Legion of Lost Flyers (1939) User Reviews

OK action programmer.

[gordonl56 · 6/10 · 10 August 2012]

Legion of Lost Flyers This is a low budget aviation programmer from Universal pictures. A group of flyers battle the elements and each other while flying for a second rate airways in Alaska.

Richard Arlen is the new pilot in town. He came to Alaska because he could not get work in the lower 48. He has been blamed for a crash where 4 men where killed. When the aircraft had engine problems he jumped by parachute leaving the 4 men behind.

Andy Devine plays the airline mechanic. He knows Arlen from before and does not believe the story. The other pilots are played by, William Lundigan, Guinn Williams and Leon Ames.

It turns out that Arlen is innocent of causing the men's deaths. It was really Lundigan who had taken the flight that night. But Arlen needs proof. Needless to say the swine Lundigan has no intention of admitting anything. This results in several fist fights with Arlen coming out on top.

Lundigan decides he has had enough and takes off in a plane loaded with gold from a local mine. He ends up crashing in the wilderness. The only one willing to fly a rescue is of course, Arlen.

Arlen flies into the remote crash site and picks up Lundigan. On take off the aircraft suffers some heavy damage. It slowly starts to fall to pieces the closer they get to the home field. Lundigan starts to panic and Arlen has him confess over the radio about his involvement in the men's death.

Arlen and Lundigan make it to the airfield just in time to crash as the plane finally folds up.

There is of course the love interest, Anna Nagel, as well as some comic relief supplied by Jack Carson as a radio newsman.

Only Angels Have Wings in Alaska

[karljhickey14 · 5/10 · 3 March 2022]

Another in the Richard Arlen / Andy Devine buddy movies , this time with an aviation backround . As in the Hawks film , it features a bunch of outcast flyers ( Alaska instead of South America ) and one solitary female .

Arlen plays a disgraced flyer who apparently jumped out of a crashing plane , leaving the passengers to die . But did he ? Or was it someone else ... There's all the standard scenes - landing with no visibility , storms , missing planes , "You're coming in too low !" etc , plus some deliberate sabotage .

Features some very dangerous looking stunt flying , complete with shots from the wing struts .

This one differs from most of the so called Aces of Action series in that Arlen's role is grimmer than usual .

Supporting cast includes Guinn Williams , Leon Ames , William Lundigan , Jack Carson , Leon Belasco , Theodore von Eltz , and an underused Anne Nagel .

Devine has the usual comedy bit as an unwilling oe unlikely ladies man - with an Eskimo woman no less . Ug !

Airstrip of the eaten grease.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 6 July 2022]

Ugh is right. And yuck. Much of this Universal programmer focuses on Alaskan native Edith Mills whose Eskimo character loves to eat grease. It doesn't matter where it is. She'll eat it. When this character is first seen, she's constantly following Andy Devine around, apparently intent on making him her husband if not her next meal because he certainly has plenty of grease on him. A tasteless subplot in a film that could have been so much better because it deals with the dangers of the mountainous terrain and the difficulties of the pilots to safely land small passenger planes.

When the film first starts, there's a daredevil in the sky not making an attempt to land and it's amusing to see Mills, locked by Devine in a locker, popping out and back in every time the plane goes through the hanger where the locker is. When the plane finally lands, it's revealed to be Devine's old pal Richard Arlen who isn't exactly popular with William Lundigan, the main pilot at the air strip. The mystery is why, and when it's revealed, it's truly understandable.

Anne Nagel (as Arlen's main love interest), Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (yep, that's how he was always billed), Jack Carson and Ona Munson are also featured in this hour-long programmer that should have simply focused on the main plot and left the grease alone. A lot of the footage is set at night so the film is rather dark. Mills' character serves no purpose other than this sickening attempt at humor, and could have easily been written out or at least tone down and written in a more respectful way. After a while, I needed a bromo seltzer to get over the nausea I was getting concerning that bit of oily business.