Review by rdavies0303

When I was a lad my parents wouldn't let us have a TV. Some neighbours did. We watched many American B films. The only one that made an impression (enough to recall now) was "The Mystery Squadron". This would have been 1951, I think. I didn't realise that it dated from as long ago as 1933. The fact that the BBC should run it shows that it had become a cult movie. That summer we moved home. My friends warned that I should not be able to see a repeat running of the film scheduled for the autumn. Watching it in 2011 at first I thought I was going to be disappointed.However the "willing suspension of disbelief" began to perform its magic. The quality of the actual film is poor but the camera work is good and the direction (particularly of the action sequences) taut. Most important for this purpose there are some entertaining studio in-jokes. For example the two male leads regularly show an improbable athleticism. They were of course supposed to be stunt pilots. Onseveral occasions though their parts are taken by stunt men...............