Spectacular aerial flying sequences shot by aerial lenser Elmer Dyer distinguish "Tarzan's Revenge" director D. Ross Lederman's criminal conspiracy caper "Murder in the Clouds," a Warner Brothers' B-movie toplining Lyle Talbot and Ann Dvorak. Clocking in at 61 nimble minutes, "Murder in the Clouds" will keep you entertained from fade-in to fadeout. Talbot is cast as blustery "Top Gun" type pilot 'Three Star' Bob Halsey who loves to perform daredevil aerial maneuvers that alarm his desk-bound boss at Trans-America Lines, Lackey (Charles Wilson of "Satan Met a Lady"), but who cannot fire him because he is such an impressive aviator. These reckless stunts worry Halsey's stewardess girlfriend Judy Wagner (Ann Dvorak of "Scarface") who keeps putting off marriage. Lederman and scenarists Dore Schary (later a top executive at MGM who championed social consciousness in films like "Bad Day at Black Rock"), and novelist Roy Chanslor, best known for his western novels "The Ballad of Cat Ballou" and "Johnny Guitar," focus on a case of industrial espionage. A scientist, Clement Williams (Edward McWade of "Arsenic and Old Lace"), has created a new kind of explosive, and a U.S. Government official, Brownell (Henry O'Neill of "), requests that Lackey furnish transportation for Williams to Washington on what Brownell stresses is a top-secret mission. What Lackey doesn't know is that office worker Jason (Arthur Pierson) informs the chief villain Taggart (Russell Hicks) about the flight. Naturally, Lackey assigns 'Three Star' to fly Brownell to Washington, while a group of unscrupulous villains led by urban Taggart want to get their hands on it, too. Taggart sends an accomplice to a local bar where 'Three Star' loves to get drunk. This time our pompous hero claims that he will only be drinking cream soda. Instead, 'Three Star' gets suckered into a bar brawl, and George Wexley (Gordon Westcott) volunteers to take over the flight without anybody warning Lackey about the change in pilots. Writing any more about the sophisticated set-up that enables Wexley to put the secret formula in Taggart's hands would spoil this snappy, fast-paced effort. "Murder in the Clouds" is a lot of fun.

The airline in the film flies Ford Trimotors. One in particular, an AT-4, is identified: NC5578. Full details of the history of this aircraft can be found in the Davis-Monthan Aviation Field Register. It was apparently exported to Ecuador in 1945; there is no further information after that.Three Star flew a biplane, registration NC406N which would indicate it was a Travel Air D-4000. The company, founded in 1925, initially built a series of sporting and training open-cockpit biplanes, including the Model A, Model B, 2000, 3000 and 4000. It was forced into liquidation in 1929 and its assets were purchased by the Curtiss-Wright corporation, which continued to manufacture some of its designs.The airline company's base is said to be Los Angeles, but it doesn't look like that today.The main reasons for watching this film are the excellent flying and aerobatic sequences, and the extremely attractive Ann Dvorak who certainly knew how to act in this sort of film.

This is a rarity--a movie with Lyle Talbot where he is the leading man. While in A-pictures he was usually a supporting player, he did star in some lesser productions during the early years of his long career.Talbot plays a man who is oddly nicknamed "Three Star" (why, I have no idea) and he's a hotshot young pilot working for a small airline. While he was supposed to transport government agents and a top scientist along with his recent invention, Talbot is unable to fly because he's beaten by a gang of ruffians. With another pilot at the helm, the ship is lost and it's feared the secret formula was either destroyed or stolen, so it's up to the intrepid Three Star to save the day.In many ways, this film plays like a movie serial condensed into a short film. With plenty of action and some decent suspense, it's a pretty good time-passer and interesting due to its aerial scenes as well as fast-paced plot. Deep? Not exactly, but still fun nonetheless.

The plot of this film revolves around "3 Star" a show-offy pilot at an airport. 3 Star likes to drink and likes to gamble as well as show off. Even though he's been grounded because of his stunts, 3 Star is brought in to fly a very important scientist to deliver his new explosive to the government. 3 Star is waylaid before the flight and another pilot is substituted by the bad guys. When the plane explodes in mid air its a race to find the wreckage and the cylinder containing the explosive before the bad guys do.This is a breezy 60 minutes thats more than likely to keep you interested to the end. Although the plot may sound clichéd the characters and their interactions are not. Every character is quirky, but in a non-clichéd sort of way. 3 Star's gambling is atypical Hollywood, I don't know when I ever saw a character who said that he had been locked up for two days for gambling. The romance is decidedly off center, though it is very real. There seems to be more going on than just witty repartee between Judy and 3 Star, and they seem to have a long history before the film started that you can feel (which is something I rarely sense even in better movies).I liked this movie a great deal.Granted its not the best movie ever made, but as a breezy hour long thriller its worth taking the time out to try.