<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe local sheriff threatens to shut down a travelling carnival unless the owner, Col. \u2018Skipper\u2019 Gregory, played by Edward Hearn, settles a bunch of outstanding bills. After coming up short by about ninety dollars stunt pilot Craig McCoy, played by JW, saves the day by making up the difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Skipper\u2019s daughter Jean, played by Dorothy Gulliver, performs with Craig as a wing walker and parachutist, Craig and her running off to try out a new stunt after having saved the carnival from ruin. Wheel-chair bound Skipper watches along with assorted carnival folk including a midget played by \u2018Little Billie\u2019 Rhodes and strongman Heine, played by Ivan Linow, as his daughter jumps from the plane. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the meantime, Craig\u2019s plane starts to emit smoke, Skipper realising that his friend is skywriting rather than spiraling to his death. Craig has been paid anonymously to write \u201cMay 23rd<\/sup> 1918 The Eagle\u201d in the sky, a feat witnessed by a group of businessmen who are gathered on the ground discussing the building of a new aeroplane factory for the Evans Aero Co., a company owned by Major Evans, played by Richard Tucker.<\/p>\n\n\n\nReturning to the office the businessmen discover a message left by the Eagle declaring \u201cYou shot down the Eagle and stole his invention. His shadow has returned. Prepare to pay.\u201d It transpires that some of the businessmen were part of a flying squadron during WWI and one of their fellow flyers, the Eagle, was \u2018accidentally\u2019 shot down by one of his own men after being mistaken for an enemy flyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enter stage left the villainous Boyle, played by stuntman Yakima Canutt, making the first of many appearances in a John Wayne film. He and his companion receive a call from the Eagle telling them that one of the businessmen, Green, is on his way to the carnival. Green intercepts Craig and asks him who requested he skywrite the message about the Eagle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By this time Jean is starting to suspect that her father knows more than he is letting on, especially when he recognises Green as a member of his old flying unit. It then transpires that Skipper is actually the Eagle, and he did have an invention, a radio-piloted aircraft, that he believes was stolen by Green and his fellow business colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Green makes off with some of Skipper\u2019s plans, not realising that Billy has stolen a ride on the back of his car. Craig is also in pursuit on a motorbike and arrives to take the stolen plans from Boyle and his fellow henchman who have only just relieved them from Green. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Billy reports back to tell Skipper he overheard Green on the phone arranging a meeting for that evening at the factory but his boss has been kidnapped. Craig tracks Green down and forces himself on the meeting Green has arranged, demanding to know where Skipper is being held. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As each side throws accusations back and forth, resulting in the discovery that the plans Green stole comprised a couple of blank pages, they all witness another skywriting stunt in which the name of one of the businessmen, Clark, is written and then crossed out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A mysterious stranger enters the room, the lights suddenly go out, a loud scream is heard followed by a gun shot, the action in the dark punctuated by someone intoning that \u201cThe Eagle has struck\u201d. When the lights are turned back on Clark lays dead on the floor. Craig runs off in pursuit of the stranger whilst the businessmen leave the room to find out where the stranger has gone. When they return to the office they find Clark\u2019s body has disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Craig turns up at the carnival, telling Jean that he\u2019s convinced he saw her father running away after having murdered Clark. Skipper then tuns up, miraculously no longer in a wheelchair, but still pleading his innocence in the murder of Clark and telling Craig he only turned the lights off in the office to save him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This statement is overheard by Major Evans and his business colleagues who are now convinced that both Skipper and Craig are in on the plot to kill them all. Billy and Heinie arrive in the nick of time to fight the businessmen off. Jean runs after her father who appears to then jump into Craig\u2019s stunt plane but Jean is convinced the man is not her father but someone disguised to look like him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whoever is flying the plane then does a \u201cNorth by Northwest\u201d by first flying low over the carnival and setting it on fire through means not necessarily obvious in the print I watched before turning their attention to trying to kill Craig and Jean\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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