William Wellman liked flying and liked action, and there's plenty of both in this quick- moving Richard Barthelmess drama. He's a commercial pilot who's fired after a crash, then becomes a daredevil pilot for a parachute jumper (Sally Eilers, more than competent), then gets involved in an uncomfortable triangle when she falls for both him and his brother (Tom Brown, who seems too callow for the part), then becomes a devil-may-care mercenary pilot flying for various international political insurgencies. It's all over in under an hour and a half, much of which is spent in the sky, and climaxes with a daring sequence of one brother rescuing another in a deadly storm off the coast of Cuba. It could never happen that way, and would Barthelmess even be allowed a pilot's license, after losing an eye and a heel and demonstrating a noticeably unsafe, cavalier flying style? The ending isn't altogether satisfying, either--the writers have boxed themselves into a corner where we want Eilers to end up with one brother far more than the other. But it's an exciting journey, with some refreshing pre-Code elements, and Barthelmess was always good in these brooding roles.
Review of Central Airport
