O Ás dos Ases

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.

Richard Dix gets above the title on this war time flick. Co-stars british Elizabeth Allan and Ralph Bellamy. Actor Dix was already forty, much older than everyone else in the troop of foreign flyers, fighting the germans in the sky. He is a great pilot and strategist, and racks up many kills. Keep an eye out for the awesome Grady Sutton, when he comes in with news of the war. Had mostly uncredited roles before this, and even this one was uncredited. It's the typical war time flick. Men went off to war, and came back changed. How will the experience change his relationship with his girl Nancy from back home? And he gets a little too philosophical near the end... does the viewer really need a discussion on the pros and cons of going to war? Bellamy was just getting started in hollywood... this was one of TWELVE films released in 1933 for him. Granted, it wasn't a big role. Story based on bird of prey by John Saunders. Directed by walt ruben. Married to actress Virginia Bruce when he died at 43 of a bad heart. Dix also died young at 56, of heart problems.

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.

A mild-mannered sculptor who hates war becomes the ACE OF ACES in World War One.

Although nearly forgotten for decades, this powerful little anti-war film packs a punch as it focuses on the young men of an American flying squadron stationed in France. Cynical & flippant, they know the odds are against them surviving the war and they each deal with that knowledge in their own way.

Richard Dix, an excellent actor who has become undeservedly obscure, gives a powerful performance as a pilot embittered by war's savagery yet delighting in his ability to kill. His reaction at finally meeting one of the Germans he has mortally wounded is only one moment which gives the actor much scope to display his craft. Lovely Elizabeth Allan portrays the weary front-line nurse, once Dix's fiancée, who brings some humanity back into his life.

Ralph Bellamy plays Dix's no-nonsense superior officer; Theodore Newton does well as Dix's barracks mate. Movie mavens will recognize an uncredited Grady Sutton as an excited house guest.

RKO has given the film fine production values, with the flying sequences especially well mounted. The movie is marred slightly by the ending, which is rather unbelievable considering the moments leading up to it. And whatever happened to the chimp & the lion?

Ace Of Aces casts Richard Dix as a sculptor who is determined just not to get involved in the war even after the USA enters. But those were jingoistic years and when his own girlfriend Elizabeth Allan shames him into it he joins the Army and gets into the new Army Air Corps.

Once he's involved Dix discovers he has a taste for war and gets real good at combat flying. Others who aren't as good get dead and soon. But he's taken up by the media and is soon like Eddie Rickenbacker, the Ace Of Aces. And Elizabeth Allan does not like what she sees when she visits the front doing war work.

Dix gives a fine performance, one of the best I've seen in his talkie period. Very good use is made of the combat footage. It might very well have been outtakes from Howard Hughes's Hell's Angels or Paramount's Wings instead of the real deal or a combination. Still it's effectively added in.

Kudos also go to Ralph Bellamy as Dix's immediate superior who doesn't like him and has him figured out very well. One big flaw is the film has an obviously tacked on ending.

Ace Of Aces still holds up well after eight decades and ranks up high with aviation themed films.