The Air Mail on AllMovie

By using a borrowed medal, Russ Kane, a crook (Warner Baxter), is able to get a job as an air mail pilot. His plan is to steal some valuable cargo, but soon enough the job begins to have a positive effect on him. When his plane has to make a force landing, he meets Alice Rendon (Billie Dove, who was also the wife of director Irvin Willat). His love for Alice encourages him to go straight. When Alice's invalid father (George Irving) needs medicine, Kane flies to get it, but on his return the craft is pursued by two renegade airplanes. Kane's young friend, Sandy (a very fresh-faced Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), saves the valuable cargo by parachuting out of the plane while holding it. On the ground, three escaped prisoners have taken over Alice's home. The sheriff's posse wipes out the bad guys while Kane destroys the outlaw planes, and Sandy achieves his dream by flying the mail to the next station. Back in 1924 and 1925, the concept of air mail was still very novel (it only took three days to get the mail across country instead of six -- an impressive feat in those days).