Sky Racket (1937)

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

"Sky Racket" stars Herman Brix--an Olympic athlete who wisely changed his name to Bruce Bennett after starring in a few films. While neither are household names today, Bennett had a very long career and appeared in a ton of films and TV shows. Here he stars in a silly B-movie with a plot only 1930s Bs could use. Imagine--some crooks are using a death ray to knock airplanes out of the sky and Brix is sent to investigate. Believe it or not, it's the third movie with such a plot device that I've seen--and I am sure there were a few more, as death rays and airplanes were fair game in the wacky 1930s! And, incidentally, Brix starred in another film with a death ray in 1938!! With such a plot, you know you are not watching Shakespeare or a Merchant-Ivory production. However, I really think that this sort of escapism is nice for a change of pace and I love a kitschy B-movie now and again.So the bottom line is, is it any good or worth your time? Well, for the average viewer, it's probably not worth seeing and will be a hard sell. But, for people who love old films, it is not bad at all. In fact, like dbburroughs said in their clever review, it IS '...One of the better death ray knocks planes out of the sky films'. I sure wish I'd said that first!! Decent, silly and entertaining. Plus, it does offer something unusual--a screwball woman who actually is pretty smart and does NOT keep getting in the way!

Refusing to marry the count that her uncle has found for her a young lady flees her wedding and is pursued by her uncle and fiancé. Making her way to the airport she climbs in to a mail plane unaware that its a decoy for bunch of bandits who are using some unknown means to crash the planes so they can steal the mail. Good variation on what has to be some sort of sub-genre of the 1930's namely the "electronic device that crashes planes genre" I think this is the fourth or fifth one that I've run across and they are all basically the same, with some differences. I think I've liked most of these films for one reason or another. This one works because of the witty repartee and the fact that its more than just flying planes over the spot so the villains can crash them. Actually there really is only the one crash and the film spins out from there. The film is also unique in that where many films have singers in the night clubs where they are set this one has comedians, which is something I've not seen before. Worth a look if you come across it.