This was the first film made in Hollywood by the German director William Dieterle when he arrived to begin what would prove to be an extremely distinguished career. And quite a strange kettle of fish it is too. As a magazine story it was known as Nikki and Her War Birds, which perhaps more aptly describes its story of a girl drifter who takes up with three ex-flyers living on a heady plane of excitement, unable to calm their nerves after several years of continual combat in World War One. The tone of the story is never far from hysteria, for the men are like lemmings, hurtling towards their own destruction. The brittle dialogue was written by the original author, John Monk Saunders, who also wrote Wings and The Dawn Patrol; he committed suicide in 1940. There was something of a buzz in the popular press of the day when hero Richard Barthelmess was actually permitted to use the word 'lousy'. How times have changed!

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