Wings of the Navy

1939
Approved
1h 29m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Olivia de Havilland, George Brent, and John Payne in Wings of the Navy (1939)

Biplanes flying in formation past the Washington Monument. A flotilla of seaplanes rising majestically off the surface of the Atlantic.Biplanes flying in formation past the Washington Monument. A flotilla of seaplanes rising majestically off the surface of the Atlantic.Biplanes flying in formation past the Washington Monument. A flotilla of seaplanes rising majestically off the surface of the Atlantic.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.0/10

368

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The experimental plane Cass demonstrates to the Navy is in fact a Grumman F3F fighter - the last biplane purchased by the U.S. Navy. It entered service in 1936 and was withdrawn from front-line service by the end of 1941 and transferred to training units. Only 147 were built.

Goofs
When testing the new plane in a dive, it appears to be making a vertical dive, but it is obvious from the cloud formations, a horizontal image was rotated 90 degrees to appear to be a vertical image.

Connections
Featured in Each Dawn I Die (1939)

Soundtracks
Wings Over the Navy
(1938) (uncredited)
Music by Harry Warren
Played during the opening credits and often throughout the film

User reviews11

Review

Featured review

6/10

Low on story plots but great on aviation shots

If you are interested in the aviation history (in general) or naval aviation (in particular), you might find this movie interesting. Otherwise, as a movie plot, the story is very thin indeed.

George Brent and John Payne play two naval brothers. Their father was a naval aviation hero, and Brent has followed in his footsteps as an aviator and instructor at the training station in Pensacola Florida. His younger brother, who has always looked up to him, wants to transfer from submarines to aviation after seeing his brother.

Filmed at the naval aviation bases in Pensacola and San Diego, there are some interesting shots of training sessions in the film. De Havilland plays Brent's fiancée who falls in love with Payne. Frank McHugh adds some humur, with that characteristic laugh of his, as one of Payne's fellow trainees.

Again, any plot here is overshadowed, for better or worse, by the aviation shots, thus making this more of a recruiting film than a movie with an interesting plot.