The reviews lean strongly positive, with praise clustering around Howard Hawks’s direction, the ensemble and the feeling beneath the pilots’ professional stoicism. Critics repeatedly find the camaraderie convincing and the mixture of adventure, comedy and melancholy effective. Cary Grant and Jean Arthur attract particular attention for their performances and romantic chemistry. The aerial sequences provide excitement, while several reviews find just as much tension in the confined spaces where the characters work and gather.
The differences are mostly matters of enthusiasm rather than fundamental objections. Little White Lies finds the film less purely entertaining than some of Hawks’s other work, but especially moving. The Guardian is warmly appreciative without placing it among its favourite Hawks films. Empire supplies a more specific reservation, identifying Richard Barthelmess as the ensemble’s weak link. Across the available assessments, those qualifications sit within broad admiration for the film’s craft and emotional restraint.