SYNOPSICS
The Wings of Eagles (1957) is a English movie. John Ford has directed this movie. John Wayne,Maureen O'Hara,Dan Dailey,Ward Bond are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1957. The Wings of Eagles (1957) is considered one of the best Biography,Drama,War movie in India and around the world.
U.S. Navy pilot Frank 'Spig' Wead is a fun-loving and rowdy adventurer, but also a fierce proponent of Naval aviation. His dedication to the promotion of the Navy's flying program is so intense that his marriage and family life suffer. When an accident paralyzes him, Spig finds a new means of expressing his love of flying: screenwriting. Successful and acclaimed, he finds the U.S. entry into World War II to be an irresistible call. Pleading that he be reinstated in the Navy despite his paralysis, Spig finds he has an enormous contribution yet to make.
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Interesting Comment
I just caught this on TCM. It's a stretch in acting for Wayne, I think. He rarely did characters with flaws, either physical or mental.But he does a great job. Did anyone catch a wonderful comment made by Wayne while he and the naval staff were watching films of the carriers being bombed? Wayne is commenting that the solution to the Navy's problem is obvious, but it is eluding him. There is some banter about how to get your thinking going when it's at a standstill. That is, how to get into action when things seem unworkable. Wayne comments, "In Hollywood we'd stop and look around and here's the 7th cavalry coming." All things considered, I thought it a great comment!
A sentimental movie where Ford gives a special warmth to a friend...
Maureen O'Hara is teamed with a very inferior part in "The Wings of Eagles," a moving tribute based on a true story... As Wayne's neglected, temperamental wife, she finds her dedicated husband frequently spending most of his time and energy on improving the status of Navy aviation... On the night, Wayne is appointed skipper of a fighter squadron, he falls down a flight of stairs and suffers back injuries that render him a cripple... Determined to fight his way back to some kind of independence, he persuades his wife to leave him and live her own life with their two daughters... Nursed back to health by his sidekick (Dan Daileylargely instrumental in motivating him in physical rehabilitation) he begins a new civilian career as a successful Hollywood writer... Just when Wayne and Maureen, now a successful businesswoman, plan a reconciliation, news is broadcast of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor... Maureen is last seen having another test of Irish temper as she heaves her half-packed suitcase across the room, frustrated that she again has lost her husband to the Navy... Despite his handicap, Wayne is sent to the Pacific theater of war to supervise his revolutionary jeep-carrier tactical system... The film is filled with humor: Wayne's plane landing in the swimming pool strike in the middle of the admiral's out-door tea party; the clubroom fight and cake throwing; the assorted cast members falling into the pool... It is also filled with deep drama and heartbreaking tragedy: the tender kiss of a wife deeply in love on the head of a man in pain; Wayne learning to walk again; the shipmates on deck in full military ceremony to say goodbye to a decorated flying ace... Ford gives a special warmth to a friend, considered a national hero...
John Ford+John Wayne+Maureen O' Hara= Film Film Biopic
The iconic director and his usual cast of players take on Naval Aviation in this look at a man who helped to advance navy aviation as John Wayne again looms on the screen bigger than life in the role of Frank "Spig" Wead, a pioneer of the navy air corps. Based on the autobiography of Wead the usual themes of adventure, patriotism and romance abound with stellar supporting roles with veteran actors like Ken Curtis, Dan Daily, and Ward Bond as a thinly veiled portrait of director Ford himself. Set against the background of World War II the film is about courage and commitment in a big way, and there really is not another actor who could have brought it to the screen with the believability that the "Duke" manages so easily. One of his finer roles.
Ford-directed Biopic of Aviation Pioneer...
If John Ford hadn't made THE WINGS OF EAGLES, Commander Frank W. 'Spig' Wead would be best known today for the impressive collection of military-oriented stories he wrote for motion pictures, during the 30s and 40s. Among his credits are HELL DIVERS (with Wallace Beery and Clark Gable), TEST PILOT (with Gable and Spencer Tracy), DIVE BOMBER (with Errol Flynn and Fred MacMurray), and THEY WERE EXPENDABLE (for John Ford, with John Wayne and Robert Montgomery). He brought to his writing a love of flying, pride in the military, and an understanding that a 'greater good' must sometimes take precedence over personal happiness. In THE WINGS OF EAGLES, director Ford illustrates how Wead's life was every bit as interesting and dramatic as anything he wrote. A close personal friend (so much so that he even cast Ward Bond to play a thinly-disguised version of himself, named 'John Dodge', in the film), Ford was witness to many of the triumphs and tragedies of the pioneer Naval aviator/engineer's life. After completing THE SEARCHERS, Ford commemorated the tenth anniversary of his friend's passing with this sensitive, 'warts-and-all' tribute. Wead (portrayed by John Wayne, in one of his most fully realized characterizations...he even sacrificed his hairpiece, as the older Wead, for the sake of authenticity), begins the film as a typical hell-raising Ford hero, a Navy flier who loved taunting his Army counterparts (led by the terrific Kenneth Tobey), lived for the sheer joy of flying bi-planes (even when he was clueless as to HOW to fly them), and had the love of a feisty yet devoted woman (Maureen O'Hara, of course!) But, in keeping with the tone of much of the older Ford's work, Wead's life does not tie itself up into a neat, happy package, but develops into a complex near-tragedy of a man so consumed with his career that his marriage breaks down, and has his greatest dream snatched away from him when an accident cripples him. Rather than falling back on the potential aid a wife could provide, he refuses her help, relying on his Navy 'family' (represented by Dan Dailey, in one of his most popular roles) for rehabilitation. With Pearl Harbor, Wead's expertise is again called upon, and he leaves a successful career as a screenwriter to rejoin the Navy, becoming the innovator of jeep carriers...only to see his health fail him, yet again, forcing him out of the service he loved. It is a story both sad and moving, and Wayne, so often accused of being 'bigger than life' and one-dimensional in his portrayals, again demonstrates his underrated acting talent, capturing the frustration of a man who never truly achieves the ultimate triumphs he dreams of. Wead is a 'real' person, not always likable, but someone you learn to admire for his sheer determination to contribute, and not surrender to self-pity. With an excellent supporting cast (particularly Ken Curtis, as Wead's lifelong friend, John Dale Price), THE WINGS OF EAGLES may disappoint someone looking for a 'typical' war movie, but, as a film biography, is far more honest than Hollywood's 'usual' hokum. 'Spig' Wead would have loved it!
A Fella Named Spig
John Ford's biopic about the life of aviator-turned-screenwriter Frank "Spig" Wead, played by John Wayne. It's an odd movie. The first half is light with slapstick comedy and one dark moment. The second half is a drama about overcoming adversity. The mix doesn't work that well. The comedy is mostly weak. The dramatic stuff is better, though a little depressing. More faithful, facts-wise, than your average biopic from back in the day. For whatever that's worth. Cast is full of Ford regulars. Maureen O'Hara is beautiful but it's not her best work. My favorite part is Ward Bond as John Dodge, an obvious parody of Ford himself.