The Flying Ace (1926) Online

Saturday July 17, 2pm, The Castro, San Francisco

"Bad news travels fast."

A railroad agent disappears under suspicious circumstances and former detective, World War Aviator Billy Stokes (Lawrence Criner) is enlisted to solve the crime.

The paymaster for the M. N. and Q. Railroad and the $25,000 Eastern Division payroll he is carrying vanish from the Mayport station and the stationmaster is questioned. Rendered unconscious during the incident, the old man offers Billy only clues. A mysterious local flyer and rival for the affections of the stationmaster's daughter Ruth (Kathryn Boyd) clashes with Billy's investigation. Assisted on the ground by 'Peg' his mechanic, Billy apprehends the crooks as the film concludes with a mid-air rescue from a burning plane and a song.

The sixth of seven feature films produced by Florida based Norman Pictures, an independent black studio, The Flying Ace is an exciting, romantic and humorous (while somewhat old-fashioned) whodunnit that fulfilled the need of its segregated audience for quality entertainment.

The Flying Ace is available on a restoration 35mm print from The Library Of Congress to theaters equipped with dual projectors for changeover projection as no cutting or showings using a platter system are permitted. The film is about 62 minutes in length and is on three 20-minute reels. Enjoy!

The Flying Ace (1926)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Capt. Billy Stokes (Laurence Criner) is a war hero and when he returns home he goes back to his detective job for the railroad. It's just in time because $25,000 in payroll has been stolen so he must try and figure out what happened even though it seems like it might have been an old man behind the crime.

THE FLYING ACE comes from the Normal Film Manufacturing Company and is an all black cast melodrama. Clocking in at just 65-minutes the film is certainly worth watching as an early example of a race film but there's no question that there are a few flaws to be found here. The biggest flaw is the fact that there are a few too many characters here and I can't help but eliminating one or two probably would have been beneficial to the film.

As far as the mystery itself goes, this here is actually pretty good and I thought director Richard E. Norman did a pretty good job keeping you interested in what's going on in regards to the story. The lead character is a very strong one as he's a war hero and I thought Criner did a very good job in the role. Kathryn Boyd plays the daughter to the man (George Colvin) accused of the crime. Boise De Legge also offers up a nice supporting performance.

THE FLYING ACE is certainly rather routine in ways and there's no question that it's not a masterpiece or even a very good film. With that said, considering the budget it was probably working with the film is certainly entertaining enough to make it worth watching.

Much of 'The Flying Ace' is shot out of doors on attractive Floridian locations and generally well acted apart from the broad and unfunny comic relief supplied by Lyons Daniels as a dim-witted policeman wearing a uniform several sizes too large for him that he looks as if he's been sleeping in and wielding an enormous night-stick, and Steve Reynolds as a one-legged war buddy of the hero (interesting to see a veteran who's returned minus a limb, as so many actually did), whose crutch contains a long-barrelled gun out of which he spays bullets like a character in a spaghetti western. (Another exotic weapon employed is nitryl chloride squirted in a couple of peoples' faces that immediately knocks them out like the purple gas in an episode of 'Batman'.)

Unfortunately the identity of the villain is obvious from the word Go, and the budget simply can't begin to deliver the spectacle promised by the film's title and poster, with the result that the "action" at the climax has to be staged in a manner that resembles a one-reel short made a quarter of a century earlier.