The Military Air-Scouts (Vitagraph, 1911)

The Military Air-Scouts (Vitagraph, 1911)
Directed by William Humphrey
Starring Earle Williams and Edith Storey

So this is a curious one, not so much because of the plot (what little there is of it) but because of the timing.

Lieutenant Wentworth (Earle Williams) is in love with Marie Arthur (Edith Storey) and hopes to marry her. When war is declared between the United States of America and the United States of Europe, he accepts a dangerous air-scout commission. After successfully sinking the enemy’s fleet of battleships, his plane is shot down. The lieutenant, not badly hurt, returns home and finds Marie ready to marry him.

Now, I’m reading a lot into the story that is never actually portrayed on the screen—especially when it comes to Marie and Wentworth’s motivation—but I think that’s the essence of the plot.

Not dissimilar to The Victoria Cross, you might be saying, but whereas the Crimean War had already happened prior to The Victoria Cross’s release, not so for The Military Air-Scouts and the First World War. Air-Scouts, released in 1911, is set in the not-too-distant future of August 4^th, 1914. For those playing along at home, it might interest you to know that Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on June 28^th of that year.

Did ancient aliens write this scenario or is it simply indicative of the feeling at the time that the Balkans were a powder keg and war was sooner or later inevitable?

Also interesting to note that the stunt pilot actually flying the plane is a young Henry “Hap” Arnold, who would later become both General of the Army and General of the Air Force in the Second World War—the only man to be a five-star general of two different military services.

My rating: This is a very, very slight film, but I like it purely for the miniatures in the naval battle scene.

Available from Harpodeon.com