Film Journal

Film Journal

Wings

Paramount has got itself a $2 picture. In fact? the most legitimate of the species it has had since "The Covered Wagon." The air stuff in this one is going to keep it at the Criterion a long time? and they're going to turn out for it when it takes to the road. "Wings" is there.

This super is not just a $2 entry for Manhattan. It's a road show -- on the strength of that air stuff? a combination of beautiful flying and great camera work. There are thrills and a couple of gasps in it. When the action settles on terra firma there is nothing present that other war supers haven't had? some to a greater degree. But nothing has possessed the graphic descriptive powers of aerial flying and combat that have been poured into this effort. All of which will carry the 12?600 feet of film currently being unloaded for the populace twice daily. Try and get in -- for awhile? anyway.

And the picture is being staged. Midway in the first part the switch is made to Paramount's Magnascope? which spreads the screen and projection across the entire stage. This is retained until the finish of the first half. The same thing occurs in the second part? so that much more than half the footage is magnified. More effective than in either "Ironsides" or "Chang?" because of the terrific action. Add to that backstage effects simulating the whine and drone of the motors? in two tones to denote the American and enemy planes? with the music abruptly halting every so often to allow full dramatic intensity? and the result will get under anybody's skin. This high altitude war game has been given plenty of technical attention from actual "shooting" to presentation. The total on this phase speaks for itself and the rewards will be heavy.

Some of the Magnascope battle scenes in the air are in color. Not natural but with sky and clouds deftly tinted plus spouts of flame shooting from planes that dive? spiral and even zoom as they supposedly plunge to earth in a final collapse. Automatic cameras (reported to be mostly Devrye) have registered the personal equasion of what goes on inside a cockpit of a falling plane. Some of these shots of aviators dying with their planes going out of control are realistic enough to make a house "freeze." Who these boys are isn't known. They're not the main characters in the story? just individuals of a combat group pictured as both American and German? all fighting.

Rolls? dives? slips? loops. They're all there. Spectacular enough without the added constructive potion of make believe that signifies the urge for self-preservation. Manoueuvers that the average person has never seen performed in the air? space eaten up so fast that there's no calculating the rate it's consumed at? beside the jockeying of the planes to get on each other's "tail" before pouring out their stream of lead. So much to see that it actually can't be ...