The Dawn Patrol is a 1930 World War I film starring Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. It was directed by Howard Hawks and won the Academy Award for Best Story for John Monk Saunders.
The story revolves around the pilots and crew of an RFC airbase, who deal with the stress of combat primarily through nightly bouts of heavy drinking.
The two aces of the group, Courtney (Richard Barthelmess) and Scott (Douglas Fairbanks Jr), have come t...
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The Dawn Patrol is a 1930 World War I film starring Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. It was directed by Howard Hawks and won the Academy Award for Best Story for John Monk Saunders.
The story revolves around the pilots and crew of an RFC airbase, who deal with the stress of combat primarily through nightly bouts of heavy drinking.
The two aces of the group, Courtney (Richard Barthelmess) and Scott (Douglas Fairbanks Jr), have come to hate the commanding officer, Brand (Neil Hamilton), blaming him for sending fresh pilots directly into combat. Unknown to them, Brand has been arguing continually with his commanders to allow him practice time with the new pilots, but command is desperate to maintain air superiority and orders them into combat as soon as they arrive. Brand is so disliked by the two he cannot even easily join the men for the nightly partying, drinking alone and clearly breaking under the strain.
The tension grows worse when an elite German squadron, implied...
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