Riding on Air
Cast & Crew
Edward Sedgwick
Joe E. Brown
Guy Kibbee
Florence Rice
Vinton Haworth
Anthony Nace
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Elmer Lane, the sincere if dim-witted editor of Wisconsin's Claremont Chronicle and free-lance writer for the Chicago Daily Star , enters a radio contest and wins $5,000, much to the surprise of his girl friend, Betty Harrison. When Chicago confidence man J. Rutherford "Doc" Waddington hears of Elmer's winnings, he heads for Claremont. Posing as a financier, he convinces Elmer to start a company featuring his best friend Bill's invention, the airplane radio beam, a device that uses radio transmissions to control and guide airplanes. Betty, furious at Elmer's rash move, torments him by flirting with his newspaper rival, Harvey Schumann, who later discovers the bullet-riddled body of gangster Bugs Fuller in a field. Harvey tricks Elmer into flying photographs of the corpse to Chicago, where they are printed by the Daily Star 's competitor. Although Elmer receives humiliating press for his efforts, he challenges Harvey to find Fuller's killer, while developing his own theory about the murder. At the same time, Doc is recognized by the Daily Star editors from a snapshot and is thrown in jail. Sure that Fuller's body was dropped from an airplane by perfume smugglers, Elmer prepares to track them down, but just as he takes off in Bill's plane, a mob of angry investors storm the airfield demanding his head. Cornered, Betty convinces the crowd to trust Elmer, who is at that moment chasing the wrong airplane. On his way back to Claremont, however, Elmer encounters the smugglers and engages them in a fierce air battle. Aided by Bill's radio beam, which automatically controls Elmer's flight pattern, Elmer eventually downs the gangster's plane. On the ground, Elmer is declared a hero and learns that the radio beam company is now worth ten million dollars.
Director
Edward Sedgwick
Cast
Joe E. Brown
Guy Kibbee
Florence Rice
Vinton Haworth
Anthony Nace
Harlan Briggs
Andrew Tombes
Clem Bevans
Crew
Tom Carman
Henry Cohen
Richard Flournoy
Al Gilks
Fred Jackman [jr.]
David L. Loew
Richard Macaulay
Arthur Morton
Jack Ogilvie
Bill Ryan
John Ducasse Schulze
Edward Sedgwick
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working titles of this film were All Is Confusion and Sky High. Motion Picture Herald's "In the Cutting Room" adds Benny Burt to the cast, while a Hollywood Reporter news item adds Harry C. Bradley. Their participation in the final film has not been confirmed. Production charts in Hollywood Reporter list Robert Harris as associate producer, while Film Daily lists Edward Sedgwick. Harris does not include this film in his Motion Picture Almanac or Film Daily Year Book filmographies.
