Customer Reviews

Captains of Clouds [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was a project held in more or less utter contempt by it's star---one more justification for Cagney's decision to bail out of Warners for greener independent pastures."I didn't like this story the last four times I did it,and I don't like it now",said he when exec producer Hal Wallis proposed "Captains"---patriotic considerations may have persuaded him,and the fact it would be his first in Technicolor.This one is a must-see,or rather a must-have.It's Cagney improv---he couldn't care less about the story and doesn't care if we know it.When he's bored with dialogue(often),he breaks into Yiddish--in one scene,hapless Alan Hale's walking across the room and Cagney trips him(you can tell Hale didn't see it coming).Jim was pushing 43 when he made this,so there is at least tacit script recognition of his character's age---still,he's surrounded by an elderly lot of sidekicks---Reginald Gardiner,George Tobias,the aforementioned Alan Hale---these four are like a roving band of vaudevillians in the Canadian wild---one can imagine the group of them whiling away location hours singing "the old songs" Cagney loved so dearly.And,oh yes,they sing in the picture too.Other endearing moments---an extended night club sequence with chorous girls and a rousing rendition of the title song---wonderful! ---were there really clubs like this during the war?---if so,I was born too late.Let's not forget Brenda Marshall---so cold and passionless in "The Sea Hawk"---not here! She's a revelation---hot,sexy,ruthless---I love it when Cagney gives her the pay-off in their "honeymoon" suite---she rips open that cash envelope like a tigress---wowzers!---too bad she dumped the career when she married Bill Holden.There's not much combat in "Captains"---mostly aerial training stuff,but it's fascinating---and the gorgeous color really sugars it up.Cagney made a big mistake when he ditched Warners---his great years were essentially over when he pulled out of Burbank---only "White Heat" lay ahead to remind us of the glory days."Captains Of The Clouds" is a curtain call for the old "fun" Cagney of the thirties---and as such,it's a keeper.

This is one of my favorite James Cagney films because it somehow manages to intertwine an intricate plot into a very simple and patriotic story. More important however, it relies on one of my favorite film themes, that of the protagonist (Cagney) not making the transition from one era of personal glory into the next era where he becomes a stranger in his own world which has changed all around him. This film got two Academy Awards nominations for Interior Decoration (Ted Smith - Art Direction, Casey Roberts - Interior Decoration) and Color Cinematography (Sol Polito). Director Michael Curtiz visually does an excellent job with this script. It starts off in the beautifully filmed Canadian wilderness with Cagney in his usual reckless tough guy form. These early images stand for the strong individual nature of James Cagney's character Brian MacLean that is in itself based on the Cagney mystique. Gradually, MacLean and the other two main characters Johnny Dutton (Dennis Morgan) and Emily Foster (Brenda Marshall) make gradual transitions to reveal personality growth, stagnation and hidden revelations. This is a wartime film made in 1942 and the film intertwines the plot with patriotic sentiment quite nicely but stresses the practicality of creating and maintaining a proficient and professional military force if the job is to get done. The entire cast is wonderful and includes Alan Hale, George Tobias and Gig Young. Composer Max Steiner also once again turns in an insightful and intelligent score. There are some great flying scenes full of bravado, daring do and just plain out foolhardiness with Cagney leading his cronies in and out of the doghouse. This is a very entertaining film.

This is definitely a period piece, but well-done and in color as well. It would be of most interest to film buffs but it deals with some interesting history as well.

I write this partly from the perspective of a family interest in the Commonwealth Air Training program which is the focus of the last half of the film and which has many shots of the real personnel. I hoped that I might see my father in this (but didn't). This program was the major source of aircrew for the British Allies, and since the US didn't enter the war until late 1941, and Western Europe was defeated or collaborating, that's all there were fighting the Nazis for quite some time.

It was interesting to see the real Billy Bishop, the WWI Canadian fighter ace and then Marshall of the Air Force addressing actual graduating cadets who hailed from all over the world, not just the old Commonwealth, and included many Americans who volunteered before the US entered the war. It was sobering to realize that these young men were probably in combat by the time the film was released and that some were already dead.

As a plane buff it was great to see the old planes, in large quantity on actual air bases.

This is an early technicolor film and the dvd transfer is of good visual quality. The photography over the Northern Ontario lakes is very scenic. The sound is ok but they didn't have Dolby or even stereo then, did they.

Cagne is an acquired taste which I never acquired. Still he jumps off the screen as a character actor and dominates every scene he is in. With regard to his dislike of the role, the biography of Hal Wallis, the producer, makes no mention of this and Wallis was usually frank about his problems with stars. I couldn't find the Yiddish part but he put on an over-the-top Irish accent as he flew near Ireland.

There are some good extras on the dvd as well.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents "CAPTAINS OF THE CLOUDS" (21 February 1942) (114 min/Color) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- Cagney in (his first Technicolor appearance) plays Brian MacLean, a hotshot Canadian bush pilot who delights in stealing jobs (and women) away from his competitors --- Brian is forced to shape up in a hurry when he's assigned to train other pilots for the Royal Canadian Air Force --- At the ending of the training period, he is given his first real RCAF assignment --- The seemingly unimportant task of shepherding American bomber planes across the Atlantic to England --- With startling suddenness, Brian comes to realize the true importance of his job when he is forced into a deadly confrontation with a fleet of Nazi raider planes.

A role most suited to Cagney at his cockiest!

Real-life Canadian WW1 flying ace Billy Bishop plays a small but pivotal role.

Cinematographer Sol Polito earned an Oscar nomination for his vivid color photography, a further nomination went to Ted Smith & Casey Roberts for Art Direction.

Under the production staff of:
Michael Curtiz [Director]
Arthur T. Horman [Story]
Roland Gillett [Story]
Arthur T. Horman [Screenwriter]
Richard Macaulay [Screewriter]
Norman Reilly Raine [Screenwriter]
William Cagney [Associate Producer]
Hal B. Wallis [Executive Producer]
Max Steiner [Original Film Score]
Wilfred M. Cline [Cinematgrapher]
Sol Polito [Cinematographer]
George Amy [Film Editor]
Ted Smith [Art Director]
Casey Roberts [Art Director]

BIOS:
1. Michael Curtiz [aka: Manó Kertész Kaminer] [Director]
Date of Birth: 24 December 1886 - Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary)
Date of Death: 10 April 1962 - Hollywood, California

2. James Cagney [aka: James Francis Cagney]
Date of Birth: 17 July 1899 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 30 March 1986 - Stanfordville, New York

3. Dennis Morgan [aka: Earl Stanley Morner]
Date of Birth: 20 December 1908, Prentice, Wisconsin
Date of Death: 7 September 1994, Fresno, California

4. Brenda Marshall [aka: Ardis Ankerson]
Date of Birth: 29 September 1915 - Island of Negros, Philippines
Date of Death: 30 July 1992 - Palm Springs, California

the cast includes:
James Cagney - Brian MacLean
Dennis Morgan - Johnny Dutton
Brenda Marshall - Emily Foster
Alan Hale - Francis Patrick 'Tiny' Murphy
George Tobias - Blimp Lebec
Reginald Gardiner - Scrounger Harris
W.A. Bishop - Himself (as Air Marshal W.A. Bishop)
Reginald Denny - Commanding officer

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 5 Stars
Performance: 5 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 5 Stars
Overall: 5 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 114 min on DVD ~ Warner Bros. Pictures ~ (04/24/2007)

If you are a pilot or aviation buff,then you have to own this one.I really enjoyed watching this movie,the scenery,the planes and James Cagney was himself,just like his other movies,fast talking and fun to watch,so if you are looking for an interesting and colorful movie with great looking airplanes,then this is for you.

I've loved this movie since first seeing it as a child. My uncle Jack Mooney who served with the 121 RAF Eagle Squadron and was killed in action in June 1942 is filmed graduating from flight school in Canada; he's the handsome fellow that the camera stops on briefly...

Please note that I can't comment on the quality of the video transfer or its features since I saw this movie on HBO recently.

This is a very entertaining and fun movie to watch. It chronicles a little known story of WWII--how many civilian bush pilots, who were too old to be fighter pilots--helped out the allied war effort by becoming flight instructors. And at the end of the movie, they help pilot transports across the Atlantic when a couple of transports crashed carrying other pilots to the war and the Royal Canadian Air Force needed extra help getting the remaining pilots there. Many of these pilots had thousands of hours, far more than the other, younger pilots. But age 26 was the cut-off in the Canadian Air Force.

The story follows several brash, devil-may-care bush pilots in Saskatchewan through various exploits and misadventures while the war effort ramps up in the outside world. For the moment, they're oblivious to events outside of Canada as these several pilots try to out compete each other for flying jobs, aerial derring-do, and of course women. One moment they're singing and drinking with each other, and the next they can be slugging it out over an insult or a dispute over a woman. But these are bush pilots, and they're a brotherhood, and blood is thicker than water even when it comes to the opposite sex, so they don't even hold grudges on that score for very long. After all, there are more important things in life than even women--namely flying. And as long as they're flying, these irrepressible sky-jockies are happy even if the rest of their life is falling apart around them.

Another of the pleasures of this movie is getting to see all the classic airplanes in flight, including trainers (both bi- and mono-planes), fighters, and the two-engine, medium bombers that were so common in the British air force early in the war. The flying action and stunts are impressive, and the movie has a spectacular finish. The bush pilots don't like being sidelined as instructors rather than fighter pilots, and in the end they manage to see combat despite the regulations prohibiting older combat pilots.

The entire cast is excellent, although Cagney is said to have had a problem with the role, not wanting it initially. Sometimes he comes off as just breezing through the scenes, but even a somewhat bored performance from Cagney is better than most actor's best. Overall, a very entertaining movie on an obscure story.

By the way, this film reminded me a little bit of The Test Pilot from 1936, starring Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy. Tracy plays another devil may care pilot who careens from one misadventure to the next, dragging along his long suffering mechanic and copilot, played by Tracy, and his poor wife. It was the top grossing movie of 1936, and although today mostly forgotten, is worth seeing for all the great flying scenes in these now long gone airplanes.

Dreadful story line, ham acting - but if you were a British Commonwealth Air Training Scheme trainee and/or instructor, as I was, this film is a must. The actual flying scenes are excellent, those concocted in the studio appalling. And what a privilege, to see Air Marshal Billy Bishop impersonating Air Matshal Billy Bisho[!

Only hardcore James Cagney fans are likely to be attracted to the quirky plot of this 1942 film, with its romantic triangle between Cagney, Dennis Morgan, and Brenda Marshall. It endures, however, as an aviation film, one of the first in technicolor. The flying and camerawork were directed by the legendary Paul Mantz.

As a flying movie, it's a double feature. In the first half of the film, there are breathtakingly beautiful scenes of Canadian bush flying. The stars are the Noorduyn Norseman, the Fairchild 71C, and the Waco EGC-7 and AGC-8. The second half of the movie features historically fascinating film of Royal Canadian Air Force flying training and the Commonwealth Air Training Scheme. The Harvard (known to Americans as the AT-6 Texan) is the main star, with the Tiger Moth as a supporting actor. It's one of the few films to feature the Lockheed Hudson bomber (known as the A-28, A-29, or AT-18 in its limited U.S. service). Canada's World War I ace, Billy Bishop, plays himself as an RCAF Air Marshal in the film.

Conceived before the U.S. entered World War II, the film was intended to showcase Canada's contribution to the war and to increase the number of Americans who might travel north to join the fight from there. It premiered two months after Pearl Harbor, however. Young Americans who watched it would now join the U.S. Army Air Forces, but perhaps they absorbed something useful from their night at the theater -- the difference between what Samuel Hymes (in his memoir of Marine flying in World War II) called the "sanes" and the "crazies." You can guess which of the types was played by Cagney.

-30-

Great video and will used as a gift for
an older retired pilot.Thank you.