When Barry's (Ralph Bellamy) small-fry airline Independent starts competing for
the same mail-contract as big-timeairline corporation Consolidated, &
Independent seems to have the winning hand even though Barry is unable to get a
loan out of banker Holden (Wyrley Birch), Consolidated manager Drewen (Robert
Middlemass) realizes something must be done, & for this he hires casino
owner & gangster Arnold (Douglass Dumbrille).
& Arnold's plan works in 2 directions: first he sets Barry up with his
csino-sinder Renee (Tala Birell), & second, he hires mad scientist
professor Schulter (Edward Van Sloan) to build him a hypersonic ray that can
shoot planes out of the skies ... why then it was necessary to set Barry up
with Renee in the first place is never quite explained.
Trouble soon starts brewing over Independent airlines, as 3 of it planes
crash for reasons unknown, & soon, by some federal agents, Barry is ordered
to ground all his airplanes, but also given a few hints about professor
Schulter. So he, & his reporter friend Tiny (Victor Kilian), start an
investigation of their own that soon leads to Arnold. & now they see it fit
to trick the gangster, with the help of Renee, who has since changed sides:
First, Barry announces to make a trans-continental flight in record time, then
he has Renee persuade Arnold to take her to Canada by plane - but unbeknowest
to Arnold, the plane's pilot is really Barry, the plane is disguised as an
Independent-plane, & they are flying the exact route the transcontinental
flight would take ... & the hypersonic ray already waits to shoot that
plane down.
Realizing he has stepped into his own trap, Arnold confesses everything to
Barry while they are approaching the death ray, whereafter Barry bombs the
ray-gun, & hands both Arnold & Drewen over to the police, while the
record-flight is undertaken by somebody else (real-life eyepatched pioneer
pilot Wiley Post, making a small cameo appearance), & Barry gets the mail
contract.
But who, you might (or might not) ask, was behind it all ?
Why, banker Holden of course, that's who, for he secretly owned
Consolidated, & he now fittingly shoots himself.
Nothing special maybe, but an entertaining sci-fi-pulp-thriller full of dashing
pilots, death rays shooting down planes, mad scientists, dark houses &
everything else you would expect.
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