About Wings (1927)
The story behind the film
Wings was one of Paramount's most ambitious productions of the 1920s, with a budget reported at around $2 million. Director William A. Wellman was chosen because he was the only Hollywood director who had flown combat missions in the war (he had served as a fighter pilot with the Lafayette Flying Corps). The story, by former aviator John Monk Saunders, was reworked to make room for Paramount's biggest star, Clara Bow.
Two young men from the same small town — the well-off David Armstrong and the boisterous Jack Powell — are rivals for the same girl, Sylvia, while Jack fails to notice that the girl next door, Mary, adores him. Both men join the Army Air Service, become close friends in training and fly together over France. Mary joins the war effort as an ambulance driver. The friendship is tested by war, by jealousy and finally by tragedy.
The production shot at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas, from September 1926 into 1927, with the cooperation of the US Army. Hundreds of extras and some 300 pilots took part, and a full-scale reconstruction of the Battle of Saint-Mihiel was staged with thousands of soldiers.
Cast & crew
- Directed by William A. Wellman; produced by Lucien Hubbard
- Clara Bow as Mary Preston
- Charles "Buddy" Rogers as Jack Powell
- Richard Arlen as David Armstrong
- Jobyna Ralston as Sylvia Lewis
- Gary Cooper as Cadet White
- El Brendel as Herman Schwimpf
Why it's worth watching
The aerial sequences in Wings are still breathtaking. Wellman insisted on real planes in real skies, with cameras rigged on the aircraft for close-ups in flight. Richard Arlen, a wartime aviator, did his own flying, and Buddy Rogers took flying lessons during the production so he too could be filmed in the air. Dogfights, crashes and a massive ground battle viewed from the air give it a scale that later aviation films measured themselves against.
It's also a surprisingly modern film emotionally. The friendship between Jack and David is the true heart of the story, and the ending, which we won't spoil, is genuinely moving. Clara Bow brings energy and comedy to her scenes, including a lively sequence in a Paris nightclub.
Fun facts
- Wings won the very first Academy Award for Best Picture (then called "Outstanding Picture"). It is the only fully silent film to win the top award.
- It also won an Oscar for engineering effects.
- Gary Cooper's brief scene as a doomed cadet helped launch his career.
- The film was selected for the National Film Registry in 1997.
Public-domain status
Wings was published in 1927 and its US copyright has expired; it is in the public domain in the United States. We broadcast it with a public-domain (CC0) piano score; see "Rights & source" below.