tarwaterthomas Review of I Wanted Wings

I Wanted Wings (1941)

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the United States Air Force becoming an independent branch of the Armed Forces.....

[9/10 · 18 September 2022]

.....so a question must be asked: is there any reason why I WANTED WINGS was never issued on VHS videocassette, laserdisc, DVD, or Blu-Ray? I saw it on American Movie Classics in the early 1990s, and it has turned up on Turner Classic Movies. I recently saw it on YouTube, so here goes my review. I WANTED WINGS opens up with a simulated bombing raid over Los Angeles in spectacular fashion by a squadron of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses; they drop flares to simulate bomb droppings, and they are going to be intercepted by pursuit squadrons of Curtiss P-40 Hawk fighter planes. The exercise is a resounding success, but one of the B-17s crashes in the desert east of Los Angeles, and there's a stowaway, a dead blonde woman! How'd she get inside the plane, anyway? There is a court-martial underway, and a flyboy named Jefferson Young III is in big trouble. The rest of this movie is in flashback. Three cadets show up one day at Randolph Field, Texas. There is the aforementioned Jefferson Young III, a wealthy playboy from Long Island; the second is football quarterback and unrepentant goofball Tom Cassidy (Wayne Morris); and the third is automotive mechanic Al Ludlow (William Holden) who's trying to better himself after some chickie babe got up in his face and told him that he was always going to be a grease monkey while she was going to be doing great things and there was no room for him in her future, so that's why he decided to join the Army Air Corps. Their flight instructor is Captain Allan Mercer (played with grumpy zeal by Brian Donlevy), who teaches them to aviate with finesse and grace. Jefferson, Tom and Al do their aviating in North American AT-6 Texans, and one night they pay a visit to a nightclub in beautiful downtown San Antonio, and Jefferson goes into a tailspin over that beautiful blonde chanteuse Sally Vaughn (Veronica Lake in a role that could not be played by any other actress) who sings "Born To Love"; trouble is, Jefferson is going out with Carolyn Bartlett (Constance Moore), a lovely magazine photographer for a metropolitan periodical. On a training mission at another airfield, fellow flyboy Jimmy Masters crashes and burns while trying to avoid airborne goofball Tom Cassidy and while Al Ludlow saves Jimmy's life, Jefferson just stands there with his thumb up his nose. Deeply ashamed, Jefferson gets drunk and hooks up with Sally. Al catches up with Jefferson and manages to get him back to the base while telling Sally to lay off, and forget getting her bear paws on his millions. She had been seeing the playboy flyboy with dollar signs in her eyes. Jefferson and Carolyn get themselves engaged, and the three pals get in some hedge hopping, as in they fly at very low altitudes, and Tom Cassidy clips a couple of trees. He dies in the crash, and as Al was in charge he gets kicked out of the cadets. Then Sally shows up and says she's in trouble, which is a polite way of claiming that she's carrying Jefferson's baby. The playboy admits to Carolyn that he'd been seeing Sally on the down low because Sally was going to destroy his reputation. Carolyn says goodbye, and Al makes an honest woman of Sally; the ace mechanic is still in love with her after all. She doesn't feel the same way; matter of fact, she lied about being pregnant, and he admits he'd known all along. Sally leaves him again, and the next time us viewers see Al Ludlow he is an enlisted crew chief on one of the B-17s tasked with participating in the simulated bombing run over Los Angeles. His job is to load the flares so that they can be dropped. So when Captain Mercer finds out that Al Ludlow is serving on active duty as a corporal, he decides to set the wheels in motion of reinstating Ludlow as a cadet. Then Sally shows up at the hangar begging for Al's help; it turns out she shot and killed a gangster who was managing her singing career. It begs the question: how did Sally Vaughn, a civilian, get onto a flightline at an Army Air Corps base? Anyhow, Sally figures Al owes her big time, being the amoral woman that she is, so Al hides her in the back of the B-17 until such time as the heat is off. She sneaks out of the aircraft but just before leaving the hangar a group of Air Corps officers venture inside, so Sally has no choice but to hide inside a B-17 Flying Fortress. Unfortunately, the very same p B-17 gets readied for takeoff before Sally can get away, so she's in for an uncomfortable ride. Jefferson is at the controls, of course. When the exercise is finished, Captain Mercer orders Corporal Ludlow to drop an emergency flare. Ludlow does, and finds Sally Vaughn back on board. There's an argument, a flare goes off by accident, Captain Mercer falls out of the plane, Ludlow slips on his own parachute, jumps out, and rescues Mercer; they both parachute safely. Jefferson Young III manages to land the B-17 safely to pick up Allan Mercer and Al Ludlow, and has to take off as Captain Mercer is severely injured to the point that if he doesn't get to the nearest hospital he will die. Jefferson guns the B-17s engines and gets the bomber plane airborne, but just when the B-17 is about to leave the ground, its left wing clips a rock formation and it crashes, killing Sally Vaughn. Flash forward to the court-martial. Jefferson Young III is cleared of all charges, and Al Ludlow is back as cadet. He takes off with Captain Allan Mercer, Lieutenant Jefferson Young III, and Carolyn Bartlett looking on fondly. I WANTED WINGS racked up a Best Special Effects Oscar for the visual effects by Gordon Jennings and Farciot Edouart, and sound effects by Louis Mesenkop. There are Hollywood histrionics to be sure, but this movie was filmed on location at Randolph Field (later Randolph AFB), Kelly Field (later Kelly AFB), and March Field (later March AFB and March Air Reserve Base). And there are some cute scenes to be had. There is one of Cadet Tom Cassidy at the controls of his AT-6 Texan with Captain Mercer in the backseat. Cassidy is sitting on his ass, and Captain Mercer grumps, "Cadet Cassidy! Are we taking the day off?" Cassidy guns the engine, and takes off. There's another scene of a row of Texans gearing off for takeoff from Kelly Field, and this is an aerial shot by Elmer Dyer. Even though the Second World War started in September, 1939, the United States was sitting it out as this was seen as strictly an European affair. But there was something in the wind and it was only a matter of time before the USA was drawn in. Hollywood must have been prophetic, because several military movies arrived on the silver screen around the same time: FLIGHT COMMAND (1940), DIVE BOMBER (1941), PARACHUTE BATTALION (1941), and INTERNATIONAL SQUADRON (1941). Was American audiences being prepped for the inevitable entry of America's entry into World War II? If it hadn't been for the attack on Pearl Harbor, would we have still sat out the war? I think not. I WANTED WINGS is rather lengthy, but it's worth viewing. It's on YouTube. Have a look, and see William Holden at the start of a successful acting career.