Wings of the Morning

While Korda was in the process of constructing his own Technicolor processing plant at Denham he in the meantime provided his studio facilities for this pioneering project, the very first Technicolor feature made outside Hollywood.

Inevitably it's quite a hybrid, with an American director and cameraman, an American leading man pretending to be Canadian and a French leading lady pretending to be a Spanish gypsy pretending to be a lad (a deception partly facilitated by wearing slightly less rouge on her cheeks than in the rest of the film).

Since most of the exteriors were shot in Ireland the colour scheme is inevitably predominantly green, but colour is occasionally used at the service of the narrative as when the heroine is spectacularly transformed by slipping into a burgundy gown, the progress by jockey Steve Donohue in the Epsom Derby is made possible to follow by his ochre shirt, followed by the dramatic climactic appearance of the bright red objection flag.

Archival interest is provided by the partiticipation of tenor John McCormack and tipster Ras Prince Monolulu.

This is the first true technicolor feature to be made in the UK. The story concerns a beautiful young Spanish gypsy woman (French actress Anna Bella) who flees to England where she falls in love with a Canadian horse trainer (Henry Fonda) against a back drop of the UK's premier horse race, The Derby.

The story is a bit unoriginal and the dialogue extremely clunky in places. There is also an element of tweeness to the depictions of gypsy life. Yet despite the so-so plot and (at times) wooden acting there is a certain charm in the film. The Technicolor photography is gorgeous and it provides a very rare colour record of what England & Ireland looked like prior to the second world war. The scenes on Epsom downs are also remarkably well filmed (considering the technical limitations of early technicolor filming on location) and the colour really brings an otherwise very average film to vivid life. There are one or two moments which would make the politically correct viewer squirm, such as the depiction of black & white minstrels.

If this film had been made in black & white i suspect it would have been long forgotten now, but as a curio it is a fascinating insight into another era. The photography is beautiful at times and make the film watchable. If only the same care had been taken with the script. Its a shame that this DVD only seems to be available in the U.S. though as i think it is calling out for a decent release.

"Wings of the Morning" (1937) has the distinction of being the first Technicolor film shot in the British isles, made when the great cinematographer Jack Cardiff was operating a camera. It also introduced the Irish tenor John McCormack to the public. Wings of the Morning might have been important for being French actress Annabella's first English-speaking film, but Annabella was two years away from becoming very famous for another reason which basically stopped her film career.

Annabella has a dual role here, actually a triple role, in a film that takes place first in the 1800s and then in the present day. First, she is Marie, a gypsy, who is with other gypsies in Ireland in 1869. The Lord Clontarf (Lesley Banks) gives the gypsies rights to live on his land in perpetuity. He falls in love with Marie and the two marry, a union that is definitely controversial. When Lord Clontarf is killed in a fall while riding, Marie jumps on the gypsy caravan, and ever the roamers, they leave the area.

Fifty years later, Annabella plays Maria, Duchess of Leyva, who is Marie's great-granddaughter and engaged to Don Diego (Teddy Underdown). The gypsies must flee Spain due to a revolution, so they return to the Clontarf land in Ireland. Marie (now played by Irene Vanbrugh) is worried that Maria will not get out of Spain, but she does, dressed as a boy. While so dressed, she meets horse trainer Kerry Gilfallen (Fonda), a Canadian.

Eventually he discovers he's a she and falls for her. Maria has traded her great-grandmother's horse, Wings of the Morning to Kerry, not realizing the importance of the animal. Marie intends to enter it in a race in order to win money for Maria's dowry.

Henry Fonda was such a handsome young man, and always a good actor, but he doesn't come off as Canadian with that drawl of his. Despite being new to English, Annabella does a very effective job in all of her roles - she was, after all, a huge star in France. Singer John McCormack had a beautiful Irish tenor, but what a bore - no career in movies for him.

As far as the film itself, it's an interesting story but in the end, not a great film. The color isn't as sharp as we're used to today, but it doesn't diminish the incredible beauty of the Irish countryside.

Annabella met actor Tyrone Power on the set of Suez in 1938 and the couple married in 1939. Their boss, Darryl F. Zanuck, did everything he could to break them up -- he offered Annabella some films that were to be made in Europe -- but she refused to leave Power. Once they married, the star buildup for Annabella stopped. She would star on Broadway, work for the war effort, do radio, and a production of "Liliom" with her husband, finally returning to France after they were divorced in 1948. From what she said in interviews -- je ne regrette rien.

In the late 19th century a Spanish gypsy princess (Annabella) falls in love and marries a nobleman (Leslie Banks) but he dies shortly after in a riding accident. She returns to Spain, but 40 years later descendents of the couple (Henry Fonda and Annabella in a dual role) meet and fall in love with their relationship also revolved around horses and horse racing.

This Irish set romancer is best known for being the first British three strip Technicolor feature film and one of only 9 made by Britain in the 1930s. It was also the film in which Hollywood star Henry Fonda met Frances Ford Seymour, the woman who would become his wife and the mother of Peter and Jane while they were filming on the set at Denham Studios where the film was in part shot. The film also benefits from a cameo by opera singer and tenor John McCormack, a cross dressing heroine and some good looking location work.

Forget the plot, which is silly, but bask in the glorious 3-strip Technicolor-the first British colour film-which is very fine indeed, natural and delicate and not at all garish. I assume that the use of many different coloured props (dresses, fruits etc.) was deliberate to show off the process, but the result is beautiful; it must have been something of a sensation for the 1937 audiences.

Add to this cameos by the famous (ageing here) jockey Steve Donoghue; songs by the much-loved singer Count John McCormack; cameos by two well-known (in their day) racing commentators; and extremely rare footage in colour of Derby Day, and you have quite a valuable historical record of the times.

A young Henry Fonda (well-31 but only into his 3rd. Year of movies) is almost unrecognisable apart from his distinctive voice and hints of those pale blue eyes that became more piercing as he aged.

The print that UK's Talking Pictures channel showed (August 2022) is almost beyond criticism, maybe a little faded in places, but what a joy to view!