The Lost Squadron is a 1930 film directed by George Archainbaud.
The story opens in literally the last five minutes of World War I, November 11, 1918. Captain "Gibby" Gibson (Richard Dix), Lt. Woody Curwood, and a third character only ever called "Red" (Joel McCrea), are American fighter pilots. The war ends, and the three pilots along with their faithful mechanic Fritz all come home to a grateful nation which throws its arms wide in welcome.
Unfortunately America turns out to be not that welcoming or grateful to its returning vets. Woody comes home to discover that he is broke, his business partner having bankrupted him. Red gives up his civilian job when he finds out that his return means his boss will fire the other employee. And Gibby comes back to his girlfriend Follette (Mary Astor), an actress, only to find out that she has been sleeping with producers to get parts. The four men, left adrift, resolve to stick together.
Something like ten years pass, and Gibby, Red, and Fritz get separated from Woody during the Time Skip. The three friends, reduced to bums riding boxcars, wander to Hollywood and discover that Woody has a thriving career as a stunt pilot in the movies. Gibby and Red join Woody as stunt pilots on the set of Woody's latest movie, which just happens to star Follette. Follette is married to the director, Arthur von Hurst (Erich von Stroheim), an abusive monster who gets homicidally angry when he meets her old boyfriend.
Tropes:
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Gibby shows up at Follette's apartment and finds her in the company of another man.
- The Alcoholic: Woody has developed a serious drinking problem. He's drunk on the film set, and he even flies drunk. When Woody shows up drunk when he's supposed to fly, Gibby has to do the stunt for him.
- Casting Couch: Pretty strongly implied when Follette tells Gibby that she's starring in a new play, and then confesses to cheating on him, saying she was "ambitious and weak, not a very happy combination."
- Curse Cut Short: Woody is being interviewed live on the radio, outside a film premiere, when he sees his buddies in the audience. He says "Well I'm a son of—", and at that moment the radio interviewer slaps a hand over his mouth.
- Dies Wide Open: Von Hurst after Red shoots him. This instance is actually plot relevant. After the night watchman hears the gunshot and pokes his head in the door, the gang props Von Hurst up in a chair and Red pretends to talk to him.
- Distant Prologue: The opening scenes are set in November 1918 and the time not long after, before the movie skips forward a decade or so to the main story.
- Domestic Abuse: Woody says quite casually that he's heard that von Hurst beats Follette. Sure enough, von Hurst later grabs Follette's hand so hard that she cringes in pain.
- Flipping the Bird: The Pre-Code Era, folks! Gibby jumps in a plane and goes up to tell Woody that Woody must land because the control wires to his plane are damaged. Gibby flies up beside Woody, but the planes don't have radios so Gibby can only gesture. Gibby frantically points to the ground and to the tail of Woody's plane, but Woody doesn't get it. Instead, he smiles broadly and flips Gibby the bird.
- Gilligan Cut: The trio of pilots agrees that stunt flying in von Hurst's rickety old planes is not a good way to make a living. Gibby says "From now on we'll stick together, but we'll stay on the ground." Cut to the three of them in their planes, up in the air.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The cops have arrived and the good guys know that they're going to get nabbed for Von Hurst's murder in a matter of minutes. So Gibby puts the corpse in a plane, takes flight, and then crashes on purpose, killing himself but also covering up the murder of von Hurst.
- Honor Before Reason: Air combat is shown going on to the very last minute of the war. Gibby seems entirely untroubled about killing a German tail gunner maybe two minutes before the war ends.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Erich von Stroheim plays an abrasive, perfectionist Prima Donna Director—so, basically himself. There's even a comment about how "real producers won't have anything to do with him," which by this point was true of von Stroheim, who pissed off every producer he ever worked with. The only difference is that in this movie von Furst has enough money to make his own movies, while von Stroheim didn't, which is why he never directed again after he was fired from the set of Queen Kelly in 1929.
- Nose Art: Gibby's plane has a skeleton wielding a scythe painted on both sides. When the gang gets jobs as stunt pilots, they recreate the skeleton on their planes.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Red is only ever called Red. And Woody's little sister, who pesters him about his drinking, is called "Pest".
- Spinning Paper: A series of newspaper headlines demonstrates the plight of returning Great War vets, with news of poverty, unemployment, and unpaid bonuses.
- Staircase Tumble: Von Hurst does this after Red shoots him. He finally hits the floor, tries briefly to get up, and then dies.
- Stock Footage: Of returning doughboys marching through New York, and returning planes flying overhead.
- A Threesome Is Hot: Hinted at when Woody is shown taking two hot women to the movie premiere.
- Title Drop: As the men raise their glasses Gibby gives a toast "to the birds that were lost, to the lost squadron."
- Vehicular Sabotage: Von Hurst sabotages Gibby's plane, by pouring acid on the control wires, so that they'll break, but only after the aircraft has taken flight. However, Woody winds up doing the stunt instead, so it's Woody that dies.
- Worthy Opponent: As soon as everyone's watches show 11:00 am on November 11, 1918, the German and American pilots salute each other and fly back to base.
