Wings of Adventure (1930) User Reviews

poor Mexican-set early-sound clunker

[django-1 · 2/10 · 16 September 2004]

------SPOILER ALERT---------- This 1930 feature (reissued in 1934, mine is a reissue copy) is a weak film overall with poor musical sequences, a lack of continuity, and awful pseudo-Mexican accents from the supporting players. It begins with many soldiers getting out of their tents in the morning, singing a glee-club style song (!!!), and then looking up in the sky at two aviators, played by b-movie stalwart Rex Lease and former silent comic Clyde Cook. Their plane is forced to land, and they are ambushed by a group of Mexican bandits who also mouth some revolutionary rhetoric, but are really depicted as buffoons who act as if they are drunk (presumable this takes place near the US/Mexico border, but that is never made clear). These bandits take the two prisoner, and they meet the lovely Armida, who is also being held prisoner as she is being kept for the powerful leader, La Panthera, in whom she of course is not interested. Armida is a charming lady and her one song is the only listenable music in the film (in another scene, the bandit leader plucks a simplistic riff on a guitar that sounds like something off a Jandek album, and Clyde Cook does a comedic dance to it!!). For all but the last five minutes of the film, the (lack of) action takes place among these Mexican characters, but then in the last few minutes the Anglo soldiers are seen once again and attack the Mexicans. As the two sides fire at each other, Lease and Armida escape, and Cook crashes the plane for laughs. I love z-grade 1930s independent films, and I find early-sound films fascinating, but this one is a misfire on most counts. Lease and Cook and Armida are all talented performers who did fine work in other films and do not embarrass themselves here--director Richard Thorpe did a lot of fine work at Chesterfield in the early 30s and at various studios later well into the 1960s (he even directed Jailhouse Rock!). WINGS OF ADVENTURE is not a film they would want to be remembered by.

I never miss a Mexican revolution operetta.

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 21 May 2021]

With songs that sound like they were written by Gilbert and Sullivan when they were 3 years old, this delightfully bad early sound adventure film has to be seen to be believed. Rex Lease and Clyde Cook look justifiably embarrassed to be amongst a group of dirty bandidos who plan on taking over The Mexican government and declaring their own Republic. This has several breaks which go into several badly written patter songs and pairs the handsome Lease with the stereotypical Mexican spitfire played by Armida.

Painlessly passable at just under an hour, any longer in the length would have been as painful as listening to the hideous phony accents where the actors playing the bandidos sound more drunk than Mexican. Clyde Cook appears to be emulating Stan Laurel, while hero Rex Lease looks absolutely ridiculous with obvious lipstick.

This film would be so easy to pick apart with all of its stereotypical cliches, but I think it's more fun for the individual viewer (of which there are probably few) to find them all and laugh hysterically at each one. Being an early sound film, there are large gaps between dialogue so the silence is a bit deafening here and there. But that silence is certainly preferable to the bad chorus numbers which are amateurish at best. The less said about Clyde Cooks dancing, the better.

Where''s the adventure?!

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 23 October 2014]

Despite this film being brought to us by Tiffany Studios, it is FAR from a high class and quality production. "Wings of Adventure" is incredibly slow, dull and full of too many story elements that just make you wonder is anyone liked this movie when it debuted.

The film begins with a pilot and his completely unfunny comic relief friend having engine problems and they are forced to land their airplane. However, instead of getting back to the Army, they are soon kidnapped by Mexican rebels--sort of like Pancho Villa...except the leader seems about as Mexican as bratwurst! Soon, they are forced back to the revolutionary headquarters where absolutely nothing happens for the longest time. Sure, they eventually escape...but it seems to take forever because the film is so low energy, talky (like many of the early talking pictures) and features a leading man with the same charisma as blue cheese. By this point, this stupefyingly dull film just about made me comatose--mostly because with the word ADVENTURE in the title, you'd think it would be exciting and full of action...which is isn't! Instead, there are lots of irrelevant musical numbers and romance...very unconvincing romance at that. The bottom line is that the film is never enjoyable in the least. Heck, instead of seeing this film, you'd be better of bashing yourself in the head with a mackerel! Dull and pointless and cheap.