Wings (film)
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| 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 Jobyna Ralston El Brendel Richard Tucker |
| 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 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Wings is a 1927 silent movie about World War I fighter pilots produced and released by Paramount Pictures. It was the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Along with Cavalcade it is one of only two Best Picture winners to not be available on DVD in Region 1. However, it has been shown on American Movie Classics and Turner Classic Movies, enabling film buffs to tape it.
Contents |
[edit] 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). But what Jack fails to realize is that "the girl next door," Mary Preston (played by the top-billed Clara Bow), is secretly in love with him. The two young men both sign up to become combat pilots, go through a rigorous training period, and are ultimately shipped off to France, where they go from being rivals on the ground to best friends and faithful comrades in the air, especially during air battles with the Germans. Jack and David are briefly reunited with their hometown friend, Mary, when she is stationed near Paris after joining the war effort by becoming an ambulance driver. The climax of the story comes with the epic Battle of Saint-Mihiel.
[edit] Production
The film, completed with a then unheard-of 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.
It is the first known film to feature a male-on-male kiss – a fraternal one – between the two main characters, played by Rogers and Arlen. Also, it is one of the first widely released films to have shown nudity. Clara Bow's breasts can be seen for a quick second during the Paris bedroom scene when army men open the door and she is caught changing.
Gary Cooper appears briefly in the film in one of his earliest appearances, as an American pilot.
Richard Arlen and William A. Wellman had 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) process.[1]
[edit] 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. [2]
[edit] Awards
Academy Award Wins (1927/28)
- Best Effects, Engineering Effects - Roy Pomeroy
- Best Picture - Production
[edit] Legacy
For many years, Wings was considered a "lost" film until a surviving print was found in the Cinémathèque Française film archive and quickly copied to safety film stock.[3] It was again shown in theaters, including some with Wurlitzer pipe organs.[4] The print used by American Movie Classics in the 1990s had a recorded Wurlitzer pipe organ accompaniment.[5] The film has also been shown on Turner Classic Movies.[6]
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.
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ Silent Era : PSFL : Wings (1927)
- ^ Farmer 2006, p. 14.
- ^ Silent Era : PSFL : Wings (1927)
- ^ San Francisco Chronicle "Datebook" magazine
- ^ American Movies Classics
- ^ Turner Classic Movies
[edit] Bibliography
- Dolan Edward F. Jr. Hollywood Goes to War. London: Bison Books, 1985. ISBN 0-86124-229-7.
- Farmer, Jim. "The Making of Flyboys." Air Classics, Vol. 42, No. 11, November 2006.
- Hardwick, Jack and Schnepf, Ed. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies". The Making of the Great Aviation Films, General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
- Oriss, Bruce. When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War II. Hawthorne, California: Aero Associates Inc., 1984. ISBN 0-9613088-0-X.
- Silke, James R. "Fists, Dames & Wings." Air Progress Aviation Review, Volume 4, No. 4, October 1980.
- Wellman, William Jr. The Man And His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture. Westport CT: Praeger Publishers, 2006 ISBN 0-275-98541-5.
[edit] External links
- Wings at the Internet Movie Database
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by New Award |
Academy Award for Best Picture 1927-28 with Sunrise |
Succeeded by The Broadway Melody |
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