Son-of-WRA I love the silents because the story relies as much on motion, lighting, and mannerism as they do dialogue panels. This movie was excellent. Now the special effects get a pass because of the times but that is no reason to not spend about 100 minutes of your life enjoying this little gem. You are treated to the camaraderie of a group of cadets about to graduate from the United States Naval Academy, follow their career development through training in Florida and California, and witness two friends vie for the affection of a beautiful water skier. I found myself caring about the characters and in wonderment at a short visual history lesson on military technology of the time. I wish more movies were made this way.

Rich Drezen (Drezzilla) This is the second Ramon Novarro picture I've seen (the first being 1925's "Ben-Hur") and it is every bit enjoyable as the last picture I saw with him. Ralph Graves delivered a great performance but I somehow had mistaken him for Burt Lancaster (?!?!?!?!). No joke, I thought he really looked like a young Lancaster (which he couldn't have been since Burt was only 15 when this picture was made). Though it is mainly an adventure film, parts of it are really funny. The funniest moment is when Novarro dives his plane toward his friend on the ground and nearly runs him over. Anita Page was a year younger than me (I'm 19) when she took this part, and as small as her part was, she deserved the upmost praise for her early, but dazzling performance. The synchronized music track is phenomeonal considering that it was produced in 1928. To whoever scored this picture, you're not only a genius, but you made this picture work!

raskimono This high budget MGM movie from 1929 stars Mr Ben Hur himself, Ramon Navarrow, himself, a cross btw Robert Taylor and Ty Power. Here he has the Tom Cruise role of Maverick. In the Val Kilmer role we have Ralph Graves and the girl is Anita Page who would soon have her own blockbuster with the Broadway melody. Highly exciting aerial sequences are undercut by an underwritten and paint by the numbers, extremely broad strokes plot. Some of the sequences seeem like documentaries, though they should play more like set pieces eg the T-1000 morphing in T-2, bullet-time in the Matrix. You are giving the audience something they haven't seen, like they've never seen it. The movie never gives you that feeling or the necessary iconographic images that are usually associated in this genre. This is definitely a movie dialogue would have made better, for there is sound, through, music in the background, sounds of the planes etc but not enough to give the scenes the necessary gravitas to support a story about six friends and their friendship through naval and aerial school. he aviator movie would go on to be a popular genre in the earlie thirties Hollywood with all the studios throwing in their hats. Most weren't good but had a certain gravitas because of dialogue. Facial expressions just don't do the job here. Overall, not the best movie, but luscious cinematography and slightly above average direction, with fine performances all around from the cast slightly compensate but not enough.

BoYutz Ramon Navarro and Ralph Graves are two young Navy flyers vying for lovely Anita Page. They are also training for carrier landings and competing for the honor of piloting a large flying boat to Honolulu.The story is pedestrian at best, puerile at worst, with a few moments of high drama. What makes this film truly memorable is the awesome aireal photography of cinematographer Charles A. Marshall. It's amazing that work of such quality was done at this time. There's also very good footage of the USS Langley, the Navy's first aircraft carrier, not to mention all the first generation naval aircraft. This lends great historical importance to this otherwise trivial film.George W. Hill directed, and seems to have taken elements of this film and grafted them onto his later (1932) 'Hell Divers.'