JohnHowardReid Copyright 25 August 1930 by First National Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Winter Garden, 10 July 1930. U.S. release: 10 August 1930. 12 reels. 9,500 feet. 105 minutes. Television title: FLIGHT COMMANDER.NOTES: John Monk Saunders was honored for his Original Story (defeating Doorway to Hell, The Public Enemy, Laughter and Smart Money) by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. COMMENT: You won't find The Dawn Patrol on any Best Films of the Year lists. In fact, it doesn't even make The New York Times supplementary list of "35 worthy pictures". The reason is simply that it's not very good. In fact it's the sort of movie that gives "old movies" their undeservedly bad name. (Amazing isn't it that this movie is shown constantly on television, while hundreds of far superior movies of the same vintage never see the light of day?) Jumpy continuity made even more jerky by the use of silent captions, dated dialogue and stilted acting, make The Dawn Patrol a bit of a chore to sit through - especially on the ground. (No wonder Barthelmess' career declined, even though his subsequent films show him in far better light!) Fortunately, when it gets into the air, interest rises sharply - thanks to the breathtaking skill of Dyer's aerial camerawork. These scenes - and in fact all the exciting action material - were re-used (slightly trimmed) in the 1938 re-make directed by Edmund Goulding), which has the rare honor of being a re-make which is better than the original, thanks to the skills of its superior cast - Basil Rathbone, Errol Flynn, David Niven, Donald Crisp, Melville Cooper and Barry Fitzgerald.

GManfred That's normally the answer to all orders given to the fliers in the day room of "Flight Commander". It signifies neither assent or disagreement, just obedience to official orders. You have to watch the face or listen to the tone to decide whether the recipient is enthused, annoyed or resigned. Such is life on the western front of an RAF outpost during WW1 - and where life is a fragile commodity.Also known as "The Dawn Patrol", it was remade in 1938. That's the one I knew from Million Dollar Movie on Ch. 9 in NYC, and it would play for a whole week. I loved it and watched it as often as I could. I thought no one could beat Errol Flynn and David Niven in the two lead roles, until I saw the original, "Flight Commander" which starred Richard Barthelmess, Neil Hamilton and Douglas Fairbanks,Jr. (Basil Rathbone played the Neil Hamilton role as Commander of the doomed fliers in the '38 version). The acting was far superior in the earlier version, but the later one had better production values. It seems some of the same great aerial footage was used in both films.If I had to pick one, I like this (1930) version better as it was emotionally more satisfying; it had more 'heart'. And Richard Barthelmess was an excellent actor who for some reason couldn't last in talking pictures. I also thought this may have been Fairbanks' best acting job. Well, that's my take on the two films, and that's the best part of going to the movies - it's often subjective, and there's no accounting for taste.

Robert J. Maxwell Pretty good story of airmen in the First World War, flying desperate missions against German troops and superior German airplanes and pilots, including the dreaded Baron von Richter. It's bloody suicide. Yet there is gallantry in the air and on the ground. Pilots who are going down in flames salute the enemy pilot who has brought them to this sorry state. There was little of that gallantry left in World War II, except in one instance in which an American P-47 pilot damaged an enemy fighter. The pilot bailed out and sailed past the American's canopy, upright and in full salute.The British pilots we see -- almost all of them American -- are jovial enough in their day room or whatever it is. If someone is shot down, the loss is overcome by an excess of booze and song. The gramophone plays a scratchy "Poor Butterfly" (how apt) and the men drink and sing "The world is made up of lies/ So hurrah for the next man who dies." The pilots are in good shape, pretty chipper, compared to their commander, who is filled with guilt and rapidly becoming a neural shambles. He snaps at the men, barks out orders, and has no sense of humor. The men can't understand this until one of them, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., is promoted to Flight Commander and takes his place.The film is an early talky. There is no underscore: we hear only the men singing and the gramophone playing. And it's stagy. There aren't many outdoor scenes; the men swill booze and argue and play cards in the day room. The message itself is overstated.But, ah, the scenes of flight. Great whirling masses of biplanes, some spinning down and trailing smoke. Lots of stunts with airplanes too. It's more like a comic book than like reality but, well, consider the period. The special effects aren't bad. More realism and a more complex message can be found in a relatively recent movie like "The Blue Max." Howard Hawks is uncredited but listed as a German pilot. Well, there is only one German pilot we get to see anything of. He's a victim of one of the fliers on our side and has been brought to the day room for a bash before being taken off to the Gefängnis, where he must have woken up with a terrible hangover. He looks nothing like a young Howard Hawks. True, Hawks was trained as a flier in the Army but somebody is pulling the wool over somebody's eyes around here.

bkoganbing Although William Wellman is the Hollywood director most associated with air films, not counting of course the self indulgent Howard Hughes, Howard Hawks with The Dawn Patrol and with Air Circus and Only Angels Have Wings can certainly hold is own against the formidable Mr. Wellman on his own turf.This may have been Howard Hawks's first sound feature and he debuted magnificently with a story about a group of fliers from the United Kingdom's Royal Flying Corps of World War I. John Monk Saunders wrote the original story for the screen that netted The Dawn Patrol an Academy Award for that category.The story centers on three men. Group commander Neil Hamilton who has to send his men up against some of Germany's best fliers and two of his senior pilots, Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Hamilton is a troubled man indeed, having to send barely trained kid pilots and he hears about it from Barthelmess and Fairbanks.One fine day, oddly enough to do a daring assault that Barthelmess and Fairbanks pull off, Hamilton gets a promotion up to the staff headquarters. In a curious bit of poetic vengeance he names Barthelmess his replacement.Of course when Barthelmess now is seeing the war from Hamilton's point of view, he starts to behave differently. What he does and the choices he makes are the basis for the rest of this story about some of the United Kingdom's most gallant generation lost in the first terrible total war of the last century.As Fairbanks and Barthelmess criticize Hamilton in what he does, I do wonder about when they were the fresh recruits. They became the veterans more than likely by sheer chance that they did survive. Yet that never plays a part in their thinking.The aerial combat sequences are excellently staged, Howard Hughes and William Wellman could hardly have done better. They were so good that they got used again in the 1938 remake of this film.The Dawn Patrol also marked the film debut of Frank McHugh who graced Warner Brothers films for the next 20 years. I've said in many comments and on their respective pages that it could almost not be a Warner Brothers film without either Frank McHugh or Alan Hale or both in a given feature, they appeared so often. The brothers Warner, got their work out of those two.The 1938 remake with Errol Flynn, David Niven, and Basil Rathbone is the one most are familiar with. Still this one is the real deal.