The Wings of Eagles *** (1957, John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Dan Dailey, Ward Bond) – Classic Movie Review 3412

This strongly felt, nostalgic 1957 personal project from director John Ford turns out to be an uneven, minor airborne action drama providing an interesting but bumpy ride. But there are lots of incidental real pleasures along the way, among them the special cast, to relish. It is notable as the third pairing of John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara as Frank W ‘Spig’ Wead and Min Wead, out of their five movies together.

John Wayne is ideally cast and comes up trumps as Ford’s real-life great buddy, the pioneering naval aviation Squadron Commander Frank W ‘Spig’ Wead, who is brought down to earth after a plane crash, and turns his hand to movie script-writing – in real life with Ford, of course – in a narrative that spans three decades.

Although the plot, as told here, might sound unlikely and even fanciful, and it has obviously been embellished and mythologised, it is based on ‘Spig’ Wead’s true life adventures. There is an uneasy change in tone from knockabout humour to emotional tragedy about half-way through. But it is deftly handled by the veteran team of actors from the Ford stock company.

Ford said that Ward Bond’s accurate attempt to impersonate him in the character of ‘John Dodge’ was dreamt up by Bond not him.

Also in the cast are Dan Dailey, Ken Curtis, Edmund Lowe, Kenneth Tobey, Sig Ruman, Henry O’Neill, Dorothy Jordan, Louis Jean Heydt, Jack Pennick, Charles Trowbridge, Mae Marsh, Olive Carey, Veda Ann Borg and James Flavin.

The screenplay is based on the life and writings of Commander Frank W ‘Spig’ Wead and the biography Wings of Men, and is credited to Frank Fenton and William Wister Haines.

Maureen O’Hara (1920 – 2015) starred in five films with Wayne, the most beloved being The Quiet Man (1952), but also Rio Grande (1950), McLintock! (1963) and Big Jake (1971).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3412

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