Friday, October 18, 2019

Won in the Clouds (1928)

A passable action film, with some good aerial stunts, though a bit too much on the exploitative side. It is set in Africa and thus everyone is either in native dress or a leopard!

In deepest darkest Africa is a diamond mine where the manager Woods (Joseph Bennett) is up to no good and aiming to cheat the mine owner. Dr James (George B French) comes up to the mine from the city to check on Woods and also to see why the locals are dying of a mysterious disease. The witch doctor was no help. When James and his daughter Grace (Helen Foster) get into trouble the mine owner sends his stunt flying daredevil son Art (Al Wilson) to sort things out...

There follow a number of cliff hangers and various escapades. The film is more like an edited serial. To modern eyes it is dated tosh but not without charm. Al Wilson was a real stunt flyer who would tragically died in a plane crash while doing stunts a few years later.