Emergency Landing

While you cannot blame the original film makers, the DVD copy of "Emergency Landing" was VERY rough--with a lot of choppy scenes and a scratchy print. I sure that looks like it comes from a '20 Movie Pack' for $5 by Mill Creek--which it did.

A very young and inexperienced Forrest Tucker stars in this film. While he later became a good supporting character playing various tough or gruff roles, here he just looks young and lost. I think casting him as the handsome hero was a bit of a mistake and Tucker's personality in the film does nothing to sell the material.

The film is about a radio control device for airplanes. I loved the crappy special effects when they tried it out on a model plane, as the plane made completely impossible turns and it made it obvious that it was on a wire. Well, apparently the US Army Air Corps is not the only group who want this ridiculous machine and 'the enemy' have sent out spies to steal it. Since the film came out just before the US entered WWII and this studio was afraid to make waves, they just used generic baddies and made them neither German nor Japanese.

There is a guy named 'Pedro' in the film who superficially looks a lot like Leo Carillo's 'Pancho' from "The Cisco Kid"--but Pedro is played in a much broader and cheesier manner. He's like a walking bad stereotype of a 1940s Mexican. I am sure many will cringe when they watch his antics. And, they might cringe when a lady automatically calls Pedro by name. He is surprised she knows his name and she responds "...every Mexican is named Pedro...or Pancho". Wow...how enlightened! But unfortunately, the non-Mexican characters aren't a lot better. Women whine, act petulant and cry, guys stare as if they can't stand the studio lights and the actors look mostly like they're in a high school play.

The bottom line is that the film is bad--really bad. The script, editing, direction by William Beaudine and acting are all uniformly bad. And, unfortunately, while the film is about spies, it's amazingly stiff and dull.