Week Eighty-Five
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| "Wings for the Eagle" 1942 |
MOVIE NAME: WINGS FOR THE EAGLE
STUDIO: WARNER BROTHERS
PRODUCER: ROBERT LORD
DIRECTOR: LLOYD BACON
DATE: 1942
TYPE: DRAMA
CAST:
ANN SHERIDAN as Roma Maple , DENNIS MORGAN as Corky Jones ,JACK CARSON as Brad Maple , GEORGE TOBIAS as Jake Hanso , RUSSELL ARMS as Pete Hanso , TOM FADDEN as Tom Shaw , JOHN RIDGELY as Johnson , GEORGE MEEKER as Personnel Man , FAY HELM as Miss Baxter , SONNY BUPP as boy playing football
SOURCE: Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com) and All Movie Guide (AMG) http://www.allmovie.com/
STORY: From the Internet All Movie Guide (AMG) Wings for the Eagle is an overbaked but sincere tribute to the wartime defense workers at the Lockheed Aircraft Plant, where a good portion of the film was made. Hoping to dodge the draft, Corky Jones (Dennis Morgan) lands an "essential" job at Lockheed, eventually realizing the importance of his work and thereby renewing his own patriotism. Along the way, Corky and his pal Brad Maples (Jack Carson) bicker over the affections of Brad's former wife Roma (Ann Sheridan). A note of pathos is introduced in the form of Lockheed supervisor Jake Hanso (George Tobias), who loses his job when it is learned that he never became a US citizen but who demonstrates his loyalty to the United States in a variety of ways. When Jake's fighter-pilot son Pete (Russell Arms) is killed in the Philippines, a reformed Corky Jones joins the Air Force himself, single-handedly shooting down a Japanese Zero "For Jake and Pete." This incredible flag-waving coda aside, Wings for the Eagle is a reasonably believable yarn, definitely a product of its times yet perfectly capable of entertaining an audience of the 1990s. -- Hal Erickson
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