Les chevaliers du ciel

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.

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.

• Having grown up in North Bay Ontario Canada, I would like to point out that the first part of Captains of the Clouds was set on Trout Lake near North Bay . The Actors stayed at The Empire Hotel in North Bay.

All of the people of North Bay were excited about this movie and many of us crowded around the entrance to the Hotel and every other place the Stars were sighted. It was certainly a memorable time for the residents of North Bay!! There are more details I would love to add but at this point I would like to ask if there are any reviews that include ALL the areas where Captains of the Clouds was set? Thank you.

Patricia Kennedy

Okay, I'll admit that this film is NOT Shakespeare! In fact, at times the plot is VERY VERY formulaic and silly but somehow the overall package is still quite entertaining.

Jimmy Cagney is the main lead of the film, though it actually has an ensemble cast consisting of Dennis Morgan and other Warner Brothers regulars. And unfortunately, the worst part of this film is Cagney's character, as he plays essentially the exact same character he played in so many Warner films. You know,...the brash and obnoxious guy who seems greatly in need of a comeuppance (such as in THE FIGHTING 69th and MANY other films). It's too bad, as the rest of the plot is very very good and this is a wonderful propaganda film meant to bolster support for the war. In fact, the more I think about it, Cagney's character and how it was written so derivatively is the only real problem in the film. It's a shame really, as apart from this the acting is excellent and the Technicolor scenes of the Canadian wilderness and flying are beautiful.

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.