''Wings of the Navy '' is a 1939 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring

George Brent George Brent (born George Brendan Nolan; 15 March 1904 – 26 May 1979) was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor. He is best remembered for the eleven films he made with Bette Davis, which included '' Jezebel'' and '' Dark Victo ...

Olivia de Havilland Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (; July 1, 1916July 26, 2020) was a British-American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time. ...

and John Payne. Like many of the

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

features in the pre-World War II era, it was intended to serve as propaganda for the U.S. military and received heavy support from the U.S. Navy, which also considered the film as a recruiting tool.

Plot

Submarine officer Jerry Harrington (John Payne) goes to Pensacola to train as a flying cadet, just like his legendary father and illustrious brother, longtime airman Cass Harrington (George Brent). Jerry ends up falling for his brother's girlfriend, Irene Dale (Olivia de Havilland), which only increases the competition between the two brothers. After Cass is seriously injured in a crash, he is forced to leave the Navy. Jerry becomes a pilot in San Diego and begins flying seaplanes while Cass designs a new fighter for the Navy. Jerry wants to prove to Cass that he is a better pilot, even if it means leaving the Navy to test the experimental fighter which has already led to the death of a test pilot. Irene is forced to choose which man she loves.

Cast

as Cass Harrington *

as Irene Dale * John Payne as Jerry Harrington *

Frank McHugh Francis Curry McHugh (May 23, 1898 – September 11, 1981) was an American stage, radio, film and television actor. Early years Born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, of Irish descent, McHugh came from a theatrical family. His parents, Edward A ...

as Scat Allen *

John Litel John Beach Litel (December 30, 1892 – February 3, 1972) was an American film and television actor. Early life Litel was born in Albany, Wisconsin. During World War I, he enlisted in the French Army and was twice decorated for bravery. Ba ...

as Commander Clark *

Victor Jory Victor Jory (November 23, 1902 – February 12, 1982) was a Canadian-American actor of stage, film, and television. He initially played romantic leads, but later was mostly cast in villainous or sinister roles, such as Oberon in ''A Midsummer N ...

as Lt. Parsons * Henry O'Neill as Prologue Speaker *

John Ridgely John Ridgely (born John Huntington Rea, September 6, 1909 – January 18, 1968) was an American film character actor with over 175 film credits. Early years Ridgely was born in Chicago, Illinois,Katz, Ephraim (1979). ''The Film Encyclopedia: T ...

as Dan Morrison * John Gallaudet as Lt. Harry White * Donald Briggs as Instructor * Edgar Edwards as Ted Parsons *

Regis Toomey John Francis Regis Toomey (August 13, 1898October 12, 1991) was an American film and television actor. Early life Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was one of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey, and attended Peabody High ...

as First Flight Instructor * Alberto Morin as Armando Costa (as Albert Morin) * Jonathan Hale as Commandant * Pierre Watkin as Capt. March

Production

''Wings of the Navy'' was filmed on location at the Naval Air Station on North Island in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

, California, and the Naval Air Station at

Pensacola Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ci ...

, Florida, and was dedicated to the U.S. Naval Aviation Service. The actors and production crew, numbering 70, arrived in Pensacola in the first week of July 1938, and moved to San Diego after the Florida filming was complete. The US Navy was heavily committed by providing access to aircraft and facilities with Lieutenant Commander Hugh Sease serving as the Technical Advisor to the production. Several of the latest US Navy types were on display including the

Grumman F3F The Grumman F3F was a biplane fighter aircraft produced by the Grumman aircraft for the United States Navy during the mid-1930s. Designed as an improvement on the F2F, it entered service in 1936 as the last biplane to be delivered to any Ameri ...

biplane fighter which played the role of an experimental fighter known as the XFAA-1, and an early variant of the

Consolidated PBY Catalina The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served wi ...

. Warner Brothers built a detailed mock-up of a Catalina cabin for interior flight shots. F3F-1 4-F-7 Jax

Reception

Typical of other period Warner Bros. dramas, it was a propaganda when it was released early in 1939, before World War II had begun. The most impressive aspect of the film was the flying sequences which a reviewer at ''The New York Times'' aptly reported was "As a documentary study of the Pensacola Naval Air Training station, and its methods of turning raw recruits into seasoned pilots of combat and bombing planes, "Wings of the Navy" gets off the ground very nimbly, and has a good deal of value, interest and even excitement, of the purely mechanical sort, to offer to the curious.""The Screen: Audiences Learn About 'Wings of the Navy' at Strand."
''The New York Times,'' February 3, 1939. Retrieved: July 7, 2011.

Radio adaptation

''Wings of the Navy'' was presented in a one-hour dramatization on ''

Lux Radio Theatre ''Lux Radio Theatre'', sometimes spelled ''Lux Radio Theater'', a classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of American Broadcasting Company ...

'' October 7, 1940. Brent, DeHavilland and Payne reprised their roles from the film.

References

Bibliography

* Hardwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies." ''The Making of the Great Aviation Films''. General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989. * Orriss, Bruce. ''When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War II''. Hawthorn, California: Aero Associates Inc., 1984. .

External links

* *
''Wings of the Navy'' at Allrovi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wings of the Navy 1939 films 1939 drama films American aviation films American black-and-white films American drama films Films directed by Lloyd Bacon Films set in the 1930s United States Navy Warner Bros. films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films