Wings
About Wings
In 1918, Jack Powell and David Armstrong both want Sylvia Lewis in a small American town. Jack does not see that Mary Preston wants him. Both men join the Army Air Service, fight once in training, and become friends. In France their tent mate, Cadet White, dies in a crash. Mary, driving an ambulance, finds Jack drunk in Paris and loses her job after a run-in with the military police. At the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, David is shot down, lives, and steals a German biplane. Jack shoots that plane down and only then sees who is in it. David forgives him and dies. Jack goes home a hero, finds Mary, and stays with her.
Cast & crew
More about Wings
William A. Wellman directed. Lucien Hubbard produced. Hope Loring and Louis D. Lighton rewrote John Monk Saunders's story to make room for Clara Bow. Harry Perry photographed it. Shooting ran from September 7, 1926, to April 7, 1927, at Kelly Field, with Army Air Corps planes and pilots. The budget was $2,000,000. Paramount opened it in New York on August 12, 1927. The original release runs 111 minutes. It has a synchronized score and effects and no spoken dialogue.
Themes
Background
The air battles are staged as the 1918 Battle of Saint-Mihiel, using Army Air Corps machines at a Texas field.
Making
Weather stopped shooting for long stretches. When the planes did fly, the Army officers on the set and Wellman argued over how the air battles should be staged.
Look
Harry Perry shot the aerial fights at Kelly Field, with Army planes in the air and cameras on other aircraft.
Technique
Roy Pomeroy's engineering effects won an Academy Award. The Saint-Mihiel sequence used Army aircraft and a battlefield built for the shoot.
Music
The release print carries a synchronized musical score and sound effects, and no dialogue. UCLA preserves that track.
Preservation
The original synchronized soundtrack is at UCLA. Picture copies are on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Charles 'Buddy' Rogers plays Jack Powell. Richard Arlen plays David Armstrong. Clara Bow plays Mary Preston. Jobyna Ralston plays Sylvia Lewis. Gary Cooper plays Cadet White.
- Wellman was hired because he had flown in combat in the war. Arlen and Saunders had also been military aviators.
- Some 300 pilots took part, and Wellman rehearsed the Saint-Mihiel scenes for ten days with some 3,500 infantrymen on a built battlefield.
- Roy Pomeroy received the Academy Award for Best Engineering Effects. The film also won the first Academy Award for Best Picture.
- The synchronized track used General Electric's Kinegraphone system, later RCA Photophone. UCLA holds the original soundtrack.
Awards
- Academy Award for Best Picture
- Academy Award for Best Engineering Effects (Roy Pomeroy)
Scenes
- Cadet White dies in a crash before he has flown a mission.
- Mary finds Jack drunk in Paris.
- Jack shoots down the German biplane and finds David in it.
Influenced by
- John Monk Saunders's story
Also available
- Internet Archive (wings.-1927.720p.-blu-ray.x-264.-yify)
- Wikimedia Commons (Wings (1927).webm)
