A famed war pilot (nicknamed "Tailspin Tommy") is held hostage for his bomb targeting invention.A famed war pilot (nicknamed "Tailspin Tommy") is held hostage for his bomb targeting invention.A famed war pilot (nicknamed "Tailspin Tommy") is held hostage for his bomb targeting invention.
Photos
Jason Robards Sr.
- Paul Smith
- (as Jason Robards)
George Lynn
- 'Brandy' Rand
- (as Peter George Lynn)
William P. Carleton
- Navy Commander
- (as William Carlton)
John S. Peters
- Carl - Henchman
- (as John Peters)
Pat Gleason
- Detective
- (uncredited)
Cyril Ring
- Henchman
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis film received its initial USA telecast Saturday 7 February 1942 on New York City's pioneer television station WNBT (Channel 1). Post-WWII television audiences got their first look at it Saturday 25 March 1950 on WPIX (Channel 11).
- ConnectionsFollowed by Stunt Pilot (1939)
Featured review
Dull Monogram "actioner" isn't worth bothering with unless you're in need of sleep
As a kid Tommy Tomkins idolizes "Brandy" Rand a great pilot from the First World War. When "Brandy" comes to town as part of an air show Tommy rescues his hero when a parachute stunt goes wrong and he ends up barely treading water in a lake. Years later Tommy, now an ace flier, invents a bomb site which a gang of ruthless weapons brokers want. In an effort to get the site they kidnap Tommy, his best friend and girlfriend in the hopes of forcing them to give over the secret of their device. Complicating matters is the fact that Tommy's boyhood hero is now on the wrong side of the law.
That probably sounds a good deal more exciting than it is, especially since this is a very slow and dull movie. While the dialog scenes are fine and have a snap to them the film has long stretches of "action" where nothing happens. Its a throw back to the early days of Monogram where you had to suffer through lots of "silent" stock footage that was being used to fill out the running time. What I mean by this is we have Brandy supposedly doing a delayed parachute stunt and opening his chute 500 feet from the ground.We see him fall for a long time, then open his shoot and drift an incredibly far distance away to the pond. Its about five minutes of screen time but it feels like five hours (its also physically impossible even with the mismatched stick shots). Another example is when Tommy shows off the bomb site and flies and flies and flies and flies for no really good reason in order to get to the target and proper height even though everything else going on has him in close proximity to the target. Its long and dull and makes you want to reach for the remote.
I can't really recommend this. Its way too long at an hour and more likely to put you to sleep than keep you awake . If you want to see every movie based on a comic character then by all mean give it a shot, but I'd keep the remote handy.
That probably sounds a good deal more exciting than it is, especially since this is a very slow and dull movie. While the dialog scenes are fine and have a snap to them the film has long stretches of "action" where nothing happens. Its a throw back to the early days of Monogram where you had to suffer through lots of "silent" stock footage that was being used to fill out the running time. What I mean by this is we have Brandy supposedly doing a delayed parachute stunt and opening his chute 500 feet from the ground.We see him fall for a long time, then open his shoot and drift an incredibly far distance away to the pond. Its about five minutes of screen time but it feels like five hours (its also physically impossible even with the mismatched stick shots). Another example is when Tommy shows off the bomb site and flies and flies and flies and flies for no really good reason in order to get to the target and proper height even though everything else going on has him in close proximity to the target. Its long and dull and makes you want to reach for the remote.
I can't really recommend this. Its way too long at an hour and more likely to put you to sleep than keep you awake . If you want to see every movie based on a comic character then by all mean give it a shot, but I'd keep the remote handy.
helpful•23
- dbborroughs
- Oct 6, 2005
Details
- Runtime1 hour
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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