The Dawn Patrol

Remake of the 1930 Howard Hawks film, from which it borrows its fine aerial footage (mostly shot by Elmer Dyer). Neither version (pace Hawks fans) is exactly a masterpiece, since the dialogue scenes in the first version are stiff and stodgily directed, while Goulding gets smoother performances (Flynn in particular is excellent), but has doctored dialogue more suited to bellicose times: not altering the thematic concern with the psychological stresses of combat leadership, but discreetly stressing the heroism of the young World War I flyers rather than the terrible waste of their deaths.