Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.

Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

JohnHowardReid Copyright 1 February 1935 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Paramount: 1 February 1935. Australian release: 8 May 1935. Sydney opening at the Prince Edward: 4 May 1935 (ran 2 weeks). 8 reels. 75 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Ken Gordon is a flier attempting to perfect instruments for safe flying in the dark or fog. Sheila Mason, barnstorming sky-writing stunter, managed by Nick Williams, falls in love with him. Her affection is coldly received. At the moment when triumph for his devices seems just ahead, Gordon is blinded by a gas explosion. Gordon, who has retired to the country accompanied only by his faithful mechanic, Mac, gets a seeing-eye dog to lead him around. Trying to be a writer, but only getting rejection slips, he never knows that the checks he cashes are the result of Sheila's taking any kind of a breakneck job that manager Williams can conceive. COMMENT: Attractive photography by William Mellor on the ground and Dewey Wrigley in the air; but otherwise this is a somewhat less than routine suds opera, pedestrianly directed by James Flood. Admittedly, the script is no help. It's one of those turns in which the characters stand around and talk a lot, but actually say nothing of real interest at all.The movie starts off quite promisingly too. The director gives the opening scenes extra liveliness by using a large number of camera set-ups, employing angles that are very smoothly edited. The players are not unattractive either. This first teaming of Loy and Grant (later to pair in such box-office winners as The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer and Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House) has considerable curiosity value.Alas, once the Grant character goes blind, the soap opera takes over, leading direction, performances - and audience interest - right down into a deep, dark decline.

mark.waltz Long before "The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer" and "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse", Myrna Loy and Cary Grant were paired only once together, in this somewhat unbelievable aerial drama about a cocky thrill pilot (Grant) who suddenly looses his eyesight in a freak accident and with the help of fellow pilot Loy and pal Roscoe Karns, ends up back in the cockpit. Loy, playing a variation of Amelia Earhart and Katharine Hepburn's "Christopher Strong", tries to break a transit record, and in the climactic sequence, is believed missing. The blind Grant sets out to find her, leading to one of the most ridiculous abuses of reality on film.Best known for comedy, the two have proved themselves in dramatic roles, so that is not the issue here. What is obvious is that they are playing a story that needs far more reality than the script delivered, so the result is as absurd as anything you've seen on film. Grant starts off as rather obnoxious; In fact, there's nothing in his character to suggest, other than his looks, that Loy would fall in love with him. But once blind, he looses all hope, even initially rejecting the seeing eye dog Loy and Karns bring him. This leads to sequences of obvious "cuteness", and how can you not love this Rin-Tin-Tin pooch. But the star power of the leads and the dog aside, I have to mark this one as a disappointment that fails even in spite of some thrilling flight scenes and bits of amusing dialog.

blanche-2 Cary Grant and Myrna Loy star in "Wings in the Dark," a 1935 film. It's obvious with films like Christopher Strong and others that with Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart around, aviation was a huge topic. In this film, Grant and Loy play aviators Ken Gordon and Sheila Mason - she does the stunt circuit. After Gordon is wounded in an accident in his workshop, he goes blind, and Sheila is there to help him. Gordon wants to continue his work, and is interested in perfecting the plane instruments so that even a blind man could fly a plane, that is, fly in terrible fog or other weather conditions.Gordon doesn't realize it, but Sheila is funding his work by telling him that articles he's written have been sold. When his plane is taken away due to lack of payments, she agrees to fly a plane from New York to Moscow so she can collect $25,000. It isn't the smooth flight she anticipated.This is a pretty good film with both actors turning in good performances. Grant gets to show his dramatic flair - the man could really do anything. Now that I've seen so many of his early films, I'm convinced he had a nose job - his nose is definitely longer early on. Nevertheless he was always extremely handsome.Loy and Grant went on to make other films together, and this early one isn't mentioned much. It doesn't compare to Mr. Blandings or the Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer, but the stars raise it up a level.

lugonian WINGS IN THE DARK (Paramount, 1935), directed by James Flood, is an agreeable little story that centers upon a pilot named Ken Gordon (Cary Grant), attempting to perfect instruments for safe flying through darkness and fog. While working with some chemicals, a gas explosion occurs, blinding him before he can ever prove his experiments successful.Top billing goes to MGM star Myrna Loy, in her first film for Paramount since LOVE ME TONIGHT (1932) where she played the secondary role opposite Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald in the now regarded classic musical. Seeing Loy in this Paramount programmer comes as a surprise, especially since the studio had a roaster of contract players ranging from major names as Sylvia Sidney or Carole Lombard, to less important but familiar actresses as Frances Drake or Mary Brian (all who have worked opposite Grant at one time or another), but for the standpoint of the story as to whom would possibly be more satisfactory and believable in assuming the role as an aviatrix, or whose name on the marque would be important enough to draw attention, Loy, reaching the height of her career, became the chosen one. She is well cast as Sheila Mason, an woman flier whose initial meeting with Ken becomes turbulent, and even more of a problem after Sheila, feeling responsible for his accidental blindness, acquires a seeing eye dog for Ken. As he did earlier with Sheila, Ken, now taking up residence in the country with his faithful mechanic/ friend, Mac (Hobart Cavanaugh), and working on becoming a writer, rejects the faithful German Shepherd, not wanting to be pitied by anyone and to make it on his own. In time he comes to accept both as they each guide him every step of the way. The story finally gets off the ground as Sheila takes a big risk by flying her airplane from Moscow to New York through intense fog and darkness in order to earn back the finances she secretly supplied to Ken as well as putting his experiment to the test. Her flight is broadcast coast to coast on national radio and makes headlines in every major newspaper. When Sheila's plane gets lost through intense fog over Boston, Ken takes control of his airplane, flying blind through the clouds (hense the title), hoping to reach her in time before any danger occurs and lead her to safety.The supporting players consist of Roscoe Karns as Nick Williams, Sheila's manager; Dean Jagger as Tops Harmon; Bert Hanlon as Yipp Morgan; Russell Hopton as Jake; and radio broadcaster Graham McNamee appearing as himself. Hobart Cavanaugh, a familiar face of countless movies throughout most of the 1930s and '40s, usually appearing without credit from minor to bits parts, ranging from drunks to mousy husbands, plays up his role to good advantage. This, along with I COVER THE WATERFRONT (United Artists, 1933), ranks one of the few opportunities in finding Cavanaugh leading fine support.Not an important film by any means in spite of a its two leading actors, WINGS IN THE DARK could have been an important project with such a fine premise that might have worked into an powerful and dramatic theme dealing with one man coping with blindness as with John Garfield's character in THE PRIDE OF THE MARINES (Warners, 1945), or a top-notch aviation story combining adventure and romance as with Grant's ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (Columbia, 1939). Grant's skills as a dramatic actor are properly showcased here, especially with one particular key scene where he tries to rehabilitate himself through the course of his blindness, roaming about and bumping into things, along with his rejection towards his seeing eye dog, as enacted by Lightning.Grant and Loy, in their initial screen performance, are best remembered for their two future unions together, THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY SOXER (1947) and MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE (1948), both RKO Radio releases. While these films have become notable comedy classics, thanks to frequent television revivals and availability on video cassette and later DVD, their initial pairing, having played sporadically on commercial television during the afternoon or late night movie era back in the 1960s and 70s, remains in the dark as being their least known of their three on screen partnerships.Close to being largely forgotten today, WINGS IN THE DARK, which runs at 75 minutes, is cliché at best but watchable, thanks to the know how combination of Myrna Loy and Cary Grant early in their movie careers. A little item from the 1930s worthy of rediscovery now that it's available on DVD. (***)