Flying Wild
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
William West
Leo Gorcey
Bobby Jordan
Joan Barclay
Dave O'brien
George Pembroke
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
While pals Skinny, Danny Graham, Peewee, Algy Reynolds and Scruno all work at the Reynolds Aviation Company, which is run by Algy's father, Muggs, the only one of the kids who refuses to work, spends his time flirting with an ambulance nurse named Helen. Helen, though, is in love with her test pilot boyfriend Tom. One day, when Tom's plane crashes onto the plant airstrip, Reynolds suspects that the crash may have been the work of saboteurs. Later, on the airfield tarmac, Muggs jokingly appoints himself as the new operator of Dr. Richard Nagel's ambulance plane and gives his pals a tour of the aircraft. Their playful games are soon brought to a halt by Nagel, the secret leader of a spy ring, who catches the boys on his plane and angrily orders them off. Mr. Reynolds, certain that spies are working at the plant, asks Danny to act as a decoy so that the spies can be identified, and has him deliver to a downtown office a fake set of plans for a new bomb site. As Reynolds predicted, Nagel's men ambush Danny on his way to the office, but the plan goes awry when the detectives sent to trail Danny lose him. Danny eventually turns up unharmed some time later. When Muggs reports to Reynolds his suspicions that Nagel is behind the espionage ring, Reynolds dismisses the accusation as a product of the boy's imagination. Not convinced by Reynolds that Nagel is innocent, Muggs and Danny begin their own investigation into Nagel, starting with a visit to the doctor on the pretext of a fake ailment. The visit turns up nothing, however, and when Danny and Muggs return to the hanger, a suspicious "accident" that was apparently meant to harm them leaves Peewee injured. While Peewee recovers at the hospital, Tom nearly loses his life when he is unable to make contact with the control tower for a landing. The controller is later found bound and gagged in the tower, prompting the kids to resume their investigation in earnest. Helen provides the gang with further clues when she confirms that the ambulance plane was being flown on many unusual trips to Mexico, supposedly to deliver patients. When Helen tells the East Side Kids that a man named Forbes is the next "patient" to be transported, they rush to his house, where they find secret plans hidden in his head bandage. Disguising Danny as the transportee, the kids send Danny and Muggs on the flight to learn who is behind the espionage ring. Danny and Muggs soon find themselves in trouble, however, when Nagel, having found Forbes locked in his closet, tries to warn the pilot of the boys' ruse. Meanwhile, Tom learns of the dangerous mission and goes after the ambulance plane in his own plane. Tom arrives in Mexico in time to save Danny and Muggs, and all the spies are arrested. Back at the plant, Reynolds rewards Muggs for his heroism by giving him a job, but his stint there is short-lived as he is soon distracted by a pretty woman and crashes a plane.
Director
William West
Cast
Leo Gorcey
Bobby Jordan
Joan Barclay
Dave O'brien
George Pembroke
Sunshine Sammy Morrison
David Gorcey
Donald Haines
Eugene Francis
Bobby Stone
Herbert Rawlinson
Dennis Moore
Forrest Taylor
Bob Hill
Alden Chase
Mary Bovard
Crew
Glen Glenn
Robert Golden
Arthur Hammond
Fred Jackman Jr.
Sam Katzman
[johnny] Lange
Al Martin
Pete Mayer
Herman Pett
[lew] Porter
Fred Preble
Ed. W. Rote
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
A working title for this film was Air Devils. The opening title card reads: "The East Side Kids in Flying Wild." Hollywood Reporter production charts list actor George Eldridge in the cast, but his appearance in the released film has not been confirmed. This picture was the third of twenty-two "East Side Kids" films produced by Sam Katzman for Monogram between 1940 and 1945. The first picture in the Monogram series was the 1940 film East Side Kids, featuring East Side Kids Dave O'Brien and Donald Haines (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.1170). Although Leo Gorcey did not appear in East Side Kids, he starred in the twenty-one "East Side Kids" films that followed, playing "Muggs," the gang's young leader. The "East Side Kids" featured "Dead End Kids" actors Gorcey and Billy Benedict and actors Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell and Bobby Jordan, who appeared frequently in both the "Dead End Kids" and "The Little Tough Guys" series. For more information on the history of the "Dead End Kids," "The East Side Kids" and "The Little Tough Guys" series, see the entry for Crime School in the AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.0873).
