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The Dawn Patrol

USA 1938
produced by
Warner Brothers
directed by Edmund Goulding
starring Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, David Niven, Donald Crisp, Melville Cooper, Barry Fitzgerald, Carl Esmond, Peter Willes, Morton Lowry, Michael Brooke, James Burke, Stuart Hall, Herbert Evans, Sidney Bracey, Leo Nomis
screenplay by Seton I.Miller, Dan Totheroh, based on the story The Flight Commander by John Monk Saunders, music by Max Steiner

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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France, 1915, a squadronhouse of the Royal Air Force close to enemy lines, where young pilots are sent over to German territory in bullet riddled fighter planes basically as cannon fodder, on suicide missions to weaken German forces with little chance to return.

Squadron commander Brand (Basil Rathbone) has the most rotten job of them all, a former ace pilot himself, he now has to send unexperienced pilots into their deaths, which has long hardened his exterior, though every time he loses one of his men, it breaks his heart some more.

Brand's main opponent within his own ranks is Courtney (Errol Flynn), the current ace pilot of the squadron, who (unfairly) considers him to be an executioner while Brand does his best to improve the situation of his men but can't help but follow orders when it comes to specific missions - that more often than not only condemn more young men to their deaths

Courtney and fellow pilot Scott (David Niven) are known for their courage, their experience and their cunning in battle, but also for their escapades - escapades that put a further strain on the relationship between Brand and Courtney. Then though, one of these escapades, an attack on an enemy airbase without any orders from above that cost Courtney and Scott their planes, an escapade for which Brand wanted to have them disciplined, is well-received by High Command, so well-received in fact that Brand is promoted - and as a sort of revenge, he sees to it that Courtney gets his old, rotten job as squadron commander.

Now it's up to Courtney to wait for his pilots to return and to count the losses, and it pretty much breaks him, as it has broken Brand before, but the situation gets especially bad when he finds Scott's brother Donnie (Morton Lowry) among the new recrutes, and against Scott's express protest, he has to send Donnie up on a mission the very next day, a mission he never returns from. From here on, Scott and Courtney are friends no more.

Eventually, Brand returns, but not to gloat but to offer solace and advice, and to bring special secret orders for a suicide mission for an experienced fighter pilot, to bomb an arsenal 60 kilometers behind enemy lines. Courtney wants to go himself of course, because that's just the mission he feels to be cut out for, but that's out of the question, and to noone's real surprise, Scott volunteers for the mission. On the eve of the mission, Courtney and Scott finally reconcile - but then Courntey gets Scott so drunk that he passes out, and he goes on the mission in his place, which becomes a bigger success than expected ... but Courtney never returns, only his glasses and helmet are dropped by an enemy plane as a sort of respect for a fallen soldier.

And Scott has inherited Courtney's rotten job as squadron commander ...

 

A very insightful and compelling anti-warfilm that might not be totally free of kitsch and clichées - but that's what keeps the film going as a genre rather than a message movie, and that (ironically) gets the message across in a much smoother way. Of course, smooth direction and an excellent cast - with even Errol Flynn giving a very fine performance - don't hurt either. And while most of the aerial footage was lifted from an earlier version of the story, 1930's The Dawn Patrol aka Flight Commander by Howard Hawks, it still looks mighty impressive.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!