Wings and The Broadway Melody Re-Reviewed

Though I didn't really want to, I thought I'd better re-watch Wings and The Broadway Melody.  My reviews were bare-boned because I couldn't remember much about these movies, having seen them so long ago.

Wings 1927-1928


Wings was actually quite a bit better than I remembered.  It's about two pilots during WWI, Jack Powell and David Armstrong, and their love quadrangle.

Jack and David both love a gal named Sylvia.  Sylvia loves David, but Jack mistakenly thinks she loves him.  Meanwhile, Jack's long-time next-door neighbor, Mary Preston (Clara Bow -she was great), loves Jack.  With this situation established, Jack and David head off to aviator school and then off to fight the Germans.

They get in a bit of a scuffle, and then decide they like each other despite loving the same gal, and quickly become best friends.

David is shot down by Jack.

Especially considering when it was made, it has really excellent battle scenes and air battles.  David and Jack are both very likeable guys, and we see them go from rookie pilots to aces over time.  They deal with the stresses of war and form a close bond.

David dies in Jack's arms.

Unfortunate circumstances lead to David's death when he tries to get back from across enemy lines by stealing a German plane, and Jack shoots him down not realizing it's him.  He is racked with guilt, but David reassures him before he dies that it wasn't his fault.  Jack fulfills his promise to David to return David's things to his parents.  He breaks down crying when he sees them, and ends up crying in the lap of David's mother.  She says she wanted to hate him, but she can't, and that she realizes it wasn't his fault.


Jack reads letters from Sylvia to David after his death, and sees that she loved David all along.  David hadn't said anything because he didn't want to break Jack's heart.

Clara Bow as Mary.

Jack realizes that he really loves Mary, and they finally get together.  Poor Sylvia is left to mourn.

The actors are really good, and the movie is surprisingly still relevant.





The Broadway Melody 1928-1929

I still didn't like The Broadway Melody.  It should be called Two Loving Sisters and the Schmuck Who Got Between Them.

Hank and Queenie are a performing sister act that move to New York -to perform on Broadway and so that Hank can be with her longtime love, Eddie.

Hank and Queenie.

Eddie hasn't seen Queenie since she was a kid.  He is very excited about seeing Hank, and looking forward to marrying her, until he sees Queenie.  Lo and behold, she has grown up and now she's the bombshell of the two.  Within seconds his affections have switched from Hank to Queenie.  Queenie picks up on this (he's not exactly subtle), and because she loves Hank so much, she tries to get herself out of the picture so as not to get between Hank and Eddie.  She even starts seeing a sleazy guy to divert attention from the chemistry between Eddie and herself.  Hank doesn't understand why she is acting so distant and peculiar, and tries to get Queenie to stop going out with the sleazy guy and spend time with her and Eddie instead (a different sleazy guy), and is upset when Queenie becomes hostile and refuses.

Eddie pursuing Queenie.

This goes on, with Eddie pursuing Queenie, Queenie trying to rebuff him despite her inexplicable secret love for him, and Eddie pretending he still loves Hank, who is broken-hearted about the distance that has come between her and her beloved sister.  When Hank figures out that Eddie and Queenie are in love, she gallantly steps aside so that they can marry, pretending that she never really loved Eddie after all.  There is a scene where she is sobbing in her dressing room after telling Eddie she never cared about him and sending him to go to Queenie that was really depressing.  Both gals are so nice and so self-sacrificing, and they both care so much for each other, that it just really stinks to see this worthless guy come between them.  And it's plain to see that as soon as Queenie gets a little older and isn't the young starlet anymore he'll move on to another gal without missing a beat.  Ugh.