Subpar performances all but sink this otherwise fast-paced and not unexciting action-melodrama. A veteran from the silent days, Richard Talmadge leaps over rooftops, hurls himself from speeding cars, transfers from one plane to another in mid-air, and performs a series of other death-defying stunts. He emerges as an engaging enough performer, but is soundly defeated by a rather squeaky and far from heroic voice. Leading lady Gertrude Messinger, meanwhile, acts as if she was performing in a high school play, and a bad one at that, and there are severe continuity problems (for example, when Talmadge's pants split during an especially arduous stunt, they seem to miraculously mend themselves). Yet despite the caveats, The Fighting Pilot was popular with the small-fry and may still delight the young at heart.