Wings of the Navy (1939)

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writer:

Michael Fessier (original screenplay)

Release Date:

11 February 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

FOR ALL THE WORLD TO WITNESS THAT AMERICA WILL NOT BE UNPREPARED!

Plot:

Jerry and Cass have always been competitive. Now that Cass is a well respected Naval aviator like his father...

Plot Keywords:

Crash | Flying Boat | Cadet | Test Pilot | Training

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

George Brent	...	Cass Harrington
Olivia de Havilland	...	Irene Dale
John Payne	...	Jerry Harrington
Frank McHugh	...	Scat Allen
John Litel	...	Commander Clark
Victor Jory	...	Lt. Parsons
Henry O'Neill	...	Prologue Speaker
John Ridgely	...	Dan Morrison
John Gallaudet	...	Lt. Harry White
Donald Briggs	...	Instructor
Edgar Edwards	...	Ted Parsons
Regis Toomey	...	First Flight Instructor
Alberto Morin	...	Armando Costa (as Albert Morin)
Jonathan Hale	...	Commandant
Pierre Watkin	...	Capt. March

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #4499) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

North Island Naval Air Station, Coronado, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Both William B. Davidson as Brown and Rosella Towne as Agnes are in studio records/casting call lists as cast members for their roles, but they did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie.

Goofs:

Continuity: When testing the new plane in a dive, the plane appears to be making a vertical dive, but it is obvious from the cloud formations a horizontal image was rotated 90 degrees to appear to be a vertical image.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Swingtime in the Movies (1938)

Soundtrack:

Wings Over the Navy

Of exceptional interest to old movie buffs, historians and airplane buffs,...others might find it a bit contrived

I am biased, as are all film reviewers. There are certain types of films we are naturally more positively predisposed to, and this is one of them for me. I love history and aviation and so it's not at all surprising that I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Heck, there were a lot of very similar movies in the 1930s and 1940s--films about young cadets trying to make it through flight school, bombardier school, etc. After a while, they tend to blend a bit together in my head and I am sure that the average viewer would get tired of the genre pretty quickly. But if you also consider that this film was made by Warner Brothers (who made a lot of similar films) and stars some wonderful actors that I truly enjoy watching (George Brent, Olivia DeHavilland, John Payne and Frank McHugh), it's natural that I should like it. But, on the other hand, will you? Well, if you love this type of film, you are sure to be impressed. If you have not, then you probably will find that the film is a tad contrived and clichéd--particularly regarding the romantic triangle in the film. But considering how marvelously done the flying sequences are (exceptional for the time), the consistency of the writing and acting and the overall fun of the film, I think the average person would still probably give this movie a score of 6. I myself give it an 8 but realize that a good compromise between non-aviation/old movie lovers/history teachers and nuts like me is a score of 7.