Week Fifty-Two
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"Mystery Plane" 1939 Tommy as a young "Tailspin Tommy" |
MOVIE NAME: MYSTERY PLANE
STUDIO: MONOGRAM PICTURE
PRODUCER: PAUL MALVERN
DIRECTOR: GEORGE WAGGNER
DATE: 1939
TYPE: AVIATION, DRAMA
CAST:
JOHN TRENT as Tailspin Tommy (Tomkins), MARJORIE REYNOLDS as Betty Lou, MILBURN STONE as Skeeter , JASON ROBARDS as Paul Smith, PETER GEORGE LYNN as Brandy Rand , LUCIEN LITTLEFIELD as Winslow, POLLY ANN YOUNG as Anita, TOMMY BUPP, as Tommy, as a child , PETSY GAY as Betty Lou, as a child
SOURCE: A F I, Catalog of Feature Films 1931-1940
Story based on the comic strip created by Hal Forrest and Glenn Chaffin, Tailspin Tommy (1928-1942)
AKA: Sky Pilot, and Sky Pirate
STORY: Tommy Tomkins shows his friends his Brandy Rand scrapbook. Twenty-five year old Captain Brandy Rand, brought down twelve enemy planes during the world war (WWI.) During an aerial acobatics exhibition at the fairgrounds, Captain Rand parachutes out of his plane and lands in a lake. Tommy rescues him in a rowboat, then shows him his scrapbook. Brandy encourages him to become a flyer himself. Years later, Tommy an adult and manager of an airport, is designing a bombing devise that uses radio beams to inform a pilot that he over a target. Tommy and his partner Skeeter risk their lives demonstrating the devise for an Army commander, who is very impressed, when they score two direct hits. Enemy spies also witness this test. Among the spies is Brandy Rand, now a drunkard running contraband. Another spy, Anita, infiltrates Tommy's outfit by asking for flying lessons. Tommy receives a fake message that he is wanted at Army headquarters, but is abducted to the spy's hideout. He is interrogated, but refuses to talk. Brandy enters drunk, and Tommy is shocked to find the man that inspired him is so destroyed. Skeeter and Tommy's girlfriend, Betty Lou are then taken hostage. Tommy is forced to draw the bombing devise, but escapes with Betty Lou and Skeeter in a bi-plane. The Army men arrive and arrest Anita, but the others flee and pursue Tommy in Brandy's plane. Brandy, however is determined to help Tommy and, from his plane radios Tommy to change his course. He then crashes his plane into the ocean. After the spies are captured, the Army films a war movie with the new bombing devise. Tommy, Betty Lou and Skeeter laugh at the prospect of "Tailspin Tommy" in the movies.
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