Cary Grant and Fredric March are brit flyers in the Royal Air Force during WW I. Small part by Carole Lombard. Silly, goofy Jack Oakie is in here as the sidekick. Young (March) is the flyer, and Crocker (Grant) is the photographer. They dislike each other, and it gets worse and worse as time goes by. When Young knocks off a German ace, he drinks heavily and starts to come un-wound. traditional wartime flying film, with some big names. Unsatisfying ending for me. Too many plot-holes, but i won't get into details here. Good to see the big names, but the final scene didn't really work. Pretty good up until that point. Directed by Stuart Walker. He only directed twelve films in the 1930s, and this was right in the middle of the bunch. great to see the big names, but mehhhh.

Personally, I prefer "The Dawn Patrol." In "The Eagle and the Hawk" the acting is less compelling, the dialog is more forced and more melodramatic, the aerial dogfight scenes are less convincingly edited (but there are some dandy shots too). You never know quite when the March character is going to blow up, but you do know it'll be sooner or later. I give Cary Grant's performance higher marks than most of the other reviewers do; his ambiguities feel as if they are sincerely wrought, and he comes and goes like a Bodishatva throughout the film. Carole Lombard is a knockout and the right choice for the Beautiful Lady; I appreciated her efforts to make her minor character a memorable one.

As the others have said, this surprisingly turned out to be a realistic, antiwar movie. Frederick March gives an Academy-Award-worthy performance as the jaded fighter pilot, and Cary Grant gives a good performance as his rival. Since Hollywood made more pro-war movies than isolationist movies up to Pearl Harbor, this one was a bit startling, judging from its era and its title. Perhaps that is why it has not received its due rewards. Those who have experienced war usually try to prevent its recurrence, and the grim reality of its death and destruction are shown in this film about as graphically as they were allowed at that time. I have heard that even Germany's greatest ace in WWI, the "Red Baron," was very disillusioned when he went home the last time before his death. When his mother asked him who his friends were in a photo, he told her sadly when each of them had been killed. War is only glamorous from a great distance and in games. "The Eagle And The Hawk" captures the real essence of so many wasted lives in the Lost Generation and the destruction of prewar civilization.

Bought my own copy. A film in the old style with many faults, but for someone who enjoys flying fliks, especially World War One aviation, it is great. Dialogue is terrible, the acting bad, plot predictable, but it has airplanes and derring-do in the air. All the "Dawn Patrol" cliches are there. Good fun and well worth seeing...if you like this sort of thing. I do.cheers, Boom