Classic Movie Review - "Wings"

Trivia buffs and old movie buffs all know thew answer to this question:  What movie won the very first Oscar for Best Picture of the year?

The answer, of course, is "Wings", released in 1927, directed by William Wellman, and starring Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rodgers, Richard Arlen, and Jobyna Ralston. It is a story about fighter pilots in World War I, a mistaken love triangle, and small town girl who enlists as an ambulance driver so she can track down the man she loves.

Turner Classic Movies showed this move a week or so ago. Like many silent movies of that era, "Wings" was deteriorating, but it was restored and saved, and the restored film is what TCM showed.  

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was surprised at how good it was and how well the movie - a silent movie - holds up almost ninety years after it was made.  It is a movie that depicts the horrors of war every bit as well as any current day director has done in any number of movies released in recent years.  It also shows the need for soldiers to decompress from what they have experienced in a scene of Rodgers and fellow soldiers on leave in Paris.  And the battle scenes of the airplane dogfights are remarkable, considering that there were no green screens and CGI back in 1927!  When a plane was shot down the flames of the explosion was in color.  I thought that this colorization was something that was done when the movie was restored, but not so. I learned that the flames in the film were hand-tinted in the production process.  I can only imagine the effect that this must have had on movie goers in 1927.  No wonder it won that first Oscar!

I have written about Clara Bow before, and she was certainly delightful in this movie.  In doing a Google Images search for a picture to accompany this post, I was surprised to see how all of the contemporary posters and pictures for this movie featured Miss Bow and gave her the top billing for this movie. I have read a little bit about Clara Bow, and plan to do more, but I don't think that we, from the vantage point of 2015, have any idea of the magnitude of the Stardom with a capital "S" that surrounded Clara Bow back in her day.

I also thought it was interesting that Rodgers was billed as "Charles 'Buddy' Rodgers", even IMDB references him like this.

Anyway, pretty good movie.  Well worth seeking out and watching.

Silent Movies

One of my all time favorite movies is Billy Wilder's 1950 classic, "Sunset Boulevard".  In one scene, faded movie queen Norma Desmond bemoans the loss of silent movies.  "I AM big.  It's the PICTURES that got small", she states in one of the most famous lines of movie dialog of all time.  In another passage, Norma states that it was better then because "We had FACES then, and now they've filled the theaters with words, words, WORDS!!!"

This month, Turner Classic Movies is paying tribute to the great Silent Films, and last week I gave two of them a try.  Each starred two of the great leading ladies of the Silent Era.

The first movie was "It" from 1927, and it's star was Clara Bow.

"It" was a romantic comedy that involved the quality of IT.  IT was that certain, indefinable quality in a person that made them special, sexy, desirable.  Clara Bow was certainly attractive in her role in this movie, and it gave her an indelible nickname in the culture, "The IT Girl".  No doubt about it, when you watched "It" you did so for one reason - Clara Bow's performance and charm.

The second movie was "Sadie Thompson" (1928) and its star was none other than Norma Desmond herself, Gloria Swanson, and this is how she appeared in the title role.

No question, Swanson was dynamic in this movie, and beautiful.  Even watching a deteriorating, eight-six year old black and white film, Swanson was utterly captivating.  I was particularly captivated by her eyes.  They were startlingly clear and bright in this old film to the point that I could have sworn that they were bright blue or green, even though I was watching a black and white movie.  The picture I have posted above captures that to some extent.

As for the movies themselves, you can certainly follow the story despite the absence of dialog (or words, words, words!!!), but what "dialog" there was, in the form of title cards, was really corny by today's standards.  I'm with Joe Gillis, silent movies used to be big,and sorry, Norma, the pictures have not gotten small.

Clara Bow had a sad life.  Her mother suffered from insanity and once nearly killed her, and Bow herself was institutionalized for depression at intervals of her life.  She died in 1965 at the age of 60.

Gloria Swanson was a woman way ahead of her time.  She organized her own production company so that she could control what movies she made and have some control over her own career.  She served as the Producer on "Sadie Thompson" when she was only 29 years old.  On the TCM intro, host Ben Mankiewicz mentioned that Swanson's career went into a bit of decline after "Sadie Thompson", and she made few movies until she returned in "Sunset Boulevard" the role for which she will be most remembered.  After that she did a lot of TV work. She made her last movie in 1974, "Airport 1975".  She died in 1983 at the age of 84.