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International Airways, headed by William Meredith (Selmer
Jackson) needs an airfield in Mongolia for its operations - but
unfortunately a villain only known as the Dragon seems to be dead against
it, and thus has brought down all of International Airways planes
crossing Mongolia by a clever device that electrocutes the pilots via
their headphones. However, the first official passenger airplane of International
Airways arrives in Mongolia quite safely thanks to Ace Drummond (John
'Dusty' King), G-Man of the Air, who has looked through the
Dragon's device and who saves the plane single-handedly.
Now though start Ace's investigations, where he is helped by his
favourite mechanic Jerry (Noah Beery jr), Meredith's grandson Billy
(Jackie Morrow) and Peggy Trainor (Jean Rogers), a young woman looking for
her lost archeologist father Dr Trainor (C.Montague Shaw), who might be
involved in the whole thing one way or another.
What Drummond finds out for sure though is that the Dragon is obviously
looking for the Mountain of Jade, of which only Doc Trainor seems
to know the location, and because of which the last thing the Dragon needs
is International Airways meddling with his affairs ... and Drummond
finds out that the Dragon communicates with his men via some weird kind of
ventilators - though it beats me why.
Eventually, the suspects begin to line up, like Henry Kee (James
B.Leong), the only Oriental on International Airways' board of
directors, who always acts very suspicious and with whose gun aomeone was
murdered, Bauer (Frederick Vogeding) and Wyckoff (Al Bridge), two crooked
archeologists who have actually held Doc Trainor prisoner, International
Airways' radio operator Johnny Wong (James Eagles), the Grand Lama
(Guy Bates Post), a local holyman who is just too good to be true, Kai
Chek (Chester Gan), a Mongolian who tries to get his fellow Mongolians to
rebel against the airfield, or Winston (Robert Warwick), a member of the
board who just acts suspiciously.
Neither of these are the Dragon though, Bauer is shot way too soon,
Wyckoff only impersonates the Dragon to get his hands on the Mountain
of Jade and is ultimately murdered by teh Dragon, Henry Kee and Johnny
Wong turn out to be Interpol agents, the Grand Lama really is merely too
good to be true, Kai Chek is a Mongolian nationalist but has no sinister
motives, and Winston is simply a red herring whose suspicious actions are
never explained.
Lots of chases by foot, by car and by airplane later the Dragon turns
out to be previously unsuspicious Chang Ho (Arthur Loft), the Grand Lama's
right-hand man, and ultimately he and his gang want to bomb the airfield
and all that's on it to Kingdom Come, but by that time Jerry has found the
Dragon's secret hideout and shoots down the his planes with the Dragon's
own deathray, and in the end it's left to Ace Drummond to unmask the
Dragon and involve him in a chase that eventually ends with the Dragon
crashing his own plane ...
Like most serials, this one is overconvoluted and more than a bit
silly, but at the same time it's chock-full of tension, stunts and great
aerial action (any biplane fan will have to watch this fro the aerial
action alone), and it moves at a fast enough pace to make one forget the
serial's (obvious) shortcomings.
Recommended.
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