Wings
Short description
Wings is a silent drama set during the First World War. Two young men from the same small American town, Jack Powell and David Armstrong, grow up in different circumstances but both fall for Sylvia Lewis, who returns David's feelings. Jack fails to notice Mary Preston, the girl next door who has loved him for years. When the United States enters the war, both men join the air service, train as pilots and become accomplished flyers and close friends, though their shared attachment to Sylvia complicates the bond between them. Mary also enlists, hoping to stay near Jack, but the distances of wartime keep them apart. The strain on the two friends' relationship follows them into combat.
William A. Wellman directed the film, the first of sixteen features credited to him in chronological order, ahead of The Public Enemy in 1931. The screenplay was written by Louis D. Lighton, Hope Loring and Julian Johnson, and Lucien Hubbard and Benjamin P. Schulberg produced it for Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation. Clara Bow plays Mary, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers is Jack, Richard Arlen is David, and Jobyna Ralston, El Brendel and Richard Tucker appear alongside them. Made for about 2 million dollars and taking roughly 4 million worldwide, it earned a 7.5 rating on IMDb from 16,000 votes and a 7.2 on TMDB from 347 votes. The critics' rating stands at 7.5 from 63 reviews, in line with the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- For decades, the film was considered lost until a miraculously preserved copy in terrible condition was accidentally discovered in the Parisian archives.
- During filming – when thousands of extras fought on the ground, dozens of aircraft flew through the sky, and hundreds of explosions sounded everywhere – there were only two injuries. Stunt pilot Dick Grace (1898-1965) was injured when an airplane, whose crash was scripted to fully flip, only partially flipped, and the pilot was sent to the hospital with a neck injury, where he spent 6 weeks. In the second case, one of the military pilots assisting with the filming was injured. Unfortunately, he died. Director William A. Wellman (1896-1975) feared filming would be halted, but fortunately, this did not happen because the army command chose to blame the deceased pilot, rather than the filmmakers.
- Unlike his co-star Richard Allen (1899-1976), Charles “Buddy” Rogers (1904-1999) could not fly at the beginning of filming, but learned to do so closer to its end. During filming, Hoyt Vandenberg (1899-1954) served as his instructor and mentor (and sometimes as a second pilot). In close-up scenes where the characters are shown flying airplanes, the actors actually piloted the planes. To shoot such scenes, the camera was attached to the engine cowling, and the actors had to take off, maintain course so that the audience could see clouds or enemy planes in the background, turn on the camera, and land. During Rogers' initial training, Vandenberg sometimes hid in the back seat and flew the plane himself.
- The U.S. Army contributed to the making of the film. The filmmakers had access to thousands of servicemen, millions of dollars worth of military equipment, and, of course, airplanes.
- The filming of the Saint-Mihiel operation was carefully rehearsed for 10 days. It involved 60 aircraft and 3,500 extras (members of the U.S. National Guard were used in this role).
- Chocolate syrup was used instead of fake blood during filming.
- After its release, the film remained in theaters for 63 weeks. One of the reasons for this success is considered to be the public's interest in aviation, fueled by Charles A. Lindbergh’s (1902-1974) transatlantic flight (May 20-21, 1927).
- The only silent film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2011, the award was given to "The Artist", filmed in the style of silent cinema, but including several spoken lines and a musical score.
- The film underwent a remastering for its 2012 Blu-Ray release. The footage was restored, the original black-and-white image was converted to sepia, with color added to the aerial combat scenes. The soundtrack features the original score by Zh. S. Zamechnik, recorded specifically for the release and supplemented with sound effects by Ben Burtt (“Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones”).
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