Men with Wings

It seems to me that I heard or read that this was the first color movie ever. It seems improbable that it is the first as The Adventures of Robin Hood with Erroll Flynn came out this same year and the color in it is remarkable! Anybody know whether it is the first color movie that was made? I recorded this movie from a television broadcast years ago. The station showed the original color version which was dreadful. The characters could hardly be recognized. The colors smeared into mostly pastels of pink, yellow, and green. Then the station later broadcast an enhanced version, which I also recorded. I think I still have both copies although today they would be very old VHS tapes.

I guess I'll have to drag them out to see if they are worth watching again.

I saw 'Men With Wings' when I was about 10 years old and it started a life- long interest in aviation. In 1964 I bought myself a 1932 bi-plane (a Spartan Arrow) and I still have it, although my son flies it more than I do these days. I have flown many airplanes in my lifetime including a Vultee Valiant, a DC3 (Dakota) many Tiger Moths and Piper Cubs (on floats) and many more. I have had an article on my airplane published in the February issue of Aeroplane and one on flying the Vultee Valiant in 'Flypast'. I have not seen 'Men With Wings' since that first time, and would love to see it again. If anyone has it on video(pal) or DVD, I would love to buy a copy. Ray Blain

This movie ruined my life! I, too, first saw this movie when I was 9 years old and have never forgotten it. It only hooked me on flying and led to a 30 year career in aviation. I would be love to find a copy of if there is one extant. As I remember it, it was in vivid color and had an outstanding cast. I understand that it has not been copied to video. Too bad, at age 74 I still remember the line by Walter Abel as the fatally burned Nick Ranson (and father of Virginia Weidler's Peggy Ranson) ... "Tell them, when they crash, to turn off the switches!" In 52 years of flying, I have never crashed, but I always turned off the ignition. :-)

As the summary on IMDB says, there are two main plots in "Men with Wings". The story is partly a history of powered flight...starting with the Wright brothers and moving into the 1930s. The main story is about three people caught up in this. Patrick and Scott (Fred MacMurray and Ray Milland) love aviation and are good friends. Patrick is more a natural flyer and loves excitement and danger. Scott is more an engineer...more stable and also a guy responsible for making better planes as well as test flying them. They grew up with Peggy (Louise Campbell) and both love her, though she unwisely chose Patrick...a man so addicted to flying and tempting death that he ended up making a rotten husband. As for Scott, well, he's a bit of a putz...the 'nice guy' who is always there to pick up the pieces of Peggy when her husband disappears for adventure. Frankly, he isn't worthy of her but Peggy and Scott are too 'nice' to say enough is enough! What's to become of this strange threesome?

To me, the best thing about the movie are some of the flying sequences. The WWI fighter scenes are nutty, as the pilots REALLY are pushing the planes to the limit. And, seeing Patrick flying about testing the newest planes is also pretty nutty...but very exciting. The weakest point in the film, to me, is the threesome...as Scott is kind of pathetic and Patrick is reprehensible and Peggy is a doormat. I think a bit of editing and strengthening of the characters would have helped the story a lot. But even still, it is a very enjoyable movie and is worth seeing.

I was fortunate enough to tape this movie off of a local PBS station in New Jersey, and I consider it one of my treasures. My copy is very viewable. I liked this movie as a youngster, and like it so much I made a model of the Fokker DVII in the black and white motif the same as the one Pat Falconer (Fred McMurray) shot down in the WW I sequence. It too is one of my prize possessions. As I said in the summary, considering the year it was made it holds up well.