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| Wings In The Dark - 1935 |
Coming up next we have 1935's "Wings In The Dark", a film about a lady pilot who dreams of making history and a pilot whose hopes for the future are dashed when a horrible accident happens.
The film's cast includes Myrna Loy, Cary Grant, Roscoe Karns, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dean Jagger, and Lightning.
Sheila Mason is a pilot who makes money by flying daring stunts and writing advertisements in the sky. She's one of the few women pilots in the world.
However, she wants to do something more than fly stunts, as she tells her manager, Nick. She's looking for something with more substance.
Her hero is fellow pilot Ken Gordon. Ken is working on a version of autopilot that he hopes will be standard in future aircraft. He's also going to be testing his invention by flying from New York to Paris.
Unfortunately, Ken is grounded when its felt that this new autopilot is unsafe. Sheila offers her support, and she seems to be the only one who gets what he is trying to do for the industry. She encourages him to make the trip without permission.
Sadly, as he is preparing for departure, a horrible accident causes Ken to go blind.
His doctors tell him they don't know when or if he will ever see again. Ken decides to get away from everything. He doesn't want any charity or pity. His friend and partner, Mac, gives him as much support as he can.
Ken decides to do everything for himself, including walking in the woods unaided. He goes slow, trying to feel his way around. He gets pretty good at it, but accidents will happen.
Feeling responsible for his accident, Sheila arranges for a seeing eye dog named Lightning to be brought to Ken. At first, he is very resistive to the idea.
But Lightning soon wins Ken over with his personality and eagerness to show what he can do.
Having Lightning around lifts Ken from his moods and depression over his blindness. He and Sheila begin a romantic relationship.
He even begins to work on his autopilot project again. Mac is always nearby to take over the controls if things go wrong.
Meanwhile, Sheila accepts a risky non-stop flight from Moscow to New York. The daring flight pays $25,000, and Sheila wants to use the money to enable her and Ken to marry.
With the world listening in over their radios for any updates of the flight, Sheila eagerly sets out.
On the last leg of the journey from Boston to New York, a thick fog makes visibility zero, and Sheila is basically flying blind. As Mac observes, "Oh, it’s terrible. Why, the fog is so low out on that field a
snake couldn’t crawl under it."
Ken has Mac drive him to the airfield to see if there's anything he can do to help Sheila. Having just received some bad news about the future of his autopilot project, he's got an ulterior motive. He uses the autopilot to get into the air (without Mac in the co-pilot's seat) and guide Sheila to safety. His plan is to get her safely on the ground then take off again and just fly until he runs out of fuel.
Sheila doesn't let that happen. Once they're on the ground and she realizes what he's about to do, she turns her plane so that it crashes into his.
It's a good thing she did. With all the press taking photos, Ken tells Sheila that he can see the flash from the photographers' cameras. Sheila embraces him as they both realize that his sight is returning.
Cast rundown:
Myrna Loy......................................Sheila Mason
Cary Grant......................................Ken Gordon
Roscoe Karns..................................Nick Williams
Hobart Cavanaugh...........................Mac
Dean Jagger...................................Top Harmon
Lightning........................................Lightning
And that's it for Wings In The Dark. Myrna Loy, a bigger star at the time, received top-billing over Cary Grant, however that changed over time as Grant's star eclipsed Loy's. This was the first of three films in which they would star together. Myrna Loy's role was inspired by Amelia Earhart, and Earhart visited the set as a consultant. Lightning, the dog, was often billed as "The Wonder Dog" or "The Marvel Dog" because of his intelligence. He appeared in many films throughout the 1930s.
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