Wings (1927)
Silent Film with Organ Accompanying, played by Donald MacKenzie
Friday 7th November, 8.00pm
SORRY - THIS PERFORMANCE IS NOW SOLD OUT!
There may be a very limited supply of tickets available at the door, but it is by no means guaranteed.
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We do have an excellent free event with film and the organ accompanying coming up soon, with the showing of vintage short films and documentaries. Click here for more information.
As part of St John's WWI centenary programme of events, we are excited to present this Academy Award winning silent film with live organ accompanying. Come and see an action packed romantic film set in WW1, with actors flying real fighter planes, pursuing, diving and soaring overhead. The film will be accompanied by the tense, lyrical, expressive and resounding music of the restored organ, played by Donald MacKenzie, resident organist at the Odeon Leicester Square, who is returning to St John's after performing for last year's silent film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (click on this link to see a video of last year's screening).
This will all be at the special price of just £5 per ticket, to celebrate the organ's recent restoration sponsored by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Buy your ticket before they sell out! There will be popcorn and a bar available on the night, and the church will be be beautifully candlelit. Doors open at 7.00pm for an 8.00pm film start. Seating is unreserved. Ticket info is below. Please dress in warm clothing as the church may be a little cold in November. The film runs for 144 minutes. This film contains some mild violence, meaning it may be unsuitable for younger children. |
There will be a collection on the night for the Royal British Legion, for this year's Poppy Appeal.
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The Film
Wings is a 1927 American silent romantic action film set during the First World War, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures. It stars Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and Richard Arlen, and Gary Cooper appears in a role which helped launch his career in Hollywood.
Mary (Clara Bow) and Jack (Charles Rogers) grew up next door to each other in small-town America. Mary is hopelessly in love with Jack, but he has eyes only for Sylvia (Jobyna Ralston), sophisticated city girl. Reluctant to break his heart, she doesn’t crush Jack’s belief that she loves him in return — but she’s actually mad for David (Richard Arlen), son of the richest family in town. David has the hots for Sylvia, too, which means that David and Jack are not exactly the best of friends. But it’s 1917, and America has just joined the Great War. Jack and David head off to the front, eager to become pilots, and surprise themselves by striking up a friendship in ground school.
Thus begins the great aerial spectacle: the dogfights in the sky over the battlefields. Director William Wellman, who was a World War I fighter pilot himself, invests us in the camaraderie of men in battle and fills the screen with the thrilling flight of the warriors. The magnificent dogfights, the sky swarming with planes, the downed ships spiralling down through the clouds with a tail of black smoke and yellow flame (colour was digitally painted in for flourishes, just like the hand-colouring of the time) were all staged and shot for real and the budget soared to $2 million, making it one of the most expensive films of its era. Keep in mind, these folks didn’t have CGIs. Rogers and Arlen actually had to learn to fly the fragile, rickety biplanes. Instead of having the actors on a set with a backdrop of painted clouds behind them, you can tell that Rogers is in the sky with the wind hammering his face - specialist cockpit cameras were developed to provide close ups of the actors whislt mid-air. Rogers was often in the air for hours and vomited from airsickness and stress. Wellman makes sure it’s all there on the screen and in the process delivers a landmark: the last of the grand studio epics of the silent film era.
The film was
rewritten by scriptwriters Hope Loring and Louis D. Lighton from a
story by John Monk Saunders to accommodate Bow, Paramount's biggest
star at the time. Wellman was hired as he was the only director in
Hollywood at the time who had World War I combat pilot experience,
although Richard Arlen and John Monk Saunders had also served in the
war as military aviators. The film was shot on location at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas between September
7, 1926 and April 7, 1927. Hundreds of extras and some 300 pilots
were involved in the filming, including pilots and planes of the
United States Army Air Corps which were brought in for the filming
and to provide assistance and supervision. Wellman extensively
rehearsed the scenes for the Battle of Saint-Mihiel over ten days
with some 3500 infantrymen on a battlefield made for the production
on location. Although the cast and crew had much spare time during
the filming due to weather delays, shooting conditions were intense,
and Wellman frequently conflicted with the military officers brought
in to supervise the picture.
Acclaimed for its technical prowess and realism upon release, the film became the yardstick against which future aviation films were measured, due mainly to its realistic air combat sequences. It went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Picture at the first annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award ceremony in 1929, the only silent film to do so. It also won the Academy Award for Best Engineering Effects (Roy Pomeroy). Wings was one of the first to show two men kissing (in a fraternal moment between Rogers and Arlen during the deathbed finale), and also one of the first widely released films to show nudity.
Acclaimed for its technical prowess and realism upon release, the film became the yardstick against which future aviation films were measured, due mainly to its realistic air combat sequences. It went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Picture at the first annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award ceremony in 1929, the only silent film to do so. It also won the Academy Award for Best Engineering Effects (Roy Pomeroy). Wings was one of the first to show two men kissing (in a fraternal moment between Rogers and Arlen during the deathbed finale), and also one of the first widely released films to show nudity.
Cast:
Clara Bow (Mary Preston) Charles “Buddy” Rogers (Jack Powell) Richard Arlen (David Amrstrong) Jobyna Ralston (Sylvia Lewis) Gary Cooper (Cadet White) Arlette Marchal (Celeste) El Brendel (Herman Schwimpf) “Gunboat” Smith (the Sergeant) Richard Tucker (Air Commander) Julia Swayne Gordon (Mrs. Armstrong) Henry B. Walthall (Mr. Armstrong) George Irving (Mr. Powell) Hedda Hopper (Mrs. Powell) Nigel de Brulier (Peasant) Roscoe Karns (Lt. Cameron) James Pierce (MP) Carl Von Haartman (German Officer) |
Credits:
A Paramount Picture. Director: William A. Wellman. Producer: Lucien Hubbard. Scenariio: Hope Loring, Louis D. Lighton, Based on an original story by John Monk Saunders. Camera: Harry Perry. Editor: Lucien Hubbard. Engineering Effects: Roy Pomeroy. Associate Producer: B.P. Schulberg. Titler: Julian Johnson. Editor-in-Chief: E. Lloyd Sheldon. Musical Score: John S. Zamecnik (not used in this performance!) Assistant Director: Richard Johnston. Aerial Cinematographers: E. Burton Steene, Al Williams, Sergeant Ward. Aerial Cameramen: Herman Schoop, Gene O. Donnell, Faxon M. Dean, Russell Harlan, Paul Perry, Art Lane, Cliff Blackstone, Harry Mason, Ray Olsen, Bert Baldridge, Al Meyers, William Clothier, Guy Bennett, L. Guy Wilky, Frank Cotner, Ernest Lazell (Laszlo). |
Tickets
SOLD OUT. Tickets were £5. Sign up in the subscribe box above to hear about future films at St John's.
Above film information taken from:
http://www.flickfilosopher.com/1999/01/wings-review.html
http://parallax-view.org/2012/02/01/new-on-blu-ray-hitchcock-huston-and-the-first-oscar-winner/
http://emanuellevy.com/review/wings-2/
http://www.kcactive.com/aande/videodvd/0212/index.html#wings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_%281927_film%29
With thanks to the following websites for listing this screening:
www.organrecitals.com
www.silentlondon.co.uk