Wings Over Honolulu

1937· 78 min★ 5.3· Drama, Romance

Adapted by Isabel Dawn and Boyce de Gaw from a "Redbook Magazine" story by Mildred Cram with, apparently, none of the three understanding much about military trials or else the Ray Milland character would have ended up with a dishonorable discharge and twenty years in the slammer. Story begins at a birthday party given for Virginia deb Lauralee Curtis by her adoring aunts Nellie and Evie Curtis. Wealthy Yankee Gregory Chandler claims the first dance and spends the night unfolding dazzling vistas of yachts, wealth and far-off romantic places and asks Lauralee to marry him. She declines, as properly brought-up southern girls do not accept first-night proposals or, most of the time, propositions. But this changes when navy flyers Lieutenants Stony Gilchrist and Jack Furness make a forced landing on the Curtis plantation, and it is a case of love at first sight when Lauralee meets Stony,evidently because Lauralee and Stony are the only two people at the party with British accents. She marries him and follows him to Honolulu.But the Navy bungalow is a bit drab---"pitifully drab" to be exact---for a good old girl from a southern plantation, and she isn't too keen about airplanes flying over the house all day even if they are on a Naval base and, for goodness gracious sakes, ol' Stony's duties force him to stay away from home at times. Meanwhile, Gregory sails his yacht into the harbor with the express purpose of winning Lauralee away from Stony, which is not surprising for a damn Yankee. She assures the cad that she loves her husband more than ever but... she will attend a party on his yacht since Stony is tied up doing whatever it is he does and a girl just can't stay cooped up all the time and she reckons there is nothing wrong in that. But Stony comes home early, finds out where she is going and reckons otherwise. They quarrel and Lauralee hies herself on to the party, which ends up on a slumming excursion to a disreputable caf� where a drunk makes a pass at Lauralee, and Gregory, miffed that someone other than he is out to spoil Lauralee's honor, fights the drunk. All three are hauled to jail and the story is all over Honolulu's morning newspapers. Grief-stricken and not wishing to bring further shame on Stony, Lauralee sends word she is leaving him for Gregory Chandler. Stony isn't buying any of that and he steals a Navy plane and goes in search of Chandler's yacht. To compound his theft of United States government property, Stony also manages to crash said property. He offers no defense at his court martial, since doing so would involve his wife's good (albeit somewhat tarnished) name. But Lauralee shows up and tells the court martial board it was all her fault, and the board reckons that under these circumstances Stony should be restored to full duty and rank but transferred to another base. In real life, of course, his next base would have been the federal prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas doing a hard-duty twenty years behind the bars.

Cast: Wendy Barrie, Ray Milland, William Gargan, Kent Taylor

Director: H.C. Potter