John Wayne in one of his early credited roles - Craig McCoy, a fancy flier. Dorothy Gulliver is "Jean", and her family is losing the circus if they don't come up with some cash fast. Wayne is the "Ace" who is determined to stop the "bad guys" from using and producing "the invention" stolen from the original "Eagle". Lots of unknowns here. It also seems to be a film made from a twelve episode series. The picture and sound quality are pretty rough. Much use of trick photography effects, to make it look like the plane was lighting the circus tents on fire, and even during the sky-writing itself. Skip this one. Stapled together from a serial series. Written and directed by Ford Beebe. Meh..... goes for 3 hours.

This serial film is fun to watch, if you can put yourself in the mind of a kid in 1932 chomping popcorn & watching this on the big screen in his local theater.The real value of the film to me is the scene in which an airplane attacks Wayne & his girlfriend as they stand on a deserted road. Compare it to the crop dusting scene in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" and there is little doubt in my mind that Hitch stole the scene from Beebe.

While this is not John Wayne's finest movie, or even his finest serial, for fans of the cliffhanger it delivers plenty of action and pretty good acting.The main point of this review is to caution you about differences in the two DVD releases, both essentially from the same starting print. Decisions taken by the two different DVD production companies make all the difference in whether you enjoy this film or feel cheated. The two companies are Marengo Films and Platinum Disc. I first purchased the Marengo print and was so wholly unsatisfied with the editing and production that I went looking for another. I finally found it from a company named Platinum Discs.The Marengo release chops 5 seconds off the end of the film, leaving out completely John Wayne's closing scene. Also, the text that Marengo substituted for the studio's "The End" text is huge, blocky and computer generated. In short, Marengo has butchered the film for the sake of reducing the total number of VOBs needed to hold the DVD film image.The Platinum Disc release is the entire original film, not a single frame, more or less. My only disappointment with this version is they appear to have made no effort to clean up dust and scratches. The irony is that the Marengo print does have slightly more detail and better scratch and dust cleanup, however not enough, IMHO, to compensate for altering the original edit.Review written May 22, 2011 based on latest available releases from Marengo and Platinum.

Well what d'ya know? Just stumbled across this little caper which brings back happy memories of a childhood long long departed. The year was 1950 and I recall SHADOW OF THE EAGLE, the first time I ever clapped eyes on a very young up and coming John Wayne. (He had fully upped and comed by 1950!) Interestingly, this action-fest was considered somewhat of a "relic" even then!Shown as a weekly 20 minute serial at our local Saturday Morning Flicks...itself, the major regular event in our home town, I recall Wayne as square-jawed pilot Craig McCoy out to discover the truth behind the disappearance of a fairground owner whose livelihood had been threatened by the nefarious "Eagle." Each episode left a young boy barely able to wait for the following Saturday to catch Craig's latest revelations and discoveries in the dastardly plot. Actually, I can't ever recall the concluding episode.....maybe I had a sleepover the previous night? Maybe I'd finally cracked a date in her pedal-car with the five year old blonde tease next door, in which case poor old Duke was never a chance!