Former pilot Barry, Eldon (Ralph Bellamy), is now the owner of the “Independent Transcontinental Lines” or ITL for short. ITL is an airmail delivery service. Although ITL is small, it manages to compete with the much larger “Consolidated Airways”, run by Martin Drewen (Robert Middlemass). Consolidated usually deals in passenger planes but wants to also take over the mail plane service.
Eldon wants to expand his business, so he looks to Mr. Holden (Wyrley Birch) to secure a loan. Holden refuses. He says he is unsure of the solvency of the company. Drewen has been trying to buy ITL but Eldon refuses to sell. Eldon needs to win a rather lucrative mail run contract from the government to keep in front of Consolidated. To compete with ITL, Consolidated would have to reduce their bid to gain the contract. Getting rid of ITL would give Consolidated a monopoly and they could charge whatever they wanted.
Drewen is in league with Victor Arnold (Douglas Dumbrille), the owner of a nightclub. The two of them come up with a plan to ruin ITL so they can come in later, buy it cheap and in addition, win the government contract. Arnold has a singer at his nightclub, Renee Dupont (Tala Birell), seduce Eldon to keep an eye on him. Arnold then introduces Drewen to a German inventor, Professor Shulter (Edward Van Sloan). Shulter stole the plans for an invention that can direct an electronic charge onto an object and ignite it. This results in a fire and explosion. Arnold convinces Drewen to invest in a larger model of the weapon that can take down an airplane. Using the new “Death Ray”, Shulter shoots down three of Eldon’s planes hoping to ruin ITL.
Unaware of how his planes have been destroyed, Eldon decides that he needs to do something spectacular to stay in the game and try to win the contract. He tells the press that he plans on breaking the existing transcontinental flying record. What Eldon doesn’t know is that Drewen and Arnold have a secret partner that is working behind the scenes to aid in the destruction of Eldon and ITL.
“Air Hawks” was released in 1935 and was directed by Albert Rogell. It is an American low budget science fiction thriller. The film was based on the unpublished story “Air Fury” by Ben Pivar.
It’s actually not a bad little film. Slightly obscure but full of action. It reminds me a little of the Saturday afternoon cliffhanger movie serials that were shown during the 30’s through the 50’s. The story is average but the special effect gizmos are a fun highlight. So too is the performance of Edward Van Sloan as the titular mad scientist.
The movie was supposedly inspired by the Air Mail scandal of 1934 in which smaller airlines were cut out of the bidding process for mail delivery contracts with the U.S. government. The government took over the mail delivery for a short while before once again using civilian companies. When the bidding was resumed, the original three companies that were awarded the contracts were denied the right to bid again.
Wiley Post, who plays himself in the film, was the first pilot to fly solo around the world. Post was credited with helping to develop the first pressure suit and with discovering the jet stream.