Captains of the Clouds

source: Captains of the Clouds

As a Canadian, I cringed and laughed at all the cliched Hollywood images of us "Canucks". Still, if you give this picture a chance it builds to an unexpected, dramatically heroic climax. Cagney's presence, as always, heightens the film's entertainment value immensely. You end up really rooting for him despite his "bad boy" antics throughout. Director Michael Curtiz has certainly done better but this film succeeds in reminding us that they don't make 'em like they used to. Memorable Cagney line (on the phone trying to calm an irate caller): "You worked up enough lather to shave all of Montreal!"

Filmed in glorious Technicolor, and masterfully directed by Michael Curtiz, "Captains of the Clouds" is a gripping World War II drama concerning the careers, romances, and bravery of the Canadian bush pilots. Boasting an exciting screenplay full of witty dialogue and thrilling aerial footage, this is a motion picture well worth the price of admission. Young, cocky bush pilot Brian MacLean (James Cagney) is a "price-cutting son of a bozo" who swipes jobs left & right from other envious pilots, including Johnny Dutton (Dennis Morgan), Francis Patrick "Tiny" Murphy (Alan Hale), "Blimp" Lebec (George Tobias), and "Scrounger" Harris (Reginald Gardiner). Their attempts at revenge start a chain of events that eventually lead all five men directly to the Royal Canadian Air Force. Despite the RCAF's plans to make a flying instructor out of him, Brian has an intense desire to fight in the war. His superior happens to be Johnny, his "rival" for the "affections" of Emily Foster (Brenda Marshall). In the end, when everything is forgiven, Johnny and Brian lead several squadrons of unarmed bombers toward England, when Brian's gallantry is suddenly put to the test. Some of the highlights from "Captains of the Clouds" include the following. Near the beginning, there is an extended edge-of-the-seat chase sequence as Brian transports a nervous scruffy old-timer (Clem Bevans) in his seaplane. Typically not following RCAF protocol, Brian (now a staff pilot for a bombing & gunnery school in Jarvis, Ontario) takes a young Alabaman recruit (Russell Arms) on an unauthorized bombing test flight, unfortunately buzzing the targets too close and getting hit by the bomb splinters. Cashiered from the RCAF, Brian and Tiny spend all day in a back room at a tavern and harmonize a catchy number: "Bless them all, bless them all, / the short and the wide and the tall...", etc. In a private talk with Johnny, Brian's determination to fly an unarmed bomber with Johnny's squadron clearly shines through, and when that armed Messerschmitt appears, tension surely mounts as the squadrons are powerless to fight back, until Brian decides to break formation! And finally, the patriotic song "Captains of the Clouds", written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, can be heard several times throughout this picture; wonderfully orchestrated by Max Steiner, is it any wonder that this song was quite effective in boosting morale for all the Canadian & American servicemen fighting overseas? In closing, let us call our attention to the splendid casting of "Captains of the Clouds". James Cagney was the perfect choice to play Brian MacLean, an undercutting young rogue who feels that the rules do not necessarily apply to him. Handsome Dennis Morgan is superb as the dashing Johnny Dutton, who dreams of someday owning his own airline, but whose life takes an unexpected turn. Brenda Marshall is fine as the morally shallow Emily Foster, torn between Johnny and Brian; how she finally ends up is somewhat bizarre! Not to mention the likable Alan Hale as Tiny Murphy, George Tobias (a great dialectician) as the French-Canadian Blimp Lebec, and Reginald Gardiner as the British weasel who lives up to his name - Scrounger Harris.

Captains of the Clouds (1943) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Extremely exciting actioneer from Warner about a bush pilot (James Cagney) who pisses everyone off and then joins the Canadian Air Force to train pilots for battle in WW2. Top-notch acting, incredibly flight sequences and an all around good story makes this a wonderful little gem that really sticks out from the various war films produced in this era. I've had the chance to see this movie countless times over the years but kept pushing it back and I'm really kicking myself for doing that. The love triangle between Cagney, Dennis Morgan and Brenda Marshall is very well handled and doesn't come off simply as formula melodrama. This mixes in well when we hit the action stuff and the reasoning behind the constant battle between Cagney and Morgan. The entire cast does a great job in their roles and this includes the three leads as well as Alan Hale and George Tobias. The flight sequences are incredibly impressive and the ending is packed with intense action. The Technicolor (Cagney's first) also benefits the film greatly with all the beautiful locations and it really brings the blues out of the skies. The film was certainly made to be patriotic and it pulls that off extremely well with the ending.

If you're going to watch this, do so for the technicolor flying action. The plot is terrible. Our star is James Cagney as Brian McLean. He introduces himself as a Canadian bush pilot who is lying about the other local pilots and undercutting their prices to get all of the local jobs. Also the instant he lands and sees Emily (Brenda Marshall) he decides to make up stories about Johnny her lover who she plans to marry, and take her away from him. He gets hit by his own helicopter blade. She nurses him to health. Johnny, in dangerous weather conditions, flies a doctor in and saves him. These two and another guy make a bunch of money. Then Brian marries and immediately leaves Emily. He says he needed to do that to stop Brian from marrying her and prevent him from wasting all of his money on her (really). They end up in the Canadian air force. He is all about being a hotshot with his intuitive skills. He is a trainer. He takes a pilot up to show him how it's done. He crashes, nearly kills the guy and totals the plane. For this he is court martialed and forced to leave the military. So he mopes around town getting drunk and complaining about it. He get's the bright idea of dive bombing a celebration where the air force is giving other pilots their wings with a friend and the friend gets killed. He is rather intuitive and reckless. But in the end he sneaks back into the air force. He flies with a group of unarmed planes to England. A German plane shows up. He flies his plane and himself into the German plane. They both crash. The other planes are saved. He is a hero. The end. Stupid.

A number of sharp observations have already been made of this movie. Certainly, there do appear to have been two pictures which have been sliced in two and bonded together. I can't help wondering where the other film is - ie. the film which started out as a wartime RCAF flagwaver and ends as a mountains-and- lakes set movie with the love interest triangle, plus old Alan Hale. As with so many old films, historical interest alone makes the picture worth seeing again and again; for its day, marks: 6.5 or 7 out of 10. Certainly, there are one or two pretty corny scenes and fancy Michael Curtiz letting Cagney and D. Morgan get away with surely the least convincing fight ever filmed. He must have taken an early lunch that day.

"Captains of the Clouds", it has always seemed to me, is two distinct movies wrapped up into one. What begins as a crisp, light-hearted, colorful story about bush pilots in Canada suddenly transforms itself into a single-minded grim documentary about the Royal Canadian Air Force in the opening days of World War Two. I don't suppose this abrupt transition from a light-hearted, peacetime human-interest story to an intense procedural war drama would have occurred if the War had not coincided with the production of the film. James Cagney and Dennis Morgan, the male stars, were well cast for the peacetime opening acts and scenes of "Captains...". Both of them being fine actors, they were also well cast for the grim wartime sequences. This is an odd and fascinating film that bears watching again and again.

This is one of my favorite films, but not because of Cagney or Morgan. Brenda Marshall is the jewel in this picture's crown. She provides the blue-jean wearing, North Country beauty in the film and drives the fly-boys crazy. Marshall, who bears a resemblance to Madolyn Smith Osborne, wants to get to the big city regardless of how she gets there. The resulting competition among pilots keeps the story line from being completely aviation oriented. This is a good look at Canadian bush aviation in the 1930's and the cast is excellent. As with all films of this period, airplanes are shown doing things that are aerodynamically impossible, but it doesn't take away from the picture. There are even early aeromedical ideas about how G-forces affect the human body. Filmed entirely on location in Canada, much of the scenery is stunningly beautiful. Canadian politics are even slipped in during graduation ceremony when Air Marshal Bishop refers to pilots from "loyal Quebec." All in all a fun film.

A great idea to shoot this picture in Canada AND in colour, as the scenery just wouldn't have had the same impact in black and white. Cagney, as bush pilot Brian McLean, is his typical bad-boy self. Something theater audiences around the world had come to expect. Some favorite lines: "If you're lookin' for me, I'll be the drunkest man in the biggest hotel in Ottawa", "I like to swipe my jobs honestly" or "You worked up enough lather to shave all of Montreal". The first half of the picture seems to set up the conflict he initiates between he and Dennis Morgan back in the rugged bush country of Northern Ontario, while the second half resolves the conflict through Cagney's humbling. Brenda Marshall is stunning as a manipulative small-town tart. Her good sense, or lack of same, is painfully evident when she begs Morgan to "Please take me to Winnipeg!" I understand a North Bay area woman had the good fortune of doubling for Marshall during the scene where Cagney's plane brushes just above her head, as she waves at him from a haystack. I got the biggest kick from the scene where Cagney and Hale go on and on about Billy Bishop, who is a native of a city in my local area (Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada). Everyone who grew up in Owen Sound and surrounding Grey County knows the name William Avery "Billy" Bishop, a legendary WWI flying ace, who had been promoted to Air Marshal during WWII. After viewing many still photos and silent films of Bishop, this was my first opportunity to see the man move, walk and talk. When I viewed COTC for the first time, I was stunned to find that the Owen Sound Library didn't yet have a copy of COTC (they assure me this is soon to be remedied), but the Bishop Heritage Museum in his native city definitely does and featured COTC on a "Movie at the Museum" night in early 2006. To clarify a question by one of the previous reviewers, Air Marshal Bishop's comments to the Texan pilot ("Ahhh Texas! One of our most loyal provinces!") is clearly a joke. Bishop, who appears quite comfortable in front of the camera, was undoubtedly improvising with a little dry Grey County wit. Exhibiting a voice and manner that is a cross between Foster Hewitt and Lester Pearson, how can you deny Mr. Bishop was Canadian! I swore Alan Hale Sr. was going to thwack Cagney with his skipper's hat, he was so similar to his son, Alan Jr. of Gilligan's Island fame and seeing Abner Kravitz (of Bewitched fame) before he hitched up with Gladys is a treat, too. We even get a cameo of the actor who played Mr. Brewster from the Beverly Hillbillies. Some interesting TV connections to this 1942 flick. The North Bay interest in this Hollywood movie, the first one shot entirely on location in Canada, is well documented. See the several pages on the "miscellaneous" link for this film from the North Bay Nugget. One link, on famous Canadian cartoonist Lynn Johnston's website, claims the flick was shot not far from her art studios on Trout Lake, near Corbeil.

Captains of the Clouds (1942) It's always a bit weird to see semi-propaganda films made with mainstream talent, as if it's just another movie. It kind of eats into the credibility of movies in that period in general, as distinctive art forms as opposed to commercial vehicles. So this has (for example) songs by Harold Arlen (Over the Rainbow fame) and Johnny Mercer, and some photography by the great Sol Polito (though there were four shooters involved, due to the range of situations required). And the director is the indisputably excellent Michael Curtiz, who was making "Casablanca" at roughly the same time. This is a movie about the Canadian air effort in the war. The lead by James Cagney is slightly odd in this regard, but it gives the movie creds. The leading woman (reddish hair and very red lipstick for the Technicolor production) is a more suitable Brenda Marshall. The scene is in isolated lake country, dependent on small planes for getting everything they need in and out (including teams of huskies, at the beginning). It's all quite beautiful, and if the characters are back woods caricatures, that's part of the whole schtick with this kind of film. So this is a manly world with people dickering over money, but showing a kind of integrity that makes them dependable and ready to support the war effort once it gets going. The speech by Winston Churchill heard by radio (halfway through the film) is the key turning point, and the men rise above their petty small town rivalries. The "girl" is what really matters behind all their arguments. But war, of course, changes even love. Devotees of war films will appreciate the accuracies in the training and the aircraft used. Of course, this was shot not long after it actually was happening (a year or two) and legitimacy is almost unavoidable on some level. But finally I have to get to the actual plot, the human interactions that make up the story, because this is a weakness overall. The attempts to give personal relatability to the events are natural, but not all that convincing. So seeing it sixty years later it can't be watched quite for the story itself, but for the many parts that make up the overall arc. Curtiz is great and he makes the most of it all. Max Steiner's music helps though it is overblown for a lot of what amounts to documentary sections. The fact it's in color is interesting (for the expense) and it's actually part of what makes it interesting. And it's quite believable, clean, not oversaturated color, brilliantly controlled.