Surprisingly incoherent and boring

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

The Blue Eagle (1926) ** 1/2 (out of 4)George (George O'Brien) and 'Big' TIm (WIlliam Russell) are in the Navy fighting in WWI but they spend more time battling each other because they're both in love with Rose (Janet Gaynor). After the war they return home and start fighting over the girl but soon drugs are destroying their town so they decide to fight that.THE BLUE EAGLE is a rather bizarre film from director John Ford. It clocks in at just 56-minutes and is said to be missing at least a reel and possibly more. The print I watched from The Library of Congress is missing an entire battle sequence early on, which was supposed to be the highlight of the picture. I'm curious if more is missing here but as it stands in its current version, it's certainly worth watching if you're a fan of the director. The majority of the running time is more slapstick than anything else as the two men name call and fight each other and in fact that are two scenes inside a ring, which is a lot considering the already short running time.The performances by the three leads are good enough to where you should watch the picture and that's especially true for Gaynor. The film isn't a complete success because the back-and-forth love triangle just isn't all that funny and the drug scenario pretty much comes out of nowhere and almost seems like it should be a separate movie.

In it's frequently blotchy Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center restoration and missing the big sea battle, this is still one of the more entertaining silent action melodramas of its day.Frequently shirtless O'Brien is in a more vicious Flag & Quirt relationship with leading man of the previous decade Russell - as naval stokers, competing for a winning young Gaynor and leading post war street gangs who combine to blow up a dope smuggler's submarine, before punching it out in the ring under the supervision of Salvation Army officer Edeson and joining the American legion together.The idea content is occasionally alarming but bits are better than the formulaic plot line and it's a first airing for a number of ideas Ford uses in later films - SEAS BENEATH's submerging sub, THEY WERE EXPENDABLE's speeding boats or DONOVAN'S REEF's brawling ex navy men.

The Blue Eagle is not a very good film but it shows where Ford is going. Two tough guys fight over... whatever and wind up pals. It doesn't make a lot of sense, perhaps because of the poor quality of the restoration. Motivations are shallow. The fights don't look very scripted with actual punches thrown. The gloves must have been softened somehow. But, naturally, after the brutal slug-fest there's not a mark on either combatant.It's interesting to see George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor and Margaret Lindsey one year before Sunrise. Only Gaynor stands out in a flirtatious performance that shows why she was about to become a major star. Frankly, this is the only reason to watch the film.

Imagine a version of What Price Glory in which the two brawlin' rivals take on a big drug dealer who has a James Bond-like lair complete with submarine. You couldn't have sold that as a blaxploitation film to AIP in the 70s-- though you might be able to sell it as a Jackie Chan movie now-- but who'd have ever thought that you could have sold it as a John Ford picture at Fox in the twenties? That's basically what this very minor but watchable Ford film is about; it might be better if the lost footage, sadly, didn't include the big naval battle scene in the middle. Gaynor is charming as the object of the rivals' affection, though this is no rival to Sunrise as a pairing of her and O'Brien.