The end of World War I brought with it an interesting development in American movies. For more than a year (even before the U.S. officially entered the war effort), war-related films—often lurid melodramas that actively vilified the enemy—had filled movie screens. Upon the signing of the Armistice in November 1918, however, American audiences quickly lost their appetite for the war. Producers with already-completed war films on their hands were suddenly in trouble as the market for their product disintegrated, and moviegoers turned to light escapist fare to avoid any reminders of the recent conflict.

Then, after a moratorium of several years, the war film returned in the mid-1920s—but in vastly altered form. In place of the sometimes rabid revenge pictures that had proliferated during the hostilities, American filmmakers seemed to emerge from a period of reflection with mature perspectives on the war. These were the years of D.W. Griffith’s portrait of postwar German privations, Isn’t Life Wonderful (1924); of Raoul Walsh’s raucous service comedy What Price Glory (1926); and of King Vidor’s stirring masterpiece, The Big Parade (1925).

No war film of this period was more successful than Wings, a story of the Allied aviators and their part in the war effort. William Wellman, a veteran of the Lafayette Flying Corps during the war years, had gone on to a directorial career at Paramount and had begun to establish himself as an up-and-coming talent. The success of his intimate drama You Never Know Women (1926) https://www.jbkaufman.com/movie-of-the-month/you-never-know-women-1926 convinced the studio to entrust him with this big-budget aviation picture, and Wellman made the most of the opportunity. Wings, under his directorial hand, is built for entertainment, a distinct departure from other war films. Where Vidor’s The Big Parade is by turns funny, sad, terrifying, and ultimately thoughtful and poignant, Wings approaches the conflict as a boy’s adventure story, a celebration of the exhilarating freedom of the air as its brave young warriors take to the skies.

The timing of this airborne epic was not a coincidence. America was aviation-crazy in the 1920s, especially after Charles Lindbergh’s legendary transatlantic flight in May 1927. In the wake of that event, Lindbergh became a folk hero and airplanes, and flyers, became fixtures in popular entertainment. Wellman, taking advantage of his own practical experience, sought to convey the excitement of flight by sending his cameras into the air along with the pilots. He was supported in this effort by Paramount, which secured the cooperation of the U.S. Army. The picture’s battle scenes were staged on a grand scale, filmed at Brooks Field and Kelly Field, near San Antonio. The ground troops in these scenes included some of the same combatants who had taken part in the actual battles during the war. Veteran cameraman Harry Perry was at the head of a large camera crew, and a hundred-foot tower was built to capture high-angle views of the action. For the aerial scenes, flyers were sent into the air with motor-driven cameras mounted on their planes, shooting both forward and reverse angles. Wellman insisted that there was to be no fakery; the resulting dogfight scenes carried an unprecedented charge of excitement, and are still breathtaking today.

Along with the action scenes, Wings gains much of its enduring appeal from its story and cast. Producer B.P. Schulberg had championed the early career of Clara Bow, and she was

currently making her mark as a top Paramount star, so a major role was written for her. The two young flyers at the center of the story were played by Charles “Buddy” Rogers, a recent graduate of the in-house Paramount Pictures School, and Richard Arlen, an established player who was also a former aviator himself. A young Gary Cooper, on the threshold of his career, was cast in a minor but memorable supporting role.

Upon release, Wings was warmly embraced by both the moviegoing public and the Hollywood establishment. Howard Hughes, then dabbling in both aviation and movie production, was so taken with the exciting aerial scenes that he immediately hired most of Wellman’s camera crew to work on his own World War epic, Hell’s Angels. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, selecting the honorees for its first Academy Awards ceremony, did not choose a “Best Picture” for the 1927–28 season. Instead they created two separate categories. The award for “Most Artistic Quality of Production” went to Sunrise, also seen in our program this weekend, but it was Wings that won the award for “Most Outstanding Production.”

Wings

Paramount, 1927. Director: William A. Wellman. Scenario: Hope Loring and Louis D. Lighton, based on a story by John Monk Saunders. Camera: Harry Perry, E. Burton Steene, Cliff Blackston, Russell Harland, Bert Baldridge, Frank Cotner, Faxon M. Dean, Ray Olsen, Herman Schoop, L. Guy Wilky, Al Williams. Film editor: Lucien Hubbard. Cast: Clara Bow, Buddy Rogers, Richard Arlen, Jobyna Ralston, Gary Cooper, Arlette Marchal, El Brendel.