Critics reviews

The cynical sobriety undercuts the action climax and the overarching fatalism preempts traditional character development. It lacks the vulgar immediacy of Howard Hughes's box office rival, HELL'S ANGELS. What makes THE DAWN PATROL haunting--and undermines the traditionalist reflex of assuming that early talkies were merely incompetent--is the fact that these choices were apparently deliberate.

As heart-stopping as the aerial sequences are (they were lifted, essentially intact, for the 1938 remake of "The Dawn Patrol" starring Errol Flynn), the real drama is on the ground, where the men quietly learn to live with the daily prospect of death.