind of role he needed. In a way it's similar to the role of Yancy in Cimarron, but minus the "Wahoos" he lets out sporadically in that film. Plus in Cimarron Dix pales in comparison to the great performance turned in by Irene Dunne. In Ace of Aces, Dix is the star. No one else registers very strongly. Elizabeth Allan is the girl friend, Ralph Bellamy the commanding officer, Theodore Newton the best friend, Nella Walker the socialite, and the Stroud twins (Claude and Clarence) play fellow flyers. Not a great film by any means, but a solid story certainly helps. The aerial dogfights are good but not as good as in Hell's Angels. Check it out.

Rocky and Nancy, couple in love, when War is declared (WWI, in spite of their early 30s clothing). Rocky (played by Richard Dix) compares soldiers to lemmings "trying to reach a goal that doesn't exist" - Nancy (Elizabeth Allan) thinks her man is "yellow" as she pushes him into going to battle. Next thing you know, Rocky has joined an Aero Squadron and is encamped in a barracks full of nicknamed comrades and a menagerie of "mascots" not limited to a goat, pig, chimp, parrot, and Rocky's personal mascot, a cute little lion cub (actually, he looked sort of like a leopard to me). Rocky starts out fighting his morals against shooting another man - but not for long, it seems, as Rocky gets pretty darn aggressive amazingly quickly - the war has completely gone to his head as Rocky turns into the fighting ace of all aces!

This film is a bit hit or miss - parts of it are good, other parts are quite slow-moving and boring. Richard Dix gives a somewhat hammy performance and there are some pretty fake looking kisses between the two leads, a real lack of chemistry there, I would say. BUT - there is some interesting photography in the air battle scenes, and a few other interesting scenes here and there, especially notable is a scene where Dix is confronted by one of the German soldiers he shot down, now on his death bed. Okay film.

This movie, along with the similar EAGLE AND THE HAWK and ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, is an excellent anti-war film made during the 1930s. It's completely original and unusual enough to merit you watching it. So what's so unusual about it? Well, Richard Dix plays a pacifist who only reluctantly agrees to go to war. However, once he becomes a fighter pilot and gets a taste for blood, his personality changes dramatically. Gone is the decent soul who had once longed to become a famous sculptor and in its place was a man who lived to kill--enjoying every minute of it! While this certainly isn't true of everyone who goes to war, the notion that personalities can dramatically change thanks to the carnage is an excellent point to make indeed.

Considering the era it was made this film was very well made. Of all the fluff that came out of Hollywood I'm sure this was a pleasant change of pace for moviegoers of the day and is still worth watching some 70 + years later.

War and especially combat change a man and usually not for the better for a long time if not for life. This movie went into the dark corners of these human transformations. Great acting, writing, and directing was put into this effort.

Richard Dix was well chosen for the lead of this film as the role called for a tough character in this lead role of fighter pilot ace. Although Mr. Dix is not as well known in film history as Gable or Bogart he was very popular back in the 30's and 40's and a leading man. His untimely death at age 56 shortened a great career. If you get the chance to see this movie, please seize the opportunity to view some real Hollywood history.

As America decides to enter WWI, an artist (Richard Dix) tells his patriotic girlfriend (Elizabeth Allan) that he objects to getting involved in a pointless war "like a lemming." Feeling guilty over her rebuke, he signs up, and after overcoming initial qualms about killing, quickly becomes the best fighter pilot in his squadron, having killed 43 of the enemy. When the pair happen to run into one another on a weekend pass he has in Paris, he tells her that he'll only spend the time with her if she'll have sex with him - that's what he's looking for from other women - and she reluctantly consents (certainly a pre-Code moment). He's gone through quite a transformation, oozing masculinity and aggression so much that even fighting seems to be mostly about personal glory, but he's shaken when he sees real suffering in the hospital, including a man he personally shot down.

The film has elements glorifying war, such as the ragtag fighter crew and their aerial exploits, but it also has elements condemning it, such as the men suffering cruel, lingering deaths, PTSD, and a suicide. Despite having secured an instructor's position, the man feels compelled to go back out and earn more kills to beat some other hotshot's record, something I initially thought might be a metaphor for humanity inevitably continuing the crazy cycle of warfare, but his subsequent actions show a nice (if rather forced) sense of enlightenment.

Unfortunately, despite all these great concepts, the film is rather clunky in its mechanics for delivering them. At times it feels abrupt and at others, confused. It needed some other element with an edge - someone bringing up how ridiculous this particular war was in the first place, a darker change in Dix's character, some kind of arc to Allan's character, or an ending that was less saccharine - to have truly succeeded. It could also have used a little more star power and flair in its performances. I liked the antiwar components and how they reflected the psyche of the country in between the wars, but this one was just average, and not terribly special.