Movie Review – Wings (1927)

Today we’re taking a look at Wings, a 1927 silent movie that tells a story of two rivals who fight over a woman, join the Army Air Service and become pilots, and later fight in World War 1.

Directed by William A. Wellman, Wings stars Clara Bow as Mary Preston, Charles “Buddy” Rogers as Jack Powell, Richard Arlen as David Armstrong, and Jobyna Ralston as Sylvia Lewis.  Gary Cooper has a brief role as Cadet White, and El Brendel plays the role of Dutch-American Herman Schwimpf.  Music for the film was composed by J.S. Zamecnik.

Wings begins in a small American town in 1917.

Jack Powell (Charles “Buddy” Rogers) is an average guy who knows how to work on cars and he dreams of one day flying airplanes.  His neighbor Mary Preston (Clara Bow) is in love with him, but he rejects her advances.  When he repairs his car and renames it “Shooting Star,” he drives away and asks Sylvia Lewis (Jobyna Ralston) to go with him for a ride.  This move annoys David Armstrong (Richard Arlen) as he was trying to romance Sylvia.

Meanwhile, the war in Europe escalates and the United States joins the fighting.  When the call goes out for volunteers, both Jack and David enlist in the Army Air Service.  Before leaving for training camp, Jack sees Sylvia and expresses how he feels about her.  Sylvia is too polite to reject him, so she allows him to take a locket that has her photograph.  The problem is that Sylvia really loves David and the locket was intended for him.  David walks in on Jack and Sylvia, but when Jack leaves the room Sylvia explains to David what happened.

Despite Jack’s recent actions, Mary is still in love with him.  She becomes upset when he just gives her a casual good-bye before leaving for training camp.  David then says good-bye to his parents, and then he and Jack report to their training camp.

All of the recruits proceed through the training and quickly learn how to become not only soldiers but aviators and combat pilots as well.  In the beginning Jack and David are fierce rivals, and they let their emotions show when boxing and learning how to fight.  Their attitudes towards each other change, and by the end of basic training they’re best friends.

When it’s time for flight training, the recruits are stationed at an airfield.  Jack and David end up sharing the same tent, and they also share it with Cadet White (Gary Cooper).  Their acquaintance with White is short-lived as he departs on a training mission and crashes his airplane, accidentally killing himself.  The rest of the recruits continue with their training and eventually become combat pilots.

After graduating from flight school, the aviators are sent to an American airfield in France so they can fight the Germans.  The Americans’ first mission is a dawn patrol.  They engage the German pilots in the sky and a massive dog fight ensues.  Airplanes on both sides are quickly shot out of the sky.  David runs into trouble when his machine gun jams and he’s shot down.  Fortunately, he survives a crash landing and is rescued by British soldiers in a nearby trench.

Weeks pass and the Americans gain more experience, shoot down more Germans, and they become combat veterans.

One day a German bomber is sighted in the sky.  The Americans quickly fly up and fight the bomber and its escort fighters, ultimately shooting down all of the enemy aircraft.  When the bomber’s bombs fall on a town, ambulance driver Mary Preston is nearly killed by the explosions.  She crawls out of the wreckage and watches as the Americans succeed in the air.  After they land, the pilots are hailed as heroes and presented with medals.

The men are soon given a leave and they spend the time in Paris, France.  They men get drunk and make their moves on the local French women.  When Mary finds Jack, he’s too drunk to recognize her.  Mary is disheartened when Jack shuns her, but when she talks to an older lady, the lady convinces Mary to change her clothes and wear something more enticing for Jack to notice.  The new dress works and gets Jack’s attention, but he’s still too drunk.  Mary takes him upstairs to a bedroom and puts him to bed.  When she’s changing back into her uniform, two military policemen barge into the room and catch her changing.  They think that she’s showing an improper behavior, and Mary is forced to resign and return to America.

The war on the Western Front continues, and a “Big Push” by the Allies is set in motion.  It’s set to be a knock-out punch against the Germans and break the stalemate in France.

The big day arrives and Jack and David are studying maps and flight plans before climbing into their aircraft.  David asks Jack to make sure that his mother receives his medals and belongings as he doesn’t believe that he’s going to survive the day.  Jack thinks that sort of talk in nonsense, and he gives David a little pep talk and boosts his spirits.  Jack then shows David the locket and picture of Sylvia.  He’s convinced that not only has it brought him luck, but because Sylvia gave it to him she loves him.

Jack accidentally drops the locket and the photograph falls out of it.  David picks up the photo and sees the love message that Sylvia wrote to him (to David, not Jack), and he realizes that Sylvia really does not love Jack.  David tries to put the photo back in the locket so that Jack won’t see the message, but Jack won’t let anybody touch the locket.  It’s his lucky charm.  David then rips apart the photo to keep Jack from knowing the truth behind it.  This enrages Jack and he ties to fight with David.  He’s quickly stopped when the squadron commander tells the men that it’s time to fly on the mission.  The Germans have set up observation balloons on a nearby hill, and they’re in danger of spotting the advancing Allied troops.

Jack and David take to the sky and quickly fly to the German observation balloons.  However, the two Americans are ambushed by a small squadron of German fighters.  While Jack sets up an attack run on the balloons, David fends off the fighters.  He succeeds at shooting down some of them and saving Jack, but the remaining fighters have the advantage over David.  As Jack destroys the balloons, David is shot down by the German fighters.

David is injured but he manages to survive a crash landing.  A squad of German soldiers spots and fires at him, but David swims underwater and escapes into the nearby foliage.  When the sun sets and it’s dark, David sneaks his way through enemy territory.

Back at the American airfield, a lone German aircraft makes a low pass and drops a message.  The message states that one of the squadron’s aircraft was shot down at the Mad River, and the pilot was killed while resisting capture.  Since it was only Jack and David out flying that day, Jack knows that David is dead.

At dawn the Battle of Saint-Mihiel begins.  While the armies clash on the battlefield, the pilots take to the sky and do whatever they can to aid in the battle.  Jack decides to fly towards the Mad River and get some revenge.  After shooting a car carrying German high officers, he flies away and looks for other targets.

Meanwhile, David makes his way to an airfield and steals a German aircraft.  He successfully takes off and heads back toward the Allied territory.  However, his aircraft is spotted by Jack who is still looking for revenge against the Germans.  He doesn’t realize that his friend is really piloting the aircraft.  David tries to wave him off and maneuver away, but Jack shoots him down.  His German aircraft crashes into a house and David is mortally wounded.

Jack lands his aircraft on a nearby field as he intends on taking a piece of the downed German aircraft as a souvenir.  When he approaches the crash site, the owner of the land urges Jack to come inside to the side of the dying man.  In the house Jack realizes that the perceived enemy pilot was really David.  He’s horrified at the thought of what just happened.  Jack stays by his friends side and David forgives him for his actions.  David then dies from his injuries.  When going through David’s belongings, he reads a letter and discovers that Sylvia really loved David, not Jack.

When the war ends Jack returns home as a hero.  He visits David’s parents and begs for their forgiveness for his role in David’s death.  David’s mother tells him that he was not responsible for David’s death as it was the war that killed him.

Wings ends with Jack reuniting with Mary Preston and realizing that he loves her.

So is 1927’s Wings a good movie?

Definitely!

Wings is a great movie that has a tremendous amount of outstanding aerial sequences.  If you love World War 1 aviation, then this is absolutely a must-see film.  In fact, Wings was such an outstanding film that it won the Academy Award for Best Picture . . . at the very first Academy Award ceremony.

This was my first time watching a silent movie from start to finish.  I must say that I was rather impressed by how fascinating the experience was and how easy it was to follow along and catch all of the details.  To do that these days I need to use subtitles.  The use of title cards allows the viewer to focus more on the story and the details without getting lost in the dialogue that you may have misheard or just not understood.

As far as Wings, this movie has a solid story and really spectacular aviation scenes.  From what I understand, Wings set the standards as to how aircraft and flying sequences should look in movies.

My biggest problem with the film is that basically all of the army scenes, including the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, just looked too fake.  In particular, the trenches looked too shallow and the geography looked too arid.  Then again, this movie was primarily filmed in Texas.

But that’s really about it.  This movie revolves around World War 1 aviation, and there’s plenty of it here.  Fans of that era will not be disappointed.

Wings (1927) – movie trailer

Don’t be intimidated in sitting through a silent movie.  This is nothing to take lightly.  Get a copy of this film, sit back, and enjoy a fantastic experience set during the First World War.