Saturday 24 October 2020

The Dawn Patrol 1930

The miniature sequences in this film depict the bombing of a German rail yard and surrounding industrial area by a lone flyer in the First World War. The miniatures are handled by Fred Jackman and they are pretty spectacular. Amongst all the pyrotechnics, the model buildings break up in a convincing manner . There are some great point of view shots looking down on the miniature landscapes. You see a miniature bomb falling down in these shots and impacting with the ground. Synchronised with the impact the explosions then detonate sending dust and debris right up towards the camera lens. A good proportion of the miniature shots are rear projected backgrounds for live action scenes of mayhem. 

About the only actual model aircraft I could see in the film is a very quick cut of the impact of a crashing aircraft near the beginning of the film. The rest of the aerial action uses fullsize biplanes.

This film was remade only 8 years later in 1938 starring Errol Flynn and used exactly the same miniature shots as well as the same aerial photography.




























































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