
Captains of the Clouds
Captains of the Clouds ( Shadows of Their Wings) is a 1942 Warner Bros. war film in Technicolor, directed by Michael Curtiz and starring James Cagney. It was produced by William Cagney (James Cagney's brother), 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 cinematography was by Wilfred M. Cline, Sol Polito, and Winton C. Hoch and was notable in that it was the first feature-length Hollywood production filmed entirely in Canada.
Plot
Brian MacLean (James Cagney) irritates fellow bush pilots Johnny Dutton (Dennis Morgan), Tiny Murphy (Alan Hale Sr.), Blimp Lebec (George Tobias), and British expatriate Scrounger Harris (Reginald Gardiner) by outcompeting them for business in rugged Northern Ontario, Canada in 1939, as the Second World War is beginning. Dutton, whose ambition is to start his own airline, flies by the book, but MacLean is a seat-of-the-pants kind of pilot, mirroring the differences in their personalities.
Cast
- Alan Hale
- Benny Baker
- Billy Bishop
- Brenda Marshall
- Charles Halton
- Charles Irwin
- Clem Bevans
- Dennis Morgan
- Emmett Vogan
- Frank Wilcox
- Frederick Worlock
- Gavin Muir
- George Meeker
- George Tobias
- Gig Young
- Hardie Albright
- J. Farrell MacDonald
- J. M. Kerrigan
- James Cagney
- John Gallaudet
- John Kellogg
- Louis Jean Heydt
- Miles Mander
- Morton Lowry
- Pat Flaherty
- Patrick O'Moore
- Paul Cavanagh
- Ray Montgomery
- Ray Walker
- Reginald Denny
- Reginald Gardiner
- Walter Brooke
- Willie Fung
More details
author | Norman Reilly Raine |
---|---|
contentLocation | Canada |
director | Michael Curtiz |
editor | George Amy |
events | aviation World War II |
keywords | abandon air force air marshal alan hale sr. attack begin british commonwealth british commonwealth air training plan bush pilot commanding officer fairchild 71 ferry flying ferry pilots flight instructor fly hear injured kill lockheed hudson married messerschmitt bf 109 noorduyn norseman northern ontario on the beach ontario canada royal canadian air force speak train warn we shall fight on the beaches winston churchill world war i |
musicBy | Max Steiner |
nomination | Academy Award for Best Art Direction, Color Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color |
producer | Hal B. Wallis |
publisher | Warner Bros. |
recordedAt | Ottawa |
theme | northern war |