The Great Air Robbery (1919)

Interesting facts

The Great Air Robbery is a six-reel silent 1919 American drama film directed by Jacques Jaccard and produced by Universal Pictures. The film stars Ormer Locklear, Allan Forrest and Ray Ripley. The Great Air Robbery is a film that showcases the talents of stunt pilot Locklear, considered the foremost "aviation stunt man in the world", and depicts pilots flying air mail, the first film to deal with the subject. There are no known archival holdings of the film, so it is presumably a lost film.

Production

Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal Studios, noted the success of The Grim Game (1919), starring Harry Houdini, that featured a spectacular aerial sequence of an actual midair collision. Hiring the foremost stunt pilot of the time, Laemmle planned a series of aviation features that would highlight the aerial stunts performed by Ormer Locklear, who would also be the star of the films.

Principal photography for The Great Air Robbery began in July 1919 at DeMille Field 1, Los Angeles, California, owned by producer Cecil B. DeMille. Besides being used as a base for flying, Locklear's Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" aircraft was also mounted on a raised wooden platform at the airfield in order to film closeups.

Elmer Dyer, who assisted cinematographer Milton Moore, got his start on The Great Air Robbery. He would later go on to work on many films as an aerial cinematographer of great renown. Studio and location work was completed on August 2, 1919.

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