Preceded by: Elsie Janis in "Behind the Lines" (1926, 7 mins, B&W, 35mm). Spencer Tracy in "The Hard Guy" (1930, 8 mins, B&W, 35mm). Hawks' first talkie is a bit stiff in places but generally holds up surprisingly well. The acknowledged master of aviation pictures, Hawks staged aerial combat scenes of such seeming authenticity that footage from this film still turns up in documentaries on the First World War. As in all his war films, Hawks demystifies the heroics of men in combat, stressing instead the moral conflicts implicit in situations of group responsibility. Thus Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. are typical Hawksian heroes for whom the sense of professional duty must come before personal feelings. The film divides into somewhat static interior scenes shot by a camera still confined to a soundproof booth, and exterior flying scenes in which the sound of the plane engines could disguise the camera's noise, thus enabling a silent-era freedom of camera movement.