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Turner Classic Movies, Friday, July 4, 11:15 p.m.
The first-ever winner of the Best Picture award at the Academy Awards, Wings, directed by William Wellman, is ostensibly about two men rivalling each other for the affections of a woman, first in a small town and then as World War I flying aces. The great silent star Clara Bow is Mary, while the men are played by Buddy Rogers and Richard Arlen. (A very young Gary Cooper plays Cadet White.) But it can also be seen as a love story between the two men, the woman as their foil. Either way, it’s a great, if silent, melodramatic war film and its aerial scenes were revolutionary at the time. So was the kiss between Rogers and Arlen.
