The Dawn Patrol. 1938. USA. Directed by Edmund Goulding. Screenplay by Seton I. Miller, Dan Totheroh, John Monk Saunders. With Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, David Niven, Donald Crisp. 35mm. 103 min.
Rumblings of war in Europe prompted Warner Bros. to remake Howard Hawks’s 1930 aviation drama, set in the existential proving ground of a British airbase during WWI, when returning from a combat mission was by no means guaranteed. Repurposing much of Hawks’s original aerial footage and a good chunk of his dialogue, director Edmund Goulding produces a sturdy, handsome film with only a hint of Hawks’s philosophical engagement, but one with a first-rate cast of Hollywood’s UK actors. And for once, Flynn and Basil Rathbone are on the same team.