Clipped Wings

During a storm in New York City, Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones pretends he is an aviator while aboard a mounted children's airplane ride in his friend Louie's sweets shop. When Sach's best friend, Slip Mahoney, makes fun of him, Sach proudly displays his paperwork for a flying school correspondence course. While they are talking, former neighbor Dave Moreno, now a captain with the U.S. Air Force, arrives for a visit. Dave reveals that he works as a researcher on a secret rocket project. The next day, Sach, Slip and their friends Chuck and Butch, who are all known as The Bowery Boys, read that Dave has been arrested as a spy by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for selling military secrets. Convinced of Dave's innocence, Sach and Slip try to visit him at the Allen Air Force base and unwittingly complete recruitment papers. Despite numerous lengthy tests, Sach and Slip do not comprehend their error until they are inducted into the Air Force. The commanding officer, Col. Davenport, then assigns them to ground crew school. When Sach is mistakenly assigned to sleep in the barracks of the Women's Air Force, female Sgt. Anderson attempts to have him reassigned. Sach must stay, however, as the officer who signed his orders is unavailable. Sach is given sleeping quarters in the laundry room, which he disrupts due to his clumsiness and must then spend the night re-washing the laundry. Slip, meanwhile, runs afoul of his barracks sergeant, Brodsky, who is accidentally knocked out by a fire extinguisher because of Slip's antics. The next day, Slip and Sach attempt to visit Dave but are refused entry because they do not have a pass. They then go to the Post Exchange store and are surprised to see Louie, Chuck and Butch, who have come to visit. When waitress Dorene Thompson overhears their conversation about Dave, she privately convinces Sach to bring her news of him as he is her friend. That night, Sach causes pandemonium in the women's barracks when he sneaks in to find Slip. Sach and Slip sneak out when the lights are doused and climb a ladder up to Dave's quarters to free their friend. However, Dave refuses to attempt an escape, and Sach and Slip are arrested by military police. Unknown to them, Dave is released and secretly meets with Davenport and FBI agents, with whom he is working undercover to expose a spy network. Dave agrees to continue to work to foil the spies, and Davenport agrees to release the unsuspecting Slip and Sach as well. Dorene, who is working with the spies, learns that Dave is out of prison and orders her cohorts to contact him at a public air show at the base. That day, Sach and Slip mistake two men tailing Dave for thugs. They assault the men and trap them in the supply barracks, unaware that they are actually FBI agents following Dave for his own safety. The boys then follow Dave themselves, and when he is kidnapped by Dorene and her cohorts, they send Butch, Chuck and Louie to get help. Sach, who received his airman's certificate while in jail, then convinces Slip to join him aboard a plane in order to follow the spies. He is unaware, however, that the plane is being radio-controlled and is featured in the air show. After the plane takes off, it is shot at by Air Force fighter planes as part of a demonstration. A terrified Sach consults his flight manual, but each chapter is titled "How to Face Death in the Air." He finally locates operating instructions and regains control of the plane, much to the surprise of the radio operator on the ground. Sach manages to land safely in a field, which coincidentally, is near a farmhouse where Dave is being tortured to reveal military secrets. Sach and Slip burst into the house and assault the spies, whom they subdue after a lengthy fight. When Dorene attempts to hold them at gunpoint, Sach pulls a rug out from underneath her and she, too, is taken hostage. Davenport, who had been alerted by Chuck and Butch, arrives shortly afterward to find that Slip has injected the spies with truth serum they intended to use on Dave. The spies are arrested following their confessions, and Davenport congratulates Sach on his excellent flying skills. After Sach accidentally sits on the truth serum syringe, he admits his flying skills were nothing but dumb luck.