Stunt Pilot (1939)

The second of a series of four features Monogram made based on the comic strip by Hal Forrest (Universal also used the strip characters in two serials), finds a movie company shooting a war picture at Three Points airport, with Tailspin Tommy Tompkins as a stunt pilot in the film. Tommy is incensed by the complete disregard for human life shown by the film's director, Sheehan, and quits. Sheehan gets a replacement pilot named Earl Martin, who is known as a reckless pilot who will try an aerial stunt for a thrill. He hand Tommy get into a fight when Martin takes Betty Lou Barnes for a ride in a plane that is practically falling apart. Sheehan offers Tommy $500 to work in an airplane fight, which Tommy refuses saying the stunt is needlessly dangerous. But Skeeter Millican, Tommy's flying mechanic pal, who needs the money for his sick sister, takes the job. Tommy finds out, ties Skeeter up, and takes his place. During the filming, Tommy fires his machine gun, and Martin is killed. When it is discovered that real bullets has been used instead of blanks, Tommy is accused of murder. He and Skeeter and Betty Lou try to figure out who had a motive to kill Martin. Tommy recalls a conversation he had overheard between Martin and Sheehan, in which they had a quarrel and Sheehan had said he would never forgive Martin for an incident in the past. Tommy, with the police on his trail, takes off to catch the train that is carrying the movie company back to Hollywood. Meanwhile, Skeeter's nephew Bobby reveals he was in Tommy's plane before he took off on the flight that ended in Martin's death, and had been taking pictures with a camera gun. Skeeter and Betty Lou develop the film and find a picture of Sheehan tinkering with Tommy's machine gun. Tommy catches the train and faces Sheehan with his theory of the murder.