Wings won the Silent Era HoF and is my number 2 on my voting list.
I wrote a rather detailed review of
Wings...
Wings (William Wellman, 1927)
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen, Clara Bow
About: Two friends who both love the same woman and go off to become fighter pilots in World War I.
Review: I watched the official, restored DVD of
Wings. The first thing I notice is that the film tint is a light yellow and I'm thinking,
'what's going on here?' On my last viewing the film was black and white with no tint. I knew that some old silent films were monochrome tinted. But I didn't think
Wings was one of them. Then I watched the DVD extras and learned
Wings had premiered as a Road Show release. Road Show releases were special limited viewing engagements, where the movie was shown at only a handful of premier theaters in large cities. These Road Show pictures often came with little extras and in the case of
Wings the extras were single color tinting and hand drawn animated flames and machine gun fire, along with an intermission during the movie.
I believe that photo of the old movie theater is from a Road Show of
Wings as the theater is decked out for the occasion. If you watch Wings on the restored DVD you'll have two choices for soundtrack:
A pipe organ score by Gaylord Carter, and a new orchestration of the film’s original score by JS Zamecnik. The fact that the Zamecnik score incorporates the sound effects of the airplanes and gun fire helps remind us that Wings was made at the very tail-end of the silent era, just as the art was reaching its apotheosis.
Tip...watch
Wings with the orchestral score!
My favorite sequence is the Paris bistro scene..that's the one with the 'bubbles' scene and the topless scene with Clara Bow, blink and you'll miss it.
I love this gif of the opening tracking shot of the Paris bistro 'bubbles' scene. Both the technical side of this opening shot, and the story each of the couples tell at the 5 tables in the foreground is amazing.
My gawd! it's the silent era and William Wellman the director actually shows us a real view of what it would be like to fly a plane into enemy territory strafing enemy soldiers. All of the battle scenes are huge! There's no way anything like this would be made today, unless is was CG
William Wellman was a fighter pilot in World War I and the first American to join the French Lafayette Flying Corps, just like the two friends in Wings were.
I love this film! Buddy Rogers the dark haired pilot is amazing in this, he seems so personable which makes this film seem so real. Of course I liked the other pilot Richard Arlene too. Their last scene together is very touching...And I liked Clara Bow in this and there's even a brief cameo by Gary Cooper, this is the film that launched his career.
But it's 'Wild Bill' William Wellman the director, who I admire most of all. In his films and in his life he goes all out and lives life on the edge and his films reflect that gusto for life.