Gunbus, or Sky Bandits

[Schweizer]

Okay, so I was looking for some WWI pilot movies, and stumbled across this one.  Though it technically takes place during WWI, it feels much more like pulp, as is evidenced by some of the pictures below.  The story starts with two bank robbers in the late old west (not particularly anachronistic; the "Wild West" really didn't reach a true conclusion until the great war).  They end up in Europe, and through an almost Laurel and Hardy style series of events find themselves as pilots in what I guess is a British unit, though it's peppered with Americans and a German mechanic.  They have to take out an "experimental airship," which is a slightly more advanced Zeppelin with a megalomaniacal captain. 



I can't tell if the movie is supposed to be a comedy.  There are parts where it's played broad enough that I assume it might have been, but they don't really play the tongue-in-cheek aspect until the climax, which REALLY comes out of nowhere.  There are some nice planes that you usually never see on film, and then, well, there's this:



When the evil captain uses his airship to blow up all of the planes at the airfield, the pilots take to the skies with the makeshift planes that the late amnesiac German mechanic created in the woods from spare parts.



Among these magnificent machines:









Here's a close-up of the squadron commander's.. I don't know exactly, some kind of farm machinery? cockpit:



And, when the dastardly Germans use first air torpedos that grow spikes and sprout balloons to create sky-mines...





...and later launch an exploding cannister that sprays nails everywhere...



...the squad commander's wings blow off, at which point we assume he's doomed, except (sorry for the spoiler) he has glider wings made out of a circus sign, which permits him to continue to fly upwards and with remarkable maneuverability.



It was, I have to say, a very strange movie, as I was expecting a standard flying ace type of thing. But as fodder for a pulp project, it has a lot of great material, and for WWI buff there are some great and unusual (but real) planes in the first half.

[FramFramson]

Wow, that looks bizarro-and-a-half. 

[odd duck]

What the!!!!? seems to have a "Stop that pigeon!" influence

[YPU]

What the!!!!? seems to have a "Stop that pigeon!" influence

And that is something I can really approve of! 

[joroas]

Well, the pilots already exist:

[Traveler Man]

Bizarre!  I also thought of Stop the Pigeon. I like it! What's it called?

[grant]

Very bizarre! Yet, cool.

[joroas]

Bizarre!  Grin I also thought of Stop the Pigeon. I like it! What's it called?

Gunbus, or Sky Bandits

 

[Melnibonean]

What's it called?

My thoughts exactly... What's the movie called?

[joroas]

Quote
Gunbus, or Sky Bandits
  Confused

[starkadder]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091963/

My apologies to anyone who liked it but it is brain-meltingly awful.

[Schweizer]

No apologies necessary - it IS brain-meltingly awful, there's no contention there.  But it does have some neat stuff to look at, here and there.  I find that there are a LOT of truly awful movies that have some great (or inspiring) visual elements - something like The Mummy 2 springs to mind.

Sorry for not mentioning the title in the post itself!

[DD-Chris]

Can anyone point me in the direction to find this movie in the USA?
i cant seem to find it ANYWHERE !!!
must
see
this
film