The Flying Ace (1926)

The Flying Ace (1926)

starring Laurence Criner, Kathryn Boyd, Steve Reynolds

written, produced, and directed by Richard E. Norman

65 minutes

Billy Stokes (Laurence Criner), a fighter pilot during the First World War and before that a railroad detective, arrives in town just in time to investigate the disappearance of $25,000 and the man who was carrying it. The man and the money were at the train station in Mayport, FL at the time. The missing man disappeared under circumstances which have left Thomas Sawtelle, the station manager, as the primary suspect.

Billy arrives in his airplane with Peg, his one-legged mechanic, who assists in the investigation. Finley Tucker, another pilot who hangs around the train station and has been wooing Ruth Sawtelle (Kathryn Boyd), daughter of the station manager, is one of the first people that Billy questions. Ruth fears for her father who passed out just before the money was stolen, and after he wakes up claims to have no idea as to what happened to the money.

Thoughts

Most of the actors in this film have only appeared in a limited number of other films. The one with the most screen credits is Laurence Criner, although not all of the films (in which he appeared) have survived.

I wasn't expecting this to be a mystery movie. It dragged a little in the early going for me because I was still getting the lay of the land. There was a little more dialogue and intertext cards and a little less visual storytelling than I would have preferred there to be.

This is a mystery but there is also an aerial battle towards that end of the movie. Most of the aerial scenes were probably shot on a film lot. They don't (for the most part) look like they were actually in the skies.

Peg, the one-legged mechanic, steals every scene in which he appears. I think that Steve Reynolds, the actor, was actually missing a leg but my research has turned up nothing about him.

This was a fun watch. It isn't perfect. There was a plot twist or two that didn't make sense. I think that it is quite impressive considering the era in which it was made and that it was made by an independent studio.