Film Gives Intimate Views Of Flying Fortress

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 263, 2 August 1941, Page 5

Film Gives Intimate Views Of Flying Fortress

JpOR the first time in motion-picture history, the interior sounds of a huge four-engine bomber, while in flight, have been incorporated into a film. Not only will the public have its first intimate view of the inside of the great fuselage when the picture is released, but incorporated in the picture will be sounds of the four motors, the resultant fuselage noises, the opening and closing of the bomb bay, and the roar of the propellers. , A flight of an hour and a half was made by members of the “I Wanted Wings” company in the Flying Fortress, officially known as 817, from its base at March Field, near Riverside, California, with Paramount’s portable sound equipment and four men. Civilians are not ordinarily permitted to photograph or fly in such military planes, but special permission was granted to the Paramount, men because “full co-operatiou” bad been promised by the War Deportment in the filming of the picture. Till ■ tlie filming of “I Wanted ■Wings,” the Flying Fortresses have been glimpsed only infrequently and at great distances in newsreels. No attempt had ever been made to get a record of sounds, due to secrecy which has surrounded operation of the planes. In “I Wanted Wings,” the action of two entire sequences concerns the flight of a Flying Fortress. The production, which is to have its New Zealand premiere in Wellington shortly, has a cast including Ray Milland, William Holden, Wayne Morris, Brian Donlevy, Veronica Lake (“the Blonde Bomber”) and Constance Moore. ,

“AfAJOR BARBARA,” the British screen version of Bernard Shaw’s play, is expected to be released in ’Wellington this month. This eagerly awaited film has as its star Wendy Hiller, favourably remembered in the other Shaw film, “Pygmalion,” which “Major Barbara” is expected to surpass as an entertainment.