Thehibikiew
Not even bad in a good way
Tayloriona
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Ortiz
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Edwin
The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
JohnHowardReid
Director: LEWIS SEILER. Screenplay: Raymond Schrock. Photography: Ted McCord. Film editor: Frank Magee. Art director: Stanley Fleischer. Gowns: Howard Shoup. Music: William Lava. Dialogue director: Harry Seymour. Assistant director: William Kissell. Sound recording: Robert B. Lee. Producer: Bryan Foy.Copyright 17 April 1940 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. A Warner Brothers-First National picture. New York opening at the Palace: 3 July 1940. U.S. release: 1 June 1940. Australian release: 14 March 1940 (sic). 5,027 feet. 55 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Spies attempt to make off with the plans for the U.S. Navy's "inertia projector". COMMENT: This follow-up to Smashing the Money Ring (1939) is adequate enough as a support, although the promised sci-fi "inertia projector" (which supposedly turns off all machinery including trains, cars and street lamps) turns out to be rather tame. Never mind, Miss Lys makes an attractive femme fatale, while Mr Reagan plays the all-American hero for rather more than the part is worth. The scenes on the dirigible are worth waiting for. Mr Foy, of course, is a pain, but at least he drops out of the action for a spell. The film's chief disappointment lies in the casting of that fine actor James Stephenson who is forced to make the best of a rather silly role as chief of a foreign spy ring.
fedya-1
Ronald Reagan the actor is often panned, largely in my opinion because of his politics. Those who would denigrate his acting career should watch a movie like "Murder in the Air". It was designed as a B-movie, and barely reaches that level. But the reasons for that are not Reagan's fault. Reagan is saddled with a threadbare plot about saboteurs wanting to destroy a government weapon, and he's a T-man who has to infiltrate the ring. This is bad enough, but the climax is set aboard a dirigible, which, three years after the explosion of the Hindenburg, is wholly unrealistic. Worse, Reagan's cast alongside a bunch of near-nobodies (Lya Lys??); and, with a running time of only 55 minutes, there's not much time for a good story to develop. But Reagan tries his best, and succeeds in making the movie reasonably watchable.
Chris Gaskin
Murder In the Air was the fourth movie to star future President Ronald Reagan as agent Ross Bancroft. This is at present the only one of this series I've seen and was rather impressed.A man with a tattoo of a circle and arrow is found dead after a rail crash and he turns out to be hobo with £50,000 on him. Bancroft and his sidekick are sent to investigate. The investigation eventually sends them onto an airship, Mason, which could be blown up...Murder in the Air is worth catching if you get the chance as it is rather hard to get hold of. A good way of spending just under an hour.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.
theowinthrop
President Ronald Reagan has been accused of being a second rate actor, mostly due to his appearance in BEDTIME FOR BONZO. However he actually appeared (albeit in many supporting roles) in respectable, even good films. Early in his career he was earmarked for some type of stardom by the "Brass Bancroft" films.I have never seen any of these "Brass Bancroft" Secret Agent films made by Reagan in the late 1930s, but this one has always intrigued me. Supposedly the destruction of the Naval Airship Mason is actually based on some footage of the destruction (in 1935) of the last Naval Zeppelin "U.S.S. Macon" which was lost in the Pacific Ocean at Big Sur. I'm not expecting anything along the lines of the film of the Hindenburg Crash, or of the Challenger explosion, but it would be curious to see it.
