Air Devils (1938)

Welcome to In The Balcony. We hope you enjoy your visit.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Plus, you'll be eligible for the monthly $1 million prize. (Not really.)

Join our community!

If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Air Devils (1938)
Topic Started: Oct 16 2005, 08:07 AM (275 Views)
Laughing Gravy	Oct 16 2005, 08:07 AM Post #1
Revered in the UK Posts: 11,070 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: August 31, 2005	Another obscurity from Alpha, Air Devils is an innocuous little film that's got some good moments in it. A pre-war South Sea Island is policed by a legion of ex-servicemen who were stationed there and returned to live after their stints were up. The girls are beautiful, the weather is gorgeous (or vice versa) and the only trouble is from a local gangster. Well, and some of the ex-GIs raise a little hell themselves from time to time. Enter our heroes, “Slats” (Dick Purcell) and “Horseshoe” (Larry Blake). Ex-pilots and once fast friends, they’ve become rivals for the hand of the same woman (Mamo Clark of Mutiny on the Bounty). They take turns playing horrific pranks and getting each other busted down from Sergeant to Private. When the General’s girlfriend (Minerva Urecal at her most annoying) shows up, much to the General’s dismay, they take turns foisting her on each other to babysit. Oh, and the aforementioned gangster (see previous paragraph) has some ideas of his own for our brave men in khaki. A tidy little B-movie from Universal, Air Devils was directed by John Rawlins. Rawlins, who like many B-level directors worked his way up from the editing room, had a long but not especially distinguished career, unless you consider Dead End Kids serials and Dick Tracy meets Gruesome to be distinguished. This movie isn’t very distinguished either, except for one scene that’s a gem and worth watching the whole movie to see: Slats and Horseshoe step into an alley behind a dance hall to “settle this once and for all,” but before a punch can be thrown, the MPs descend on ‘em. Well, there’s a strict new rule against fighting, and so our boys quickly tell the MPs that they were just practicing a new dance from the states, called “the Big Apple”. The MPs demand to see the new dance, and so Mr. Purcell and Mr. Blake are reluctantly forced to jitterbug together to the grand amusement of the constabulary. The scene is hilarious, and worth the five bucks or so you’ll pay for the Alpha DVD. Speaking of Alpha, when you review their product, everybody wants to know how bad the quality is. Well, in this case, it’s actually quite good. Air Devils is not a film I’ll watch very much over the years, but I sure got a kick out of watching the dance scene, and I’m recommending it for that.



Black Tiger	Oct 16 2005, 10:32 AM Post #2
Charter Member Posts: 1,814 Group: Members Member #50 Joined: September 15, 2005	Mamo was also the island princess in Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island.



shelbyvinje	Sep 29 2008, 04:20 PM Post #3
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 420 Group: Members Member #470 Joined: June 3, 2008	I hesitate saying it is above average because it's not the quality of say... TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE or ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, but certainly better than PEARL HARBOR (1942) and other movies of the same calibre. This film is recommended because the quality isn't too bad and the film is enjoyable.



Sgt King	Oct 10 2008, 08:12 PM Post #4
Charter Member Posts: 371 Group: Members Member #29 Joined: September 5, 2005	And Mamo was the island girl friend of Clark Gable in "Mutiny On The Bounty."


« Previous Topic · Swashes Buckled Here! · Next Topic »