Wings for the Eagle

Wings for the Eagle
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Lloyd Bacon
Produced by	Robert Lord
Screenplay by	Byron Morgan B. Harrison Orkow Richard Macaulay
Starring	Ann Sheridan Dennis Morgan Jack Carson George Tobias
Music by	Friedrich Hollaender
Cinematography	Tony Gaudio
Edited by	Owen Marks
Production company	Warner Bros.
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	July 18, 1942 (1942-07-18)
Running time	84 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1 million (US rentals)[1]

Wings for the Eagle is a 1942 American drama film directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Byron Morgan, B. Harrison Orkow and Richard Macaulay. The film stars Ann Sheridan, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson and George Tobias. The film was released by Warner Bros. on July 18, 1942.^[2]

Plot

In 1940, Corky Jones and Gil Borden come to Burbank, California, looking for jobs. They get work at the Lockheed aircraft factory. Though the United States is still neutral, the country is frantically gearing up for war, and Lockheed is producing fighters and bombers. As he has little money before his first paycheck, Corky stays with his friend Brad Maple and his wife Roma (whom he tried to pick up earlier before he knew who she was). Brad is unemployed, even though factory jobs are plentiful, because he thinks they are beneath him. This strains the marriage.

At work, Corky befriends Jake Hanso and his son Pete. Pete is studying to become a military pilot. Corky rents a room from Jake after Brad becomes jealous of him. Later, Jake is let go because he is not an American citizen, enraging Pete. However, Jake and Corky calm him down, and Pete is accepted into the United States Army Air Corps as originally planned. Jake opens a diner. Later, he becomes a citizen and goes back to work building airplanes.

Meanwhile, Roma leaves Brad. Corky, though sheer persistence, manages to get her to go out with him. Brad finally swallows his pride and gets a job at the Lockheed factory. This pleases Roma, who also now works at the factory, but not enough to take him back. This leads to an uneasy romantic triangle. In the end, Corky arranges for Roma and Brad to get back together.

When the Japanese launch a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Pete reports back to base and is shipped out.

For the 2000th airplane produced, a Lockheed Hudson bomber, the factory holds a ceremony. The company president singles out Jake, who played a major part in speeding up production tremendously. However, Jake has just received a telegram informing him that Pete was killed in action in the Philippines. He asks Corky, who has himself enlisted, to shoot down a couple of Japanese aircraft for Pete. Corky promises to do so. While Corky is flying a Hudson, his turret gunner shoots down two attacking Japanese fighters.

Cast

Reception

T.S. of The New York Times said, "Out of the drama of our roaring airplane assembly lines Warners has made a rather substantial and satisfying film. Wings for the Eagle. now at the Strand, doesn't have the tight construction of its planes and it lacks some of the flaring excitement of films devoted mainly to scenes of air combat. But in the less spectacular job of making the war birds, emphasized by the urgent tempo of stamp presses and drills and cranes as the ribbed crates become sleek and perfect, it has taken some of the drama of battling planes out of the air and onto the ground. And because Warners' writers have the knack of taking dialogue out of a dinner jacket and putting it to work in overalls their smudged assembly line fighters act and talk like the ordinary folk they are supposed to be."^[3]

References

External links

• Wings for the Eagle on IMDb
• Wings for the Eagle at the TCM Movie Database