There's also something about nationality going on that I'm trying to work out -- the 1938 cast are far more British, not just by dint of actually being British or at least capable of doing a convincing accent (Flynn), but also because of the way certain things get played: "we are repressing because we are British and have stiff upper lips and this is a distinctly British way of handling things". And the German flyer is presented more as a caricature of German-ness, in a way that doesn't happen to the same degree in the 1930 version.