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Wings
Early film poster
Directed by	William A. Wellman
Produced by	Lucien Hubbard
Written by	Story: John Monk Saunders Screenplay: Hope Loring Louis D. Lighton Titles: Julian Johnson
Starring	Clara Bow Charles 'Buddy' Rogers Richard Arlen Gary Cooper Jobyna Ralston El Brendel Richard Tucker
Music by	Uncredited: J.S. Zamecnik
Cinematography	Harry Perry
Editing by	E. Lloyd Sheldon Uncredited: Lucien Hubard
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	August 12, 1927
Running time	141 min
Country	United States
Language	Silent film English intertitles
Budget	US$ 2,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Wings is a 1927 silent movie about World War I fighter pilots produced and released by Paramount Pictures.

Jack Powell (Charles "Buddy" Rogers) and David Armstrong (Richard Arlen) are rivals in the same small American town, both vying for the attentions of pretty Sylvia Lewis (Jobyna Ralston). But what Jack fails to realize is that "the girl next door," Mary Preston (played by the top-billed Clara Bow), is secretly in love with him. The two young men both sign up to become combat pilots, go through a rigorous training period, and are ultimately shipped off to France, where they go from being rivals on the ground to best friends and faithful comrades in the air, especially during air battles with the Germans. Jack and David are briefly reunited with their hometown friend, Mary, when she is stationed near Paris after joining the war effort by becoming an ambulance driver. The climax of the story comes with the epic Battle of Saint-Mihiel.

The film, completed with a then unheard-of budget of $2 million, was the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture (then called "Best Picture, Production") for the film year 1927/28, and won a second Academy Award for Engineering Effects. The film was written by John Monk Saunders (story), Louis D. Lighton and Hope Loring, and was directed by William A. Wellman, with an original orchestral score by John Stepan Zamecnik (J S Zamecnik), which was uncredited.

It is the first known film to feature a male-on-male kiss -- a fraternal one -- between the two main characters played by Rogers and Arlen. Also, it is one of the first widely released films to have shown nudity. Clara Bow's breasts can be seen for a quick second during the Paris bedroom scene (army men open the door and she is caught changing).

In 1997, Wings was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

In 2006, director William A. Wellman's son, William Wellman Jr., authored a book about the film and his father's participation in the making of it, titled The Man and His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture.

Academy Award Wins (1927/28)

• Best Effects, Engineering Effects - Roy Pomeroy
• Best Picture - Production

• William Wellman, Jr. (2006). The Man And His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0-275-98541-5. 

• Wings at the Internet Movie Database
• Movie stills

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