The Flying Ace (1926) on Netflix
NR19261h 5mActionAdventureCrimeMystery
Captain Billy Stokes, a World War I flying ace, returns to his job as a railroad detective. His first case: a missing paymaster, $25,000 in company payroll and a gang of thieves.
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- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.2/10347 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
Blair Kimball, the railroad's paymaster, arrives at the Mayport, Florida station a day early with $25,000 for the payroll. Dr. A. G. Maynard and Constable Jed Splivins greet him, and the pilot Finley Tucker watches. Ruth Sawtelle, whose father Thomas runs the station, brings her father his lunch and asks Finley for a flight in his new plane; afterward he proposes to her again, and she tells him she is not sure she loves him. Captain Billy Stokes comes home from the war, having downed seven enemy aircraft in France, and takes back his old post as a railroad detective. Howard MacAndrews, the general manager, gives him his first case: Kimball has gone missing with the $25,000 payroll, and a gang of railroad thieves is at work.
Cast
- Boise De Leggeas Blair Kimball
- Harold Plattsas Finley Tucker
- Lions Danielsas Constable Jed Splivins
- George Colvinas ThomSawtelle
- Sam Jordanas Dr. Maynard
- R.L. Brownas Howard McAndrews(Dr. R.L. Brown)
- Steve Reynoldsas Peg(Steve 'Peg' Reynolds)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Flying Ace (1926)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Flying Ace was advertised as "the greatest airplane thriller ever filmed," yet apart from one brief sequence it was shot entirely on the ground, using camera tricks and upside-down camera work to fake movement and altitude, plus a full-scale mock-up of a Curtiss JN-4 biplane.
- The pilot Ruth Sawtelle, played by Kathryn Boyd, is loosely based on aviator Bessie Coleman, who had written to Norman Studios wishing to be in a film about her life. She died on April 30, 1926, falling from her aircraft a day before she was to appear at an exhibition in Jacksonville.
- Producer Richard Norman's "home talent" method sent him to towns with stock footage and a basic script; local celebrities were recruited for minor roles, roughly 200 feet of new material was shot over a few days, and the proceeds were split between Norman and the town.
- The Flying Ace is the only one of the Norman Studios "race movies" known to have survived, and the Library of Congress keeps a copy of it as a culturally significant work.
