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The Lost Squadron
When World War I comes to an end, three pilots find themselves on hard times. They wind up in Hollywood, where they work as stunt fliers for a sadistic director.
Release : | 1932 |
Rating : | 6.4 |
Studio : | RKO Radio Pictures, |
Crew : | Director of Photography, Director of Photography, |
Cast : | Richard Dix Mary Astor Robert Armstrong Dorothy Jordan Joel McCrea |
Genre : | Drama Action History War |
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hyped garbage
Best movie ever!
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.
4 buddy WWI pilots, out of work after the war, start doing stunt flying on a Hollywood movie, directed by the evil Eric Von Stroheim (in an enjoyably over the top performance). Of course, as absurd movie luck would have it the leader of the squad's ex-girlfriend is now married to Von Stroheim, though she hates him. Von Stroheim plots to try to get his wife's ex-lover killed by getting him to try an an impossible stunt, and is going to make sure by putting acid on the planes control cables, but another flyer goes in his place and dies, and the remaining 3 grab Von Stroheim to get their revenge, leading to a tense, dark but pretty silly conclusion. While watching , the absurd plot twists and lack of logic really bugged me, but the next day I found myself thinking of it fondly, and sorry that has never seemed to have been made available on video.
The Lost Squadron concerns four men who are the last of a squadron of aviators from World War I, pilots Richard Dix, Robert Armstrong, and Joel McCrea and their orderly Hugh Herbert. The war is over now, but flying is what they know and love. They now make a living doing stunt flying for the movies, recreating some of the dangers they went through in the war for war films.That can be as dangerous if not more dangerous when you are working for a director like Erich Von Stroheim who wants his films to be the last word in realism. And things get real tense on the set when Von Stroheim discovers that his wife Mary Astor still has a thing for Dix.I won't go on any further except that but for Von Stroheim everyone behaves gallantly. It's what terribly dates this film. If it were done today the characters would be far more cynical and probably come up with a creative way to deal with their tyrannical director.Von Stroheim is the best thing about The Lost Squadron he pulls all the stops out in doing his terrible Teuton. If Von Stroheim was the man folks went to the movies in order to love to hate him, this film will send many into orgasms.
You should probably know that I love airplane films--particularly one with vintage planes. So, I have a bias towards this sort of film and some may NOT be excited in seeing the biplanes flying about during the movie (even though many are post-WWI planes when they are supposed to be WWI aircraft).Richard Dix, Robert Armstrong and Joel McCrea play three buddies who served in the Air Corps during the war. However, now that about a decade has passed, they are forced to make a living working stunt flying for a sadistic film director (Eric Von Stroheim). Eventually, just how evil the director is and the depths of his evil come to light and this leads to a dandy, though grisly, conclusion.Interestingly, of the three pilots, the least famous and important was McCrea, as he was not yet an established star. The other two (Dix and Armstrong) were big names, though only a short time later they were relegated to "has-been" status. All did a decent job and the film, though a bit tough to believe, was entertaining and was more than just a time-passer.
Man, he is evil in this. And he really wants you to know that. He plays a film director who directs WWI scenes where he demands such realism that people are regularly killed on set. If you are injured, he wants to hear you screaming, and these were silent movies! If you are supposed to be dead, you'd better not move or he'll probably kill you.That aspect of the movie is overdone, although interesting for fans of movies about moviemaking. But where the movie really shines is in its opening sequence when a group of soldiers literally clock out of WWI and head back to the States, only to find their business partners have swindled 'em, their girls have cheated on 'em, and there ain't no jobs to be had. So, it's Hobo City, until they make it to Hollywood and the lives of stunt pilots.I thought Richard Dix was good in this, Joel McCrea seems a little wimpy. The whole last 20 minutes are pretty bad with the "good guys" showing such poor judgment and idiocy that the ending is sheer nihilism.Definitely worth a view though and watch for the middle finger!