THE LOST SQUADRON (1932)

This begins like a WWI war film and becomes a nifty little thriller of personal brutality and revenge. Richard Dix, Joel McCrea, and Robert Montgomery are pilot buddies whom we first see in the air, shooting down enemy planes in the last minutes of the war before the Armistace goes into effect. They return home to reduced circumstances--despite headlines that celebrate the bravery of our vets, the men have a hard time adjusting to civilian life and getting jobs. Dix, McCrea, and their former mechanic Hugh Herbert become hobos, riding the rails to California. At the premiere of a movie called "Sky Heroes," they run into Armstrong, who has become a successful Hollywood stunt pilot. He gets them all jobs in his next project for tyrannical director Erich von Stroheim. The director's leading lady and wife, Mary Astor, is an old flame of Dix's and the two resume a mildly flirtatious relationship. Out of jealousy, Stroheim works Dix extra hard and eventually tampers with his plane so he'll crash during a stunt. However, Armstrong winds up in the plane and, though Dix flies up to warn him, Armstrong crashes and is killed. McCrea finds evidence of Stroheim's guilt and the rest of the film follows his revenge plot, which works but at a cost. The footage of planes, in war and in moviemaking, is very good. Stroheim seems to be playing himself, or at least the public persona he had as a strict Germanic disciplinarian. Dorothy Jordan is "Pest," Armstrong's kid sister who falls for McCrea. After a couple of early scenes, Astor doesn't have much to do. The pre-Code plot allows at least one person to survive without "paying" for a crime, and there's a great (and very clear) shot of Armstrong giving Dix the finger. The movie premiere scene looks a great deal like the one at the climax of John Schlesinger's DAY OF THE LOCUST. [TCM]