Errol Flynn and David Niven star as World War I pilots confronting the grimmest odds of survival in this exciting and moving remake of Howard Hawks’ 1930 original. With its wartime setting and nary a woman in the cast, The Dawn Patrol is another great bromance in the grand tradition of war stories — it’s all about camraderie, brotherhood and sacrifice.
This is the first of at least three film versions of Robert L. Sherwood’s play about an American soldier who falls in love with a Londoner during a World War I air raid, unaware that she is a prostitute. Director James Whale (Frankenstein, The Invisible Man) delivers a solid melodrama with two great lead performers. I was particularly taken with Kent Douglass as Roy. At times, he seemed to display the kind of naturalistic acting style that wouldn’t become popularized until Brando hit the scene decades later. I totally bought Roy’s doe-eyed infatuation with Myra (Mae Clarke), hook, line and sinker. Clark is good with the tremendous amount of pathos the screenplay gives her to work with.
