Wings (film)
| Wings | |
 early film poster |
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| Directed by | William A. Wellman |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Lucien Hubbard |
| Written by | Story: John Monk Saunders Screenplay: Hope Loring Louis D. Lighton Titles: Julian Johnson |
| Starring | Clara Bow Charles 'Buddy' Rogers Richard Arlen Gary Cooper |
| Music by | Uncredited: J.S. Zamecnik |
| Cinematography | Harry Perry |
| Editing by | E. Lloyd Sheldon Uncredited: Lucien Hubard |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 12 August 1927 |
| Running time | 141 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent film English intertitles |
| Budget | US$2,000,000 (est.) |
Wings (1927) is a silent movie about World War I fighter pilots, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures. It was the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture -- and the only silent film ever to win Best Picture—and stars Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers and Richard Arlen, with Gary Cooper in a scene which helped launch his star in Hollywood, and also marked the beginning of his affair with Clara Bow.[1]
Contents |
Plot
Jack Powell (Charles "Buddy" Rogers) and David Armstrong (Richard Arlen) are rivals in the same small American town, both vying for the attentions of pretty Sylvia Lewis (Jobyna Ralston). Jack fails to realize that "the girl next door", Mary Preston (Clara Bow), is desperatly in love with him. The two young men both enlist to become combat pilots in the Air Service. When they leave for training camp, Jack mistakenly believes Sylvia prefers him; she is too kindhearted to disillusion him, but lets David know that she loves him.
Jack and David are billeted together. Their tent mate is Cadet White (Gary Cooper), but their acquaintance is all too brief; White is killed in an air crash the same day. Undaunted, the two men endure a rigorous training period, where they go from being enemies to best friends. Upon graduating, they are shipped off to France to fight the Germans.
Mary joins the war effort by becoming an ambulance driver. When she is in Paris, she learns that Jack is on leave there. She finds him, but he is too drunk to recognize her. She puts him to bed, but when two Military Police barge in while she is innocently changing out of a borrowed dress back into her uniform in the same room, she is forced to resign and return to America.
The climax of the story comes with the epic Battle of Saint-Mihiel. David is shot down and presumed dead. However, he survives the crash landing, steals a German biplane, and heads for the Allied lines. By a tragic stroke of bad luck, he is spotted by Jack, who is bent on avenging his friend. Jack shoots David down. When Jack lands to pick up a souvenir, he becomes distraught when he learns what he has done, but before David dies, he forgives his comrade.
With the end of the war, Jack returns home to a hero's welcome. When he returns David's effects to his grieving parents, David's mother blames the war, not Jack, for her son's death. Then, Jack is reunited with Mary and realizes he loves her.
Cast
- Clara Bow as Mary Preston
- Charles 'Buddy' Rogers as Jack Powell
- Richard Arlen as David Armstrong. Arlen met co-star Ralston on the set and married her in 1927.
- Jobyna Ralston as Sylvia Lewis
- El Brendel as Herman Schwimpf, a cadet who washes out and becomes an air force mechanic
- Richard Tucker as Air commander
- Gary Cooper as Cadet White
- Gunboat Smith as Sergeant
- Henry B. Walthall as David's father
- Roscoe Karns as Lieutenant Cameron
- Julia Swayne Gordon as David's mother
- Arlette Marchal as Celeste
Production
The film, completed with a budget of $2 million, was the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture (then called "Best Picture, Production") for the film year 1927/28 (and was the only silent film to win), and won a second Academy Award for Engineering Effects. The film was written by John Monk Saunders (story), Louis D. Lighton and Hope Loring, and was directed by William A. Wellman, with an original orchestral score by John Stepan Zamecnik (J S Zamecnik), which was uncredited.
The movie was shot at many air force bases in San Antonio and the world premiere was at the Texas Theatre on Houston Street in San Antonio.
It is one of the first films to feature a male-on-male kiss – a fraternal one – in the death scene near the end. It is also one of the first widely released films to show nudity. Clara Bow's breasts can be seen for a quick second during the Paris bedroom scene when army men barge in as she is changing her clothes. In the Enlistment office, nude men, from behind, can be seen though an open door, which is opened and closed. They are undergoing physical exams.
Richard Arlen, William A. Wellman, and John Monk Saunders had all served in World War I as military aviators.
The original Paramount release was color tinted and had some sequences in an early widescreen process known as Magnascope. Some prints had synchronized sound effects and music, using the General Electric Kinegraphone (later RCA Photophone) sound-on-film process.[2]
Reception
Wings was an immediate success, premiering on 12 August 1927 at the Critereo Theatre in New York and playing 63 weeks before being moved to second-run theaters. One of the reasons for its resounding popularity was the public infatuation with aviation in the wake of Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight.[3]
Academy Awards
- Best Effects, Engineering Effects - Roy Pomeroy
- Best Picture - Production
Legacy
For many years, Wings was considered a lost film until a surviving print was found in the Cinémathèque Française film archive in Paris and quickly copied from nitrate film to safety film stock.[2] It was again shown in theaters, including some with Wurlitzer pipe organs.[4]
In 1997, Wings was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In 2006, director William A. Wellman's son, William Wellman Jr., authored a book about the film and his father's participation in the making of it, titled The Man and His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture.
DVD
Along with Cavalcade, Wings is one of only two Best Picture winners that is not officially available on DVD in Region 1.
References
Notes
- ^ "Notes for Wings (1927)". Turner Classic Movies. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=504086&category=Notes. Retrieved on 2009-05-17.
- ^ a b "PSFL: Wings (1927)". Progressive Silent Film List. http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/W/Wings1927.html. Retrieved on 2009-05-17.
- ^ Farmer 2006, p. 14.
- ^ San Francisco Chronicle "Datebook" magazine
Bibliography
- Dolan, Edward F. Jr. (1985). Hollywood Goes to War. London: Bison Books. ISBN 08-6124-229-7.
- Farmer, Jim (November 2006). "The Making of ‘Flyboys’". Air Classics 42 (11).
- Hardwick, Jack; Schnepf, Ed (1989). "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies". The Making of the Great Aviation Films. General Aviation Series. 2. Challenge Pub..
- Orriss, Bruce W. (1984). When Hollywood Ruled the Skies. Hawthorne, California: Aero Associates Inc.. ISBN 09-6130-880-X.
- Silke, James R. (October 1980). "Fists, Dames & Wings". Air Progress Aviation Review 4 (4).
- Wellman, William Jr. (2006). The Man And His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 02-7598-541-5.
External links
- Wings at the Internet Movie Database
- Wings at the TCM Movie Database
- Wings at Allmovie
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by New Award |
Academy Award for Best Picture 1927-28 with Sunrise |
Succeeded by The Broadway Melody |
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