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America during World War I: Bob Wilson (Ben Lyon) and Fred von Bergen
(James Bush) are top test pilots ... until the company refuses to employ
Fred any longer because he is of German descent. Out of loyalty to his
friend, Bob resigns too, and the two start finding work at another airline
company ... with no luck whatsoever. Ultimately, Fred decides to go back
to Germany to find work there, and Bob decides to accompany him - which he
can, since the US has not yet entered the war.
Soon the two find themselves being German fighter pilots, and being in
love with the same girl, Alida (Sari Maritza), who at first has an eye for
shy Fred, but she ultimately falls for the rugged charm of Bob ... much to
his friend's dismay.
However, Bob proves to be a less than perfect fighter pilot, since he
is not fighting for his own country he can't bring himself to shooting
down enemy planes, and he even misses one mission. And when the USA enters
the war (fighting against Germany, in case you have forgotten your history
classes), he is tried as an enemy of the state and court martialed ... but
before he can be executed, his friend Fred, though angry at him because of
Alida, lets him escape in one of the fighter planes ... and somehow, Bob
makes it to England, and the informations about a secret German weapons
depot he has are priceless for the Allies ... but what's more, he
ultimately flies the bomber plane to destroy the depot, even if that means
an aerial fight against his best friend ... of course, in the end he wins,
not only the war but also the girl.
One of the few efforts by Mascot of its time that were not
serials, this is quite an interesting little movie as it doesn't reduce
the war to a fight good (= Ameriocan) vs evil (= German), as was more
common at the time, but protrays the Germans as carefully etched out,
sometimes even liekable characters, while the only American among the main
cast is actually a naive and a bit cowardly turncoat. Likewise the war is
not seen as a adventurous playground for little boys, many of the soldiers
here are traumatized (e.g. one is a heavy drinker just to forget the
horrors he has to see on a daily base, while another one actually commits
suicide, to secape the fate of going up in flames in his plane.
Competently edited in stock footage from actual plane fights and
bombardments only adds to the film's overall positive appearance, which
makes it easy to overlook the film's few shortcomings (like cheap and poor
sets, a cast to small to convincingly fight a war with, ...).
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