Armstrong says it is not Jack who is responsible for her son's death, but the war. During the visit he begs their forgiveness for causing David's death. He visits David's grieving parents to return his friend's effects. David consoles him, and before he dies, forgives his comrade.Īt the war's end, Jack returns home to a hero's welcome. He agrees and becomes distraught when he realizes what he has done. The owner of the land where David's aircraft crashed urges Jack to come to the dying man's side.
He is successful in downing the aircraft and lands to retrieve a souvenir of his victory. By a tragic stroke of bad luck, Jack spots the enemy aircraft and, bent on avenging his friend, begins an attack. However, he survives the crash landing, steals a German biplane, and heads for the Allied lines. The climax of the story comes with the epic Battle of Saint-Mihiel. She 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. She finds him, but he is too drunk to recognize her. She later learns of Jack's reputation as the ace known as "The Shooting Star" and encounters him while on leave in Paris. Mary joins the war effort by becoming an ambulance driver. Upon graduating, they are shipped off to France to fight against Imperial Germany.
Undaunted, the two men endure a rigorous training period, where they go from being enemies to best friends. Their tent mate is Cadet White, but their acquaintance is all too brief White is killed in an air crash the same day. She actually prefers David and lets him know about her feelings, but is too kindhearted to turn down Jack's affection. When they leave for training camp, Jack mistakenly believes Sylvia prefers him. The two young men both enlist to become combat pilots in the Army Air Service. Jack fails to realize that "the girl next door", Mary Preston, is desperately in love with him. Jack Powell and David Armstrong are rivals in the same small American town, both vying for the attentions of pretty Sylvia Lewis.
The Academy Film Archive preserved Wings in 2002. The film was re-released again for its 90th anniversary in 2017. In 1997, Wings was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", and the film was re-released to Cinemark theaters to coincide with the 85th Anniversary for a limited run in May 2012. Wings was one of the first widely released films to show nudity. It also won the Academy Award for Best Engineering Effects ( Roy Pomeroy). It went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Picture at the first annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award ceremony in 1929, the only silent film to do so. Although the cast and crew had much spare time during the filming because of weather delays, shooting conditions were intense, and Wellman frequently conflicted with the military officers brought in to supervise the picture.Īcclaimed for its technical prowess and realism upon release, the film became the yardstick against which future aviation films were measured, mainly because of its realistic air-combat sequences. Wellman extensively rehearsed the scenes for the Battle of Saint-Mihiel over ten days with some 3500 infantrymen on a battlefield made for the production on location. Hundreds of extras and some 300 pilots were involved in the filming, including pilots and planes of the United States Army Air Corps which were brought in for the filming and to provide assistance and supervision. The film was shot on location on a budget of $2 million (equivalent to $29.24 million in 2020) at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas, between Septemand April 7, 1927. Wellman was hired as he was the only director in Hollywood at the time who had World War I combat pilot experience, although Richard Arlen and John Monk Saunders had also served in the war as military aviators. Lighton from a story by John Monk Saunders to accommodate Bow, Paramount's biggest star at the time. The film, a romantic action-war picture, was rewritten by scriptwriters Hope Loring and Louis D. Gary Cooper appears in a small role which helped launch his career in Hollywood.
It won the first Academy Award for Best Picture. Wellman, released by Paramount Pictures, and starring Clara Bow, Charles Rogers and Richard Arlen. Wings is a 19 American silent war film set during World War I, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. US$ 2 million ($28,850,173 adjusted for inflation)