Men with Wings

Story

Synopsis

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.

Director

William A. Wellman

Writers

Robert Carson

Language

English

Country

United States of America

Release date

16 July 1938

Ensemble

Cast

• 

  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

• 

  James Burke

  J.A. Nolan

• 

  Willard Robertson

  Col. Hadley