Sky Bride

Richard Arlen is the lead pilot in a troupe of pilots who barnstorm across the country, offering shows for county fairs and rides into the sky for adventurous people; business isn't very good, since a ride is marked down from $10 to $5, or perhaps that's just a come-on to convince the rubes they're getting a bargain. Jack Oakie is their ground man, the barker. They wing-walk and hold mock aerial duels and razz each other in the privacy their cheap hotel rooms. When one of their number is killed in a stunt, Arlen quits the troupe, walks to Los Angeles and gets a job as a mechanic in an airplane factory. He's good at his job, but no one likes him, because he's glum and stand-offish and won't go near a plane about to fly.

There are some very good aerial stunts in this movie, shot at a distance. It brings to mind, of course, Arlen's performance in WINGS; Randolph Scott has a half-minute walk-on as an army pilot, clearly meant evoke Gary Cooper's cameo in the early film. It's a serious film. Arlen's depression is well-performed, understandable in the movie's situation, but it's a symbolic dog at how far aviation had fallen, from knights the skies to itinerant performers.