Men with Wings

• 6.0 Drama
• 1938-07-16
• 105 minutes mins

Reporter Nicholas Ranson is jubilant when, on 17 Dec 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright take their first airplane flight. Back home in Underwood, Maryland, however, his uncle Hiram F. Jenkins, owner and editor of the local newspaper, refuses to print the story. Nicholas quits and continues to work on his own airplane, with the devoted help of his little daughter Peggy. Peggy is actually the first in her family to fly when her friends, Patrick Falconer and Scott Barnes, induce her to get inside a large kite they have made, and run with it in a field until she is airborne. The kite is caught in a tree, however, and Peggy gets a black eye. Later, Nicholas dies when his experimental airplane crashes, leaving his wife and children alone. By Peggy's adulthood, planes are capable of flying at an altitude of 11,000 feet, and speeds of nearly 100 m.p.h. Peggy continues her father's obsession with flight by helping Scott and Pat to build a plane.

Starring:

Fred MacMurray (Pat Falconer) Ray Milland (Scott Barnes) Louise Campbell (Peggy Ranson) Andy Devine (Joe Gibbs) Lynne Overman (Hank Rinebow) Porter Hall (Hiram F. Jenkins) Walter Abel (Nick Ranson) Kitty Kelly (Martha Ranson) Virginia Weidler (Young Peggy Ranson) Donald O'Connor (Young Pat Falconer)

Director:

William A. Wellman

Writer:

Robert Carson