Really bad films are boring and incomprehensible: Target Eagle for one, or The Domino Killings. This is neither. Yes, it doesn't have the biggest budget in the world, but the acting is relatively good, and the story makes sense.
The two main characters are played by guys who've faded away, but they have repartee, they get on, they know their lines and so forth.
They are two cowboys who rob banks. They're caught, and forced to join the army instead of being sent to jail. Once at the front they are determined to desert and steal a plane so they can get the hell out of there. Once in the air (which isn't improbable: like Blackadder says, the pilots only received about half an hour of training) they encounter an enormous zeppelin, a German secret weapon. They crashland at an English airbase and are immediately recruited by the base's crazy commander.
Here is the most interesting sequence of the film, which contains a genuine narrative surprise, entirely unexpected and all the more welcome for it. The base is located in an old circus tent. There are prostitutes galore, and all the pilots are having a wild old time. However, this is a suicide squadron, with one aim: destroy the secret German weapon and also die in the attempt.
The arrival of the zeppelin does get a bit crappy, but again, not as bad as, say, the Biggles movie, which really was excrementally poor, and from around the same era.
The worst thing about this movie by far is the complete lie on the poster, which features two guys in modern dress. No mention of the first world war at all.
See it for the art direction, the surprisingly good war scenes and the planes.
The two main characters are played by guys who've faded away, but they have repartee, they get on, they know their lines and so forth.
They are two cowboys who rob banks. They're caught, and forced to join the army instead of being sent to jail. Once at the front they are determined to desert and steal a plane so they can get the hell out of there. Once in the air (which isn't improbable: like Blackadder says, the pilots only received about half an hour of training) they encounter an enormous zeppelin, a German secret weapon. They crashland at an English airbase and are immediately recruited by the base's crazy commander.
Here is the most interesting sequence of the film, which contains a genuine narrative surprise, entirely unexpected and all the more welcome for it. The base is located in an old circus tent. There are prostitutes galore, and all the pilots are having a wild old time. However, this is a suicide squadron, with one aim: destroy the secret German weapon and also die in the attempt.
The arrival of the zeppelin does get a bit crappy, but again, not as bad as, say, the Biggles movie, which really was excrementally poor, and from around the same era.
The worst thing about this movie by far is the complete lie on the poster, which features two guys in modern dress. No mention of the first world war at all.
See it for the art direction, the surprisingly good war scenes and the planes.