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The Man and His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture

William Wellman Jr.

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Description for The Man and His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture Hardback. William Wellman was the director of the World War I epic, "Wings". This is his biography, and it describes the war hero, family man, occasional prankster, and underestimated visionary who changed Hollywood forever. Written by William Wellman's son, it traces how the director used his own war experience to bring a war epic to the screen. Num Pages: 208 pages, 1, black & white illustrations. BIC Classification: 1KBB; APFB; BGF. Category: (G) General (US: Trade); (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 229 x 152 x 12. Weight in Grams: 449.
William Wild Bill Wellman was not Paramount Pictures' first choice to direct the World War I epic Wings (1927), but as a former aviator and war hero, he was the right choice. Despite months waging epic battles of his own with studio executives, Wild Bill managed to finish the big-budget war saga by inventing many of the techniques still used to film aerial battle scenes. The film, starring Clara Bow, broke box office records and earned its studio the first Academy Award for Best Picture. Considered by many to be the last great film of the silent era, Wings has ... Read more

Product Details

Format

Hardback

Publication date

2006

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc United States

Number of pages

208

Condition

New

Number of Pages

208

Place of Publication

, United States

ISBN

9780275985417

SKU

V9780275985417

Shipping Time

Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days

Ref

99-10

About William Wellman Jr.

William Wellman Jr. has written articles for Film Comment, Films in Review, Action Magazine, Memories Magazine, and DGA News. An actor with more than 170 screen and television credits, he has also received writing credits for nine screenplays and two television specials. He created and executive produced Wild Bill Hollywood Maverick, an award-winning documentary about his father. C'est la Guerre, ... Read more

Reviews for The Man and His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture

[A]n affecting portrait of a young man learning to shoulder the sky and using that experience to shoulder a career that was more intense and interesting than those most of us know. Bill Wellman was of a generation that came to the movies not from film school but from life and always knew they could go back where they came ... Read morefrom without regret. It made them bolder, braver
and, God knows, less pretentious filmmakers than those who came after them. And bolder, braver, less pretentious men as well.
Los Angeles Times
[A]n amazing book, part fond memorial, part family scrapbook
packed with unseen photos, mementos of Hollywood's Golden Age, and letters from the front
whose intimate, handmade feel is part of its enormous charm. Wellman's critical rehabilitation is long overdue: let's hope this riveting book will get the job under way.
DGA Quarterly
With The Man and His Wings, author William Wellman Jr. pays tribute not only to his father, who died in 1975, but also to the maverick creative spirit that drove him….Like any good book about movies
and this most definitely is one
it makes you want to see the subject's films, whether for the first time or for the 50th.
Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
The first Academy Awards announced in 1929 went to William Wellman's 1927 anti-war epic Wings, the film which invented many techniques still used to film aerial battle scenes: Wellman went on to direct other films and stars, but WINGS remained his opus. Man and His Wings, The: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture could've been reviewed in our film section, but is featured here for its inclusion of family documents, mementos and personal correspondence from his father's World War I background to reveal the military influences of a director who would change Hollywood forever. A fine behind the scenes look at both Wellman and World War I experiences.
California Bookwatch
If there is one through-line in Wellmans career it is his devotion to aviation, and this book focuses largely on his life-changing experiences during World War One, when he joined the Lafayette Flying Corps in France. Fortunately his letters home were saved, and they provide the most personal and revelatory passages in this volume. They are accompanied by previously unpublished family photos. Wellman, Jr. then illustrates how his fathers life experiences informed his work behind the camera, leading up to his production of the World War One aviation epic Wings in 1927. The Man and His Wings is a slender but welcome addition to the film history bookshelf, all the more so since Frank Thompsons excellent career study of Wellman and the directors autobiography (A Short Time for Insanity) are out of print.
Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy Leonard's Picks
What makes the book remarkable is not the Hollywood material but the director's experiences during World War I. In 1917, Wellman was a borderline juvenile delinquent from Brookline, Mass., when he joined the Lafayette Flying Corps and was assigned to the famous Black Cat squadron, a group of 15 pilots, all of whom were French except Wellman….Wellman Jr. combines an unfinished autobiographical manuscript of his father's and the wonderful letters from World War I to bring us a fascinating book about a man whose type is extinct in show business today.
Palm Beach Post
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The Man and His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture

William Wellman Jr.

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