The romance of aviators like Lindbergh and Earhart inspired a string of airplane movies like Wings (1928), Hell's Angels (1930) and this one, a jaunty remake of the Edward Everett Horton picture The Aviator (1929). Ne'er-do-well stowaway Rollo (Brown) gets mistaken for the lauded pilot Robert Story (Arthur Hoyt), a misconception he's happy to milk for all its worth. Unfortunately, while enjoying all the ticker tape parades and feminine attention, Rollo's entered into a high-flying contest and a hefty bet with skeptical rival Ace Benton (Walter Pidgeon). Part of an informal trilogy with Top Speed (1930) and Broad Minded (1931) where Brown, in his winning persona as a sportsy wiseacre, gets to show off not only his rubber face but his dynamic physicality (he was a former circus acrobat) as planes, cars, and boats go whooshing by. And about that face: critics averred that the scene in which Brown opens his famously cavernous mouth when a doctor tells him to say "aaaah" was "worth the price of admission all by itself".

By Violet LeVoit