Wings of the Morning (1937)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This is the first full-length Three-Color Technicolor films made in the British Isles. Because of this, you might have imagined that it would be a particularly good film. Well, like the first full-length American film made using this process, Becky Sharpe (1935), it's no classic. Three-Color looks like true color (more or less), as previous attempts (such as the company's Two-Color process) were less than terrific."Wings of the Morning" starts with a completely ridiculous and improbable prologue. A group of gypsies are camping out on the land belonging to an Irish lord. Instead of throwing them off the land, though, the lord is swell and lets them stay. He also soon falls in love with one of the gypsies and marries her. Sadly, however, he dies in an accident shortly after the wedding and she is subsequently forced by his family to leave the country for Spain.The story picks up half a century later. The Spanish Civil War is raging and the widow now decides to return to Ireland with her granddaughter (Annabella--who, oddly, has a French accent). There, Annabella meets Henry Fonda in one of the most annoying 'meeting' scenes I can recall (ooo, it's bad). He thinks she is a boy--I just think she was behaving in a boorish manner. It's supposed to be cute and funny...it isn't. Regardless, the cliché says that after such an inauspicious meeting that they'll soon fall in love. And, speaking of clichés, Annabella seems to be a walking cliché--headstrong, unreasonable and yet waiting to be tamed by Fonda (oh, brother). Much of the rest of the film consists of Fonda repeatedly about to take off his clothes in front of the prudish Annabella until he ultimately figures out she's a girl and they fall in love.Of course, since it's only halfway through the film, you KNOW that some glitches must come to threaten their love. First, Don Diego, who was pledges to the Gypsy years ago now returns. Second, there is the 'big race'--neither of which is particularly interesting since you have known for most of the film what would ultimately happen by the end. Overall, despite some nice scenery, a clichéd film that didn't do much for me. The characters seemed clichéd and predictable from start to finish.By the way, Henry Fonda should NOT sing in films. A fine actor, yes. A singer, good grief, no! As for Annabella, well, perhaps she could act but given this sort of drivel, it's sure not apparent in this film.

It's surprising to read everyone talking about the wonderful early British use of Technicolor for this film, when in fact the color photography (as seen in the print shown on TCM tonight) can best be described as murky, even in the close-ups.Aside from the color, the script is a garbled hodge-podge of strangely related events, clumsily crafted and given stiff acting even by the lovely ANNABELLA. For a better view of this French actress, I suggest you watch one of her later U.S. films called 13 RUE MADELEINE, to fully appreciate her acting abilities.The disjointed story, combined with the lackluster direction and the lame dialog, only undercuts whatever merits are in the film's script. ANNABELLA does nothing here to indicate that she's on the brink of better things in her future and her line readings are less than professional as delivered in her French accent.Why Technicolor was wasted on this below average story is a mystery to me. Fans of Annabella and Henry Fonda are sure to be disappointed. Fox would have been more successful if they'd filmed this horse story here in the U.S. in sunny California for both the interior and exterior shots.Surprised that this unrestored print was the best TCM could do.

Wings of the Morning is both the title of the film and the name of a gypsy horse who rides in the English Derby at Epsom Downs. It was the first modern technicolor film to be shot in the British Isles. To insure quality cinematographer Ray Rennahan who was THE color guy in Hollywood was brought over and he did a first rate job. I guess for good luck Henry Fonda who appeared in the first outdoor technicolor film in the USA came over to appear in this one. In the tradition of Americans appearing in British productions, Fonda plays a Canadian horse trainer with the Irish name of Kerry Gilfallen replete with his Nebraska twang.In fact most of this British production is shot in Ireland and I hope that Wings of the Morning is available to folks in Ireland in any format. Their country is really nicely captured in some really lush greens. And there is some nice color footage of London and the Epsom Derby in the middle Thirties.There are two stories, a brief prologue involving gypsy princess Annabella and the Irish Lord Clontarf played by Leslie Banks. They wed against all convention and soon after, Banks is killed in a riding accident. Of course most of the family snubs the widow and she returns to the gypsies.Fast forward some forty years and Annabella is now playing her own great granddaughter and she's back in Ireland having fled Spain from the revolution going on there. She flees like Katharine Hepburn did in Sylvia Scarlett, in the guise of a boy and fools everybody including horse trainer Henry Fonda. Of course the romance develops and a pair of horses get trained and primed for the Epsom Derby. Horse stories are no different in the UK then they are the USA and if you've seen enough of them on the silver screen you have an idea how the rest of the film goes.Champion jockey Steve Donoghue makes an appearance in Wings of the Morning and lucky indeed we are to have a technicolor filmed appearance of the great John McCormack who favors us with four songs sung at a party scene at Clontarf castle. McCormack was an icon in many an Irish and Irish American household. A great concert singer, he and an Italian tenor named Caruso share equal credit in developing the record industry as they both signed with Edison's fledgling RCA Victor label back in the day. You couldn't find too many Italian households without a Caruso record back in the day nor many Irish households without a gramophone and McCormack records to play on them.During his sequence McCormack sings and reads material, lyrics I'm sure he must have sang a gazillion times. My guess is that he was 53 when Wings of the Morning was made and may have been sustaining memory problems. McCormack died in 1945 and had not sung for several years at that point.Wings of the Morning were it not for McCormack and technicolor would be a rather ordinary race track story. Still it's good entertainment and for folks in Ireland, a must.

Shot partially on location in Killarney, Ireland in Glorious Three-Strip Tecnicolor, "Wings of the Morning" can claim to be the first film shot in that process on the British Isles. Iconic cinematographer Jack Cardiff gets his first Technicolor credit as the film's camera operator and would go on to one of the most illustrious careers in film history. However, although it was financially successful during its initial release, fans of John McCormack and Henry Fonda will be disappointed with it today. John McCormack, the pride of Athlone, County Westmeath and arguably the greatest Irish tenor of all time, failed in several attempts to break into the movies. That's not surprising when one views his stiff acting and singing in this film. Although he sings three songs here, he evidently didn't even bother to memorize the lyrics and sings while looking at a notebook he carries with him. It's no wonder that the film editor decided to cut away from him to inserts of the idyllic Irish countryside during his performance rather than keep the overweight and unphotogenic singer on screen.Fonda supposedly played a Canadian in this British movie shot partially in Ireland but clearly didn't have a competent dialogue coach because he plays his early scenes with a decidedly Southern drawl. He later lapses into his singularly un-Canadian Midwestern twang. At this point in his career Fonda was a free-lancer and didn't have to do this film, which was designed as a showcase for French beauty Annabella in her English-speaking debut. After he did sign a long-term contract at Fox in 1940 as a condition of getting the role of Tom Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath," the respected actor chafed when required to play support for films designed to showcase other Fox stars. His unhappy experience on the Alice Faye vehicle "Lillian Russell" is a prime example. Why did Fonda agree to do the film? A good guess would be that the trip to Englasnd and Ireland, rather than the script, was enough motivation.