by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Director Tay Garnett was still billing himself as "Taylor" when he helmed the patchy actioner The Flying Fool. The title character, played by William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd, is a fearless aviator; his brother, Russell Gleason, is Boyd's rival in the air and on the ground. Both brothers vie for the attention of svelte nightclub singer Marie Prevost, who is faithful to both in her fashion. Boyd wins the girl, but that's hardly the end of the story. A lengthy vignette from The Flying Fool resurfaced in the late 1970s as a prime example of a "bad" early talkie on a TV retrospective of Hollywood in the 1920s.
characteristics
- Love-triangle
- Flight
- Rival
- Songwriter
- Songwriting
- Aerobatics
- Family
- Barnstorming
- Barnstormer
- Battle [war]
- Nightclub
- Brother
- Cabaret
- Flying
- Combat
