Clara Bow in William A. Wellman's "Wings" (1927) - the first Academy Award for Best Picture winner скачать в хорошем качестве

Clara Bow in William A. Wellman's "Wings" (1927) - the first Academy Award for Best Picture winner

Jack Powell (Charles 'Buddy' Rogers) and David Armstrong (Richard Arlen) are rivals in the same small American town, both vying for the attentions of pretty Sylvia Lewis (Jobyna Ralston). Jack fails to realize that "the girl next door", Mary Preston (Clara Bow), is desperately in love with him. The two young men both enlist to become combat pilots in the Army Air Service. When they leave for training camp, Jack mistakenly believes Sylvia prefers him, but she actually prefers David and lets him know about her feelings, but is too kindhearted to turn down Jack's affection. The two men endure a rigorous training period, where they are enemies. But during a bloody boxing match, they realize each other's courage and become best friends. Upon graduating, they are sent to France to fight against Imperial Germany. Jack and David are billeted together. Their tent mate is Cadet White (Gary Cooper), but their acquaintance is all too brief. White is killed in an air crash the same day. Mary joins the war effort by becoming an ambulance driver. She learns of Jack's reputation as the ace known as "The Shooting Star" and encounters him while on leave in Paris. She finds him, but he is too drunk to recognize her. She takes him back to his room and puts him to bed, but when two military police barge-in while she is innocently changing from a borrowed dress back into her uniform in the same room, she is forced to resign and return to the United States. In the epic Battle of Saint-Mihiel. David is shot down and presumed dead, but he survives the crash landing, steals a German biplane, and heads for the Allied lines. By a tragic stroke of bad luck, Jack spots the enemy aircraft and, bent on avenging his friend, begins an attack. He successfully downs the aircraft and lands to retrieve a souvenir of his victory. The owner of the land where David's aircraft crashed urges Jack to come to the dying man's side. He agrees and becomes distraught when he realizes what he has done. David consoles him, and before he dies, forgives his comrade. At the war's end, Jack returns home to a hero's welcome. He visits David's grieving parents, and begs their forgiveness for causing David's death. Mrs. Armstrong says it is not Jack who is responsible for her son's death, but the war. Then, Jack is reunited with Mary and realizes he loves her. A 1927 American Black & White silent film, directed by William A. Wellman, produced by Lucien Hubbard and B.P. Schulberg (associate producer), screenplay by Hope Loring and Louis D. Lighton, story by John Monk Saunders, titles by Julian Johnson, cinematography by Harry Perry, starring Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Richard Arlen, Jobyna Ralston, El Brendel, Richard Tucker, Gary Cooper, Gunboat Smith, Henry B. Walthall, Roscoe Karns, Julia Swayne Gordon, and Arlette Marchal. Released by Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation. Gary Cooper appears in a small role, which helped further his career in Hollywood. Charles Barton was one of several (uncredited) assistant directors. Winner of the first Academy Award for Best Picture. Roy Pomeroy also won the Best Engineering Effects Oscar at the 1929 awards. This was shot at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas. Primary scout aircraft flown were Thomas-Morse MB-3s, standing in for American-flown SPADs, and Curtiss P-1 Hawks, painted in German livery. Wellman realized that Kelly Field didn't have adequate numbers of planes or skilled pilots for the aerial maneuvers. So, he requested technical assistance and a supply of planes and pilots from Washington. The Air Corps sent six planes and pilots from the 1st Pursuit Group stationed at Selfridge Field near Detroit, including then-2nd Lt. Elmer J. Rogers Jr. and 2d Lt. Clarence S. "Bill" Irvine who became Wellman's adviser. Irvine was responsible for engineering an airborne camera system to provide close-ups and for the planning of the dogfights, and when one of the pilots broke his neck, performed in one of the battle scenes himself. Most Hollywood productions of the day took little more than a month to shoot, Wings took approximately nine months to complete. Paramount expressed concerns with the expanding budget. They sent an executive to San Antonio to complain to Wellman who told him he had two options, "a trip home or a trip to the hospital." The early flight simulator in the training scene is a Ruggles Orientator. Hundreds of extras, and some 300 pilots were involved in the filming. A boom was built with the camera mounted on an extension to shoot the Café de Paris scene, and one of the couples in the long shot is a same-sex female couple. An epic saga of friendship, love and war, with vintage melodrama, the most spectacular of stunts and three impressive pre-talkie star performances, including one of ‘It Girl’ Clara Bow’s greatest. Immensely stirring for its thrilling, atmospheric flying scenes, breathtaking dogfights and realistic sequences of trench warfare, filmed for real without any cinema trickery.