If there had been more of it, I might have rated it higher. It was a poverty row film all of the way, yet it does not have laughable art design. Nothing looks like cardboard or a toy model. This was a blind buy for me, and I don't regret the purchase or the viewing. The problem is it just ends with no wrap up, plus there is no build up or motivation for the extreme changes in all three main characters.
The opening scene has John C. Tullock, industrialist, being told that the government is unhappy with the performance of his planes. He says "They meet spec don't they?". The answer is "Yes" and he ignores the complaint. Jeff, a WWI pilot, crashes in one of these "Tullock coffins" as they are called, lives, but is blinded by the head injury. Jeff has his best friend meet Mary, his fiancée, at the docks when their boat lands. He tells Mary Jeff died on the way over, because Jeff does not want to burden Mary with a blind man.
Jeff ironically ends up working at an airstrip owned by Tullock, all the time vowing revenge upon the industrialist responsible for his blindness. Mary is rooming with a party girl, and begins accompanying her party girl roommate to some of these parties, all the time retaining her freshness and positive attitude despite her turns of bad luck.
I'll let you watch and see the rest of this, but these three characters - Tullock, Mary, and Jeff all have their lives intersect in such a way that there could be dozens of interesting denouements. The main transformation is that of Tullock from a money hungry tyrant into someone who genuinely does good works for the right reasons and then does something that nobody would say he owes the human race or anybody in it. Then the film just ends abruptly.
The performances are really quite good, and I rated it a five not for mediocrity but for truncation.
The opening scene has John C. Tullock, industrialist, being told that the government is unhappy with the performance of his planes. He says "They meet spec don't they?". The answer is "Yes" and he ignores the complaint. Jeff, a WWI pilot, crashes in one of these "Tullock coffins" as they are called, lives, but is blinded by the head injury. Jeff has his best friend meet Mary, his fiancée, at the docks when their boat lands. He tells Mary Jeff died on the way over, because Jeff does not want to burden Mary with a blind man.
Jeff ironically ends up working at an airstrip owned by Tullock, all the time vowing revenge upon the industrialist responsible for his blindness. Mary is rooming with a party girl, and begins accompanying her party girl roommate to some of these parties, all the time retaining her freshness and positive attitude despite her turns of bad luck.
I'll let you watch and see the rest of this, but these three characters - Tullock, Mary, and Jeff all have their lives intersect in such a way that there could be dozens of interesting denouements. The main transformation is that of Tullock from a money hungry tyrant into someone who genuinely does good works for the right reasons and then does something that nobody would say he owes the human race or anybody in it. Then the film just ends abruptly.
The performances are really quite good, and I rated it a five not for mediocrity but for truncation.
