AllMovie

One of John Ford's lesser-known silent films, The Blue Eagle is based an age-old premise: two rivals battle for the affection of the same woman. In this case, it's a working-class man from a waterfront town and his longtime neighborhood nemesis. They call a truce while serving on the same ship in World War I, but once they're back home, the old rivalry is revived. This is the sort of "when men were men" film that Ford seemed to love to make. In later years, he wasn't so blatant about it, but the themes certainly remained constant throughout his work. In the case of The Blue Eagle, it is entertaining but below-par for Ford's high standards. George O'Brien and William Russell do their best to play beyond the class stereotypes, delivering vigorous performances, but Janet Gaynor is largely lost in the shuffle. The story is at times incoherent, but no doubt that part of this is because major scenes have been lost to nitrate deterioration. Despite the semi-deteriorated quality of some of the remaining scenes, the photography remains impressive, especially when depicting the waterfront and during the scene in the cavern lair of dope smugglers. Another well-staged scene is when O'Brien's dope-addicted brother, Limpy, is stranded atop a submerging submarine -- it displays all the mastery of form and technique for which Ford is so highly regarded.