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Sky Raiders
Sky Raiders
	Film poster
Directed by	Ford Beebe; Ray Taylor
Written by	Eliot Gibbons; Clarence Upson Young; Paul Huston
Produced by	Henry MacRae
Starring	Donald Woods; Billy Halop; Robert Armstrong; Eduardo Ciannelli; Kathryn Adams
Cinematography	Jerome Ash; William A. Sickner
Edited by	Saul A. Goodkind (supervisor); Joseph Gluck; Louis Sackin; Alvin Todd
Music by	Charles Previn
Production; company	Universal Pictures
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	April 8, 1941;
Running time	12 chapters (227 minutes)
Country	United States
Language	English

Sky Raiders is a 12-episode 1941 Universal film serial. The serial was directed by Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor. Sky Raiders stars Donald Woods, Billy Halop, Robert Armstrong and Eduardo Ciannelli.^[1] Sky Raiders has little in common with Universal's other early-1940s espionage outings like Sea Raiders or Junior G-Men, although the serial is often lumped in together as if it is part of a series.^[2]

Plot

Former World War I ace pilot Captain Bob Dayton, (Donald Woods) is the owner of Sky Raiders, Inc., an aircraft company. Dayton has designed a bombsight and a new high speed fighter aircraft, the "Sky Raider". Dayton recruits young Tim Bryant (Billy Halop), a member of Air Youth of America, to help him.

Nazi agent Felix Lynx (Eduardo Ciannelli) attempts to steal these designs for his own country. Lynx is determined to seize this valuable new aircraft, with the help of his female accomplice Innis Clair (Jacqueline Dalya) and of a criminal named John KAne who happens to be a perfect double for Dayton. All attempts, however, to steal the fighter aircraft prototype, fail.

Dayton's new bombsight is being tested in Hawaii, and Lynx intercepts a Sikorsky S-45 flying boat on the way to Honolulu. After it is shot down, Dayton and his secretary Mary Blake (Kathryn Adams) who were on board, were rescued by a government cutter.

Lieutenant Carry (Robert Armstrong) and Tim meet the survivors but find that Lynx has sent his henchmen to finish the job. The foreign agents are killed when they hit an oncoming truck. Mary announces that she has become Mrs. Dayton.

Chapter titles

Wings of Disaster!
Death Rides the Storm
The Toll of Treachery
Battle in the Clouds
The Fatal Blast
Stark Terror!
Flaming Doom
The Plunge of Peril
Torturing Trials
Flash of Fate
Terror of the Storm
Winning Warriors!

_Source:^[3]

Cast

Donald Woods as Captain Bob Dayton / John Kane, World War I ace and co-owner of Sky Raiders, Inc.
Billy Halop as Tim Bryant, member of the Air Youth of America
Robert Armstrong as Lieutenant Ed Carey, co-owner of Sky Raiders, Inc.
Eduardo Ciannelli as Felix Lynx, Nazi agent
Kathryn Adams as Mary Blake, Sky Raiders, Inc.'s secretary
Jacqueline Dalya as Innis Clair
Jean Fenwick as The Countess Irene
Reed Hadley as Caddens, one of Lynx's henchmen
Irving Mitchell as R.S. Hinchfield
Edgar Edwards as Teal, one of Lynx's henchmen
John Holland as Hess, one of Lynx's henchmen
Roy Gordon as Major General Fletcher
Alex Callam as Captain Long
Phil Warren as Bakeman, the crackpot with gun
Bill Cody, Jr. as Jack Hurd, a young boy

Production

Many exterior shots for Sky Raiders were made at the Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale, California. A rare Phillips 1-B Aeroneer appears in the serial.^[4] Bob Dayton's personal aircraft is a Fairchild 24W-9 (c/n W-101, NC18688).^[5]

Aerial photography was a mixture of "fairly effective combinations of process-screen shots, (obvious) model work, stock footage and actual flying work by stunt pilot Jerry Jerome."^[6]

The aircraft used in Sky Raiders are:

Bell YFM-1 Airacuda
Fairchild 24W-9, c/n W-101, NC18688, c/n 2689, NC15346
Fairchild Super 71 c/n 646, NC9174
Kellett KD-1
Monocoupe 90 c/n 526, NC192K (archive images)
Pitcairn PCA-2 Autogiro AC-35 c/n J-91, NX70 ^{[N 1]}
Phillips 1-B Aeroneer, c/n 1, NX16075
Sikorsky S-45
Spartan Executive 7W, c/n 7-W12, NC17613^[5]

Stunts

Reception

Reviewer Hans J. Wollstein, wrote in his review of Sky Raiders for Allmovie, "Universal catered to the young fans of aviation with this airborne serial, which featured a plucky kid –'Bowery Boy' Billy Halop – and plenty of 'sky riders'. Famous aviator Bob Dayton (Donald Woods) hires a bright member of the Air Youth of America, Tim (Halop), to help him finalize a hush-hush project: a new type of fighter plane and bombsight. This being 1941, plenty of enemy agents are after the invention, including the nefarious Felix Lynx (Eduardo Cianelli). It takes Dayton, Tim, and the co-owner of Sky Raiders, Inc., Lieutenant Ed Carey (Robert Armstrong) 12 breathless chapters before they are able to defeat the enemy. The final installment was quite appropriately entitled 'Winning Warriors'."^[8]

References

Notes

^ Stock footage of the Pitcairn PCA-2 Autogiro, piloted by Amelia Earhart in 1931, was shown.^[7]

Citations

^ Weiss and Goodgold 1973, p. 191.
^ Rainey 2010, p. 120.
^ Cline 1984 p. 229.
^ Farmer 1984, p. 327.
^ ^a ^b Santoir, Christian. "Review: 'Sky Raiders'." aeromovies, October 16, 2010. Retrieved: July 11, 2019.
^ Blake, Jerry. "Review: 'Sky Raiders'." The Files of Jerry Blake, January 17, 2014. Retrieved: July 11, 2019.
^ Lovell 1989, pp. 168–172.
^ Wollstein, Hans J. "Review: 'Sky Raiders'." allmovie.com, 2019. Retrieved: July 11, 2019.

Bibliography

Cline, William C. "Filmography". In the Nick of Time. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1984. ISBN 0-7864-0471-X.
Farmer, James H. Celluloid Wings: The Impact of Movies on Aviation (1st ed.). Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: TAB Books 1984. ISBN 978-0-83062-374-7.
Lovell, Mary S. The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. ISBN 978-1-4668-6648-5.
Rainey, Buck. Serials and Series: A World Filmography, 1912–1956. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2010. ISBN 978-1-47660-448-0.
Weiss, Ken and Ed Goodgold. To be Continued ...: A Complete Guide to Motion Picture Serials. New York: Bonanza Books, 1973. ISBN 0-517-166259.