Captains of the Clouds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Captains of the Clouds is a 1942 Warner Bros war film, directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by William Cagney, with Hal B. Wallis as executive producer. The screenplay was written by Arthur T. Horman, Richard Macaulay and Norman Reilly Raine, based on a story by Horman and Roland Gillett. The music score was by Max Steiner; Harold Arlen wrote the title song. The cinematography was by Wilfred M. Cline and Sol Polito.
The film starred James Cagney and Dennis Morgan as Canadian pilots who do their part in World War II, with Brenda Marshall, Alan Hale, George Tobias, Reginald Gardiner and Reginald Denny.
| Captains of the Clouds | |
|---|---|
 Video tape cover |
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| Directed by | Michael Curtiz |
| Produced by | Hal B. Wallis William Cagney |
| Written by | Arthur T. Horman Roland Gillett Richard Macaulay Norman Reilly Raine |
| Starring | James Cagney Dennis Morgan |
| Music by | Max Steiner (score) Harold Arlen (title song) |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Running time | 114 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
[edit] Plot
Brian McLean (James Cagney), Johnny Dutton (Dennis Morgan), 'Tiny' Murphy (Alan Hale, Sr.) and Blimp Lebec (George Tobias) are bush pilots competing for business in rugged northern Ontario, Canada in the years leading up to World War II. While Dutton flies by the book, McLean is a seat-of-the-pants kind of pilot, mirroring the differences in their personalities. McLean steals and marries Dutton's no-good girlfriend Emily Foster (Brenda Marshall) in order to save him from a life of misery. Dutton not surprisingly doesn't see it that way and their friendship comes to an abrupt end. Depressed, he gives his savings to charity and enlists in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Later, after hearing Winston Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches" speech on the radio, McLean and the other bush pilots enlist in the air force, only to find that they are too old for combat. They agree to train as flight instructors for the Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Their superior officer is none other than Dutton. McLean's brash and fiercely independent nature clashes with the military way of doing things and he inevitably washes out. For revenge, he takes a joyride in a plane and buzzes the airfield when renowned Canadian World War I ace Air Marshal William "Billy" Bishop (playing himself) attends his group's graduation ceremony.
Undeterred, he gets a job ferrying Lockheed Hudson bombers across the Atlantic to Britain. Because of fuel constraints and the long distances involved, the planes are stripped of weapons. On his last trip, he finds himself in a flight commanded by Dutton when they are attacked by a German fighter. With co-pilot Lebec dead and no other way to fight back, he uses his superb flying skills to crash his unwieldy bomber into the nimble fighter, sacrificing himself to save the remainder of the flight.
[edit] Notes
- The title of the film came from a phrase used by "Billy" Bishop, the WWI air ace who plays himself in the film. [1]
- This film was James Cagney's first in Technicolor.
- The song "Captains of the Clouds" (music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Johnny Mercer) is the official song of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
- This film was produced with the full cooperation of the Royal Canadian Air Force to promote enlistment in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
