The Blue Eagle (1926)

the audience applauded

Better Late Then Never

Absolutely brilliant

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The Blue Eagle (1926) ** 1/2 (out of 4)George (George O'Brien) and 'Big' TIm (WIlliam Russell) are in the Navy fighting in WWI but they spend more time battling each other because they're both in love with Rose (Janet Gaynor). After the war they return home and start fighting over the girl but soon drugs are destroying their town so they decide to fight that.THE BLUE EAGLE is a rather bizarre film from director John Ford. It clocks in at just 56-minutes and is said to be missing at least a reel and possibly more. The print I watched from The Library of Congress is missing an entire battle sequence early on, which was supposed to be the highlight of the picture. I'm curious if more is missing here but as it stands in its current version, it's certainly worth watching if you're a fan of the director. The majority of the running time is more slapstick than anything else as the two men name call and fight each other and in fact that are two scenes inside a ring, which is a lot considering the already short running time.The performances by the three leads are good enough to where you should watch the picture and that's especially true for Gaynor. The film isn't a complete success because the back-and-forth love triangle just isn't all that funny and the drug scenario pretty much comes out of nowhere and almost seems like it should be a separate movie.

Janet Gaynor had already appeared in several two reel comedies and again as an extra in a few Laura La Plante films before she caught the eye of Winfield Sheehan, Vice President in charge of production at Fox studios. Always on the look out for talent and seeing a lot of potential in Janet, he signed her to a $100 weekly contract. During the time he remained at Fox, he saw to it that not only did Janet have the best dressing room on the lot but she always had fresh flowers daily. She was show cased in this run of the mill buddy movie - not only did she have Fox's prestigious director John Ford at the helm and also Fox's top male star, George O'Brien but she looked very fetching in her trademark tam-o-shanter!!Starting off as a Ford he-man actioner with two gobs, both from rival street gangs but, at sea, the stoker room too small a place to hold them!! There is a "grudge" boxing match where George O'Brien really lives up to his nickname "The Torso" but there is then some missing footage of an obvious battle and a burial at sea. It then removes to civvy street and after a welcome home dance in which sweet Janet Gaynor is introduced as Rosie Cooper, a charmer who is holding both boys at arms length, the main theme is introduced - Drugs!!!George has returned home to find his brother "Limpy" (Phillip Ford) looking dragged down and vows to help him but when a young mother is found dead in her tenement room, drugs are the killer and Father Joe (Robert Edeson) enlists the aid of both George and his rival Tim to fight the scourge using a secret weapon!! The secret weapon is gun powder and it is used to blow up a submarine with "enough dope on board to destroy 1,000s of lives"!! - according to the James Bond like finale!! George, witnessing his brother "Limpy" drowning when the sub, where he has fled to for safety, refuses to open the hatch to let him in. And surprise, surprise!! there is another fight scene where George is asked, yet again, to remove his shirt and get sweaty all for the sake of female fans who had paid to see "The Torso" and would not be denied!! According to "The Fox Girls", "The Blue Eagle" is 6200' long which makes it longer than "Sunrise" (at 6080') so there is a sizable chunk missing. Definitely at the beginning there is a naval battle where Dizzy is killed and buried at sea - missing!! And I would say that most of Margaret Livingston's footage is also gone, because given high billing, she is introduced only at the end. She is Dizzy's widow and Father Joe has convinced her to be a mother to the dead woman's child but posters and lobby card's of the day give her another role. She is portrayed on the posters as a vamp - a role that Livingston perfected in "Sunrise". Part way through the movie, Rosie flounces off in a huff, maybe that's where Livingston comes in as a femme fatale - who knows??As Tim, William Russell who had been a western star from the earliest days, unfortunately died from pneumonia in 1929. Phillip Ford (Limpy) made a name for himself as a director, this was his last movie as an actor!!

The Blue Eagle is not a very good film but it shows where Ford is going. Two tough guys fight over... whatever and wind up pals. It doesn't make a lot of sense, perhaps because of the poor quality of the restoration. Motivations are shallow. The fights don't look very scripted with actual punches thrown. The gloves must have been softened somehow. But, naturally, after the brutal slug-fest there's not a mark on either combatant.It's interesting to see George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor and Margaret Lindsey one year before Sunrise. Only Gaynor stands out in a flirtatious performance that shows why she was about to become a major star. Frankly, this is the only reason to watch the film.

Imagine a version of What Price Glory in which the two brawlin' rivals take on a big drug dealer who has a James Bond-like lair complete with submarine. You couldn't have sold that as a blaxploitation film to AIP in the 70s-- though you might be able to sell it as a Jackie Chan movie now-- but who'd have ever thought that you could have sold it as a John Ford picture at Fox in the twenties? That's basically what this very minor but watchable Ford film is about; it might be better if the lost footage, sadly, didn't include the big naval battle scene in the middle. Gaynor is charming as the object of the rivals' affection, though this is no rival to Sunrise as a pairing of her and O'Brien.