Both were based on the short story "The Flight Commander" by John Monk Saunders,[3] an American writer said to have been haunted by his inability to get into combat as a flyer with the U.S. Air Service.

[4] The film, directed by Edmund Goulding, stars Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone and David Niven as Royal Flying Corps fighter pilots in World War I.

[6] However, The Dawn Patrol also has a deeper and more timeless theme in the severe emotional scars suffered by military commander who must constantly order men to their deaths (not a single woman appears in the film).

Just after its wounded leader, Captain Squires (Michael Brooke), informs the squadron that the dreaded von Richter is now their foe, an enemy aircraft flies low over their aerodrome and drops a pair of trench boots.

The screenplay from the first Dawn Patrol was reprised by original screenwriter Seton Miller, even though its dialogue had been limited because it had been one of the first sound pictures.

The proposal for the remake came from producer Hal Wallis to Jack L. Warner in a memo dated April 30, 1938, to financially exploit public awareness of impending war brought on by the German annexation of Austria the month before.

[Note 3] The film featured an entirely male cast,[17] and all 12 credited roles of characters in the 59th Squadron were filled by actors with British backgrounds.

One of the many fellow Englishman actors cast by Goulding was his house-mate, Michael Brooke (the 7th Earl of Warwick), while Rathbone and Flynn were selected because of their recent appearance together in The Adventures of Robin Hood.

The filming of Dawn Patrol was an unusual experience for everyone connected with it, and dissipated for all time the legend that Britishers are lacking in a sense of humor ...

The expressions of polite and pained shock on the faces of Niven, Flynn, Rathbone et al., when (women) visitors were embarrassed was the best part of the nonsense.

[18][Note 4] Although a great deal of aerial footage was reused from the earlier 1930 production, Howard Hawks assembled a variety of aircraft in a film squadron to shoot additional flying scenes for the original version of The Dawn Patrol.

[21] The scene in which Scott takes off with Courtney clinging to the wing switches to a shot of a Travel Air 4U Speedwing fitted with a round cowl over its Comet engine to resemble the Nieuports.

Built by Claude Flagg, these "LF-1"s were constructed from Nieuport plans and had many characteristics of the actual aircraft, including upper wing fabric that ripped during dives.

[22] The original script developed for Howard Hawks, which Edmund Goulding followed closely, stressed thematic elements that came to be associated with the "Hawksian world" of "pressure cooker" situations: a professional group of men who live by a code and face death with bravado and camaraderie; the responsibility of leadership in perilous situations; a preference for individual initiative over orders; suicidal missions; and the grandeur of aerial flight.

[9][23] The Dawn Patrol uses four scene elements as visual motifs to describe a cyclical nature to war and a nightmarish quality in being in command.

Each scene's recurrence has differences that accentuate those consequences:[9] The 1930 version of The Dawn Patrol is notable for its lack of background music.

The lyrics come from a much older poem written in the early 19th century, recording the bravado of British soldiers struck down by the plague in India.

After Scott's return, he and Courtney drive off in a motorcycle sidecar boisterously singing "Plum and Apple" with their enlisted driver.

[2] Variety echoed many of the critics' reactions: "Dawn Patrol sparkles because of vigorous performances of the entire cast and Edmund Goulding's sharp direction.

Yet it is different in that it stresses the unreasonableness of the 'brass hats' - the commanders seated miles from the front who dispatched the 59th Squadron to certain death in carrying out combat assignments.

Special features include Warner Night at the movies 1938: Vintage Newsreel, musical shorts "The Prisoner of Swing" and "Romance Road".