Fresh and Exciting

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

PDC (later known as PRC) was an ultra-low budget studio that made mostly crappy films from the late 30s through the 40s. They were the epitome of the so-called 'poverty row' studios--renting out space at a real studio at night, keeping their budgets amazingly low and shooting time amazingly quick. High art, their films were anything but! Occasionally, despite themselves, PDC made a decent movie--more a mistake than by intent! Such is the case with one of their very early efforts, "Mercy Plane". While the film has plenty not to like, overall, it's far better than you'd expect from this outfit!Speed Leslie (James Dunn) and Brenda Gordon (Frances Gifford) are rivals who compete in air races. Lately, although Speed assumes he's the better pilot, he's been losing race after race to her--all due to mechanical problems. Speed also assumes she's responsible for tampering with his planes. However, she's a sweet lady and stuck on him...and she doesn't realize that her brother is no good. The brother not only is responsible for the sabotage but much more...he's been stealing planes and reselling them abroad. So, when a top-secret so-called 'Mercy Plane' is about to be tested by Speed, the brother arranges for it to be stolen and Speed to be blamed. What's next and how can Speed clear his name?While the film has a few silly portions, such as the way this top secret plane takes off and lands in the film, it's also reasonably exciting, has decent acting and actually kept my attention--something rare for this studio's work! If you are interested in seeing it, the film is available for free download from archive.org--a site often linked to IMDb films (though oddly not in this case).

James Dunn plays a hot shot flier who makes his money from air races and test piloting. He is having his pride hurt because of late he's losing his races to a hot shot female pilot. Dunn takes a job as a test pilot in order to help test a new "Mercy" plane, designed to aide in rescues in difficult places. Unfortunately the plane is stolen and Dunn is framed by a gang of thieves specializing in plane theft, and headed by the owner of rival plane manufacturer. The head of the bad guys is also the brother of the female ace, who is unaware of her brother's evil ways. Will Dunn clear his good name? Will the fliers fall in love? Will the female flier's hair ever look bad? (The answer is yes to two of the proceeding questions.) Okay but rambling tale of fliers, robbers and romance. The film seems to he heading in several directions all at the same time and occasionally seems not to be too sure where its going. Certainly the film has little connection to reality since everyone always looks spectacular, especially our heroine who's hair looks beauty parlor perfect after taking off her flying cap or not the slight bit wrinkled after being in a crashed plane. Dunn, a solid supporting actor, is in the lead and as is his norm, he seems to feel a bit out of sorts carrying the whole film. The over all effect of the uneasy elements is for a curiously muted film. Its not bad, but you get the sense that had a little bit of thought been put into it this might have been a great little film instead of an okay one. Worth a try if you run across it but not worth searching out.