A Romance of the Air on AllMovie

WWI flying ace Lt. Bert Hall played himself in the thrill-packed wartime actioner Romance of the Air. When his plane is shot down over occupied territory, Hall disguises himself as a German soldier in hopes of making an undetected escape. Instead, he is reunited with his American sweetheart Edith Day (likewise playing herself), who was stranded in Europe when the war commenced. Hall "borrows" an enemy plane and flies back to his own lines, with Day and her best friend, the Countess of Moravia (Florence Billings). Alas, the Countess turns out to be a German spy, and Hall is accused of being in her employ. Exonerated by a military tribunal, Hall dedicates himself to smashing the Countess' network of spies. Based on Bert Hall's autobiographical novel L'Air. Romance of the Air was filmed with full cooperation of the U.S. government, which loaned out a variety of aircraft to the filmmakers. During its initial release, the film was accompanied by a "live" lecture delivered by Lt. Hall himself. Few audience members dared to question the veracity of the film in Hall's presence, but the trade paper Moving Picture World was not quite so chivalrous: "Lieutenant Hall rings true, but his story does not."