Roy Wilson

Zany flying in biplanes of the era.

When the Great War breaks out, brothers Roy and Monte Rutledge, each attending Oxford University, enlist with the Royal Flying Corps.

A Swahili village is affected by disease. The nearby diamond mine is using this as an excuse not to ship diamonds back to HQ in South Africa. The mine president has sent a doctor, his beautiful daughter and her caregiver to find out what is going on and to cure the natives. They are travelling on foot. To speed things up the president sends his ace flyer up...

1928 was the last year when silent films dominated the market, and this aviation-based action serial from Pathe was one of the studio's last. Some pieces are no longer extant (half of chapters 3&6, all of 7, 8, and 9, and the beginning of the 10th and final chapter), but the beginning and end are there as well as enough to follow the action adequately. The surviving Grapevine print is beautifully restored and tinted in spots, although you can tell the print is deteriorated in some of the surviving sections. Basically, an inventor (Josef Swickard, in a role not unlike the one he later played in THE LOST CITY) has created a silencer/muffler for planes to silence any engine sounds, and the bad guys are out to steal the invention and put it to evil use.