Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, May 22, 2015

ACE OF ACES (1933)

John Monk Saunders, Hollywood’s go-to writer on WWI flyboys (WINGS/’27; DAWN PATROL/’30 & '38; THE LAST FLIGHT/’31), finds variations on his usual themes in this anti-war pic. Cynically unmoved at war’s parade, fine-arts sculptor Richard Dix plans to take a pass on WWI, much distressing his patriotic fiancé Elizabeth Allan. Cut to an airfield in war-torn France where he quickly rises to hard-hearted pilot; while she’s now a disillusioned nurse amid the dying. No big story surprises then, but everyone makes a decent job of it. Silent-screen star Dix has grown a little more confident with dialogue, nailing a tricky Paris reunion scene where he convinces Allan to lower her guard (and her garters) for a two-day pass. And the film would be even better if helmer J. Walter Ruben varied the pace now & then. But there are some neat plot & character reverses; a fresh cast of flyboys without the usual movieland suspects, and an unusual look to the aviation scenes, using an effective mix of real stunt flying & good model work. Too bad about the cop-out ending.

DOUBLE-BILL: Richard Dix may be a year stiffer on screen in THE LOST SQUADRON/’32, where a trio of WWI vets (Dix, Robert Armstrong, Joel McCrea) fly stunts for tyrannical director Erich von Stroheim, but it’s a better story. And hopefully, out soon on DVD.

No comments: