Wings in the Dark *** (1935, Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Roscoe Karns, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dean Jagger) – Classic Movie Review 7349

Director James Flood’s 1935 Paramount Pictures black and white movie Wings in the Dark stars Myra Loy as Sheila Mason, a sky-writing aerobatic barnstormer who falls for safety-conscious airman and aerial innovator Ken Gordon (Cary Grant), who subsequently loses his sight in a gas blast accident. Even this does not stop him from trying to develop technology to aid pilots to fly blind safely in adverse conditions.

Flood’s enjoyable, soapy drama, mixing adventure, sentimentality and romance, pulls all the right strings thanks to charismatic performances by the two leads showing their chemistry together teamed for the first time. Frankly, the plot (based on a story by Nell Shipman and Philip D Hurn) is fairly ludicrous, but the film flies along at such a rate that the holes in the script become unimportant.

There are four credited writers: Jack Kirkland, Frank Partos, Dale Van Every and E H Robinson.

Also in the cast are Roscoe Karns, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dean Jagger, Bert Hanlon, James P Burtis, Russell Hopton, Samuel S Hinds, Matt McHugh, Graham McNamee, Hanley Andrews, Stanley Andrews, Eddie Baker, A S ‘Pop’ Byron, Alfred Delcambre, Hyman Fink, Sam Flint, Mabel Forrest, Allen Fox, Peter Hancock, Bert Hanlon, Charles Hines, Harry Jordan, Arnold Korff, George MacQuarrie, Julian Madison, Esther Michelson, Gene Morgan, Charles Morris, Ottola Nesmith, Rita Owin, Lee Phelps, Terrance Ray, George Reed, Henry Rocquemore, J B Scott, Benjamin D Sharpe, Antrim Short, Virgil Simons, Phil Tead, Rosemary Theby, Herb Watson and Duke York.

It is one of the five discs on the Cary Grant: Screen Legend Collection [DVD] [2006] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], along with Thirty Day Princess (1934),  Kiss and Make-Up (1934), Big Brown Eyes (1936) and Wedding Present (1936).

Grant and Loy prove a successful team and they also made The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) and Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) together.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7349

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