While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

"The Air Mail", or what's left of it, was restored by the Library of Congress, and approximately half of the film has been lost. What survives is the footage of Billie Dove's screen time in the picture, and as such has some historic value to cinema buffs. It also stars Warner Baxter and a very young Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. See above review for a plot synopsis. If you are an ardent movie archaeologist "The Air Mail" will hold some interest for you, but for my part I found it unrewarding and tedious. The missing reels make it a chore to watch as it lacks a coherent narrative, and what remains is mostly uninteresting and breaks no new ground. I often think that 'old' does not necessarily infer quality, and "The Air Mail" is a case in point.

I saw the four surviving reels at Capitolfest today in Rome,NY, and the curator was mentioning prior to the exhibition that the film was apparently cut down to four reels BECAUSE those were the four reels that Billie Dove happened to be in.Billie's character, Alice, and her dad have apparently been tricked out of 3900 dollars, buying a home in the country that turns out to be in a ghost town in Nevada and made out of beer bottles. The place is a run down mess, but they are broke and try to make a home out of it. The supply man only comes by with food and medicine once an month, and somewhere down the line, dad breaks his only bottle of medicine. Alice hails down an air mail flier,Warner Baxter as Russ Kane, and tells him of her predicament. Romance and offers of help follow. The rest of the plot is confusing because of all of the cutting. There are two planes of basically, air pirates, trying to shoot down the air mail plane because apparently in the 1920's people would mail cash, and this is what the criminals are after. Meanwhile, there are three other criminals who burst into Alice's home. When the escaped criminals find the hiding and cowering Alice, unarmed and helpless, there is only one thing on their minds. That's right - FOOD. They demand Alice make them a big meal. Apparently criminals of the old west are not quite as depraved and dangerous as you might think in this production. So, pretty soon we have, in the ghost town, Alice and her dad, a boy, Sandy, that Russ dropped down to help Alice who also happens to have the air mail bag the air pirates are after, the air pirates and Russ, and the three escaped criminals. A complicated but somewhat predictable conclusion ensues.I'd recommend it for a few reasons. One great reason is that the character of Sandy is being played by a 16 year old Doug Fairbanks Jr. in only his second credited role. Another reason is that a 36 year old Warner Baxter is so young here he is practically unrecognizable. Finally there is Billy Dove. Her technique is really quite good for the silent films, because she is talented at transmitting her feelings with just gestures and changes in expression. The problem is, she never really got the hang of doing the same with speech once talking film came in. Her film career was over completely by 1932.Watch it for the performers and the confusion of it all. Especially recommended for film buffs. Maybe someday a more complete version will surface and we can see more about the air mail itself and Baxter's character.