Bob “Three Star” Halsey (Lyle Talbot) is a pilot for Trans-America Air Lines and is a bit of a hotdog. The owner of the airlines is William Lackey (Charles C. Wilson). Three Star’s girlfriend, Judy Wagner (Ann Dvork), as well as Judy’s brother, Tom Wagner (Robert Light), also work at Trans-America.
Lackey is approached by the FBI and tapped for a top-secret mission by Agent John Brownell (Henry O’Neill). The agent tells Lackey that there is a cylinder containing a revolutionary new explosive that needs to be delivered at a specific time to a specific place. Lackey assigns his best pilot, Three Star, and newbie co-pilot Tom Wagner to deliver the canister.
Unbeknownst to anyone, Lackey’s secretary, Jason (Arthur Pierson), has tapped his phone and knows everything. He contacts his boss, Taggart (Russell Hicks). Taggart is a spy who is after the cylinder. Before the flight, Taggart and two of his minions pick a fight with Three Star and knock him out. With Taggart out of commission his associate, George Wexley (Gordon Westcott) takes his place as pilot. What no one knows is that Wexley is also a spy and works for Taggart.
During the flight the plane explodes. When Judy hears about the explosion, she races to the scene of the crash unaware that she has been seen by the spies. Pretending to be government men they convince Judy that her brother Tom is alive. Wexley tells Judy that he and Tom parachuted out of the plane. He then tells her that Tom was sent to Mexico to identify a suspect, knowing that Judy will want to go to Mexico to be with her brother. With the border being monitored, Taggart plans on using Judy, without her knowledge, to transport the cylinder to Mexico.
“Murder in the Clouds” was released in 1934 and was directed by D. Ross Lederman. It is an American poverty row murder mystery action film.
The storyline is rather thin, but the main object of the film is the aerial stunts and not the plot. At not much more than an hour long, there’s no time for in depth story telling anyway. If you like movies about small planes, then this is a good one. If you like great acting, dialogue or story then you may come up a little short. The shortfalls are not enough to trash the movie. In fact, despite the drawbacks, it’s actually a rather enjoyable film.
For airplane buffs, the main airplanes in the film are a 1928 Ford Tri-Motor model 4-AT-D, a 1929 Travel Air D4000 "Speedwing", and the black plane used by the spies, a Stearman C3R "Business Speedster". Some of the aerial photography, courtesy of Elmer Dyer, was reused for other aerial films produced by Warner Brothers. The story may not be engrossing, but the stunts are really good.