At the Movies: "Captains of the Clouds"

TARPSBird

TARPSBird

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"Captains of the Clouds" (1942) is a Technicolor flick starring Jimmy Cagney, Dennis Morgan and Alan Hale. It's about a group of Canadian bush pilots who decide to join the RCAF. Some great shots of civilian float planes early in the flick and later a variety of RCAF aircraft: Harvards, Ansons, Battles, Hudsons, and some others I couldn't ID right off. I got this movie from Netflix because I'd never heard of it before and I liked the main actors. Here are a few screenshots.
 
Well do I remember this film - it is the first movie I remember seeing, and it must have been around 1958 or so, in B&W at home.

An interesting note is the French insignia on the aircraft's upper left wing in the first photo in the second row; also third aircraft in echelon in the photo in the upper row.
 
It was just on Turner Classic Movies last month too (I think that was where I saw it). I had never seen it before, good movie. :mixedsmi:
 
Great movie,....great acting by all. Cagney playing Cagney with the rest of the characters doing their part. To see the Ontario north woods how it was is still a delight today. One of favorite parts where Cagney starts to lightly mock in jest Billy Bishop while he's reviewing the aviation cadets,..."Oh Billy Bishop,....oh Billy Bishop....." Cagney then proceeds to buzz the graduation field.
 
By all accounts Bishop was enormously popular with all the aircrew - one of the reasons could be the grandfatherly way he talks to the young men as they get their wings - much more personable than getting them and your diploma plunked into your hands, a handshake, and "congratulations." It seems so natural for him I doubt it's an act. His son was an RAF or RCAF Spitfire pilot during WWII - he liked to say that between he and his father they were responsible for 73 German aircraft (his son got 1!).
 
SSI01, good attention to detail noticing those French roundels. :applause: I was just browsing through the DVD to snap a few shots and didn't notice the insignia. Must have been some Free French aviators in training at that base.
 
Thanks! I've had a little experience with that.:kilroy:

The aircraft serial no. is missing from under the left wing, as well. This could be due to the aircraft being painted as it was available between flights, or during a period of scheduled maintenance. The missing numbers could therefore be accounted for as temporarily normal, but the French roundels? This might be a BT-9 (or equivalent) built for the French AF that was towed over the U.S.-Canadian border after being built, then flown east for shipment. France might have fallen before the bird got home. BTW if you've seen "I Wanted Wings," this looks like the type of trainer initially flown in that film. It's sure got that North American vertical stab and rudder.

I've noted the yellow biplane trainers in the background of one shot. They are not the closed-cockpit Stearmans the Canadians used, I don't recognize the type.

Fun to watch the film and note where these installations were, they're not far from home near Detroit and we used to visit many of these places when I was a kid. Just didn't know so much happened there to influence events oceans away.
 
SSI01 said:
I've noted the yellow biplane trainers in the background of one shot. They are not the closed-cockpit Stearmans the Canadians used, I don't recognize the type.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_Finch

Fun to watch the film and note where these installations were, they're not far from home near Detroit and we used to visit many of these places when I was a kid. Just didn't know so much happened there to influence events oceans away
Click to expand...

[YOUTUBE]IesBr8hGB0c[/YOUTUBE]
 
In "Captains" there was also a scene (which I decided not to use as a screenshot) of a "gaggle" take-off of what looks like Northrop A-17's or Nomads as they were called in the RCAF. Something for everybody in that flick. :)
 
SSI01 said:
Thanks! I've had a little experience with that.

The aircraft serial no. is missing from under the left wing, as well. This could be due to the aircraft being painted as it was available between flights, or during a period of scheduled maintenance. The missing numbers could therefore be accounted for as temporarily normal, but the French roundels? This might be a BT-9 (or equivalent) built for the French AF that was towed over the U.S.-Canadian border after being built, then flown east for shipment. France might have fallen before the bird got home. BTW if you've seen "I Wanted Wings," this looks like the type of trainer initially flown in that film. It's sure got that North American vertical stab and rudder.

I've noted the yellow biplane trainers in the background of one shot. They are not the closed-cockpit Stearmans the Canadians used, I don't recognize the type.

Fun to watch the film and note where these installations were, they're not far from home near Detroit and we used to visit many of these places when I was a kid. Just didn't know so much happened there to influence events oceans away.
Click to expand...

They were Yale I (NA-64), an improved version of the "North" (NA-57) leftovers from original French contracts. Derived from the BT-9, the Yale had a non-rotating rear canopy and a 24 Volts electrical system. Instrumentation was metric and in French and throttle lever had to be pulled to increase fuel flow, mixture pushed to enriched it. This was somewhat confusing because the Harvard was leaning the mixture that way... but not the Texan!

The English imperial measures were simply painted around the French dials. The levers were modified to "Harvard standard".

119 were delivered to Canada, the remaining 111 were used by Vichy regime... and the Luftwaffe!

N.B.- The yellow biplanes are Fleet Finches (see HERE), elementary trainers and stable mates with the DH-82C Tiger Moth.
 
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