American Cinematographer - February 1986 - 42

speed,

times seeming to hesitate as to which plot
take, at other times throwing in incidents which
have no relevance to the story. If the direction seems a
little haphazard, it is also genuinely sincere and sensitive
to its subject matter. Perhaps as one critic wrote at the
time, Wings of the Morning breaks every canon of de¬
cent filmmaking. Yet, surely Wings of the Morning is a
revolutionary film in its way, and should look, in every
sense of the word, different from other films of the
at

route to

period.
Certainly, although the critics were
importance as a motion picture,
they were wildly enthusiastic about its color cin¬
ematography. "The film justifies the whole business of
colored films more than it is possible for me here to
convey," wrote James Agate in the British Sunday
Times. Time wrote of its "impudent, abstracted charm."
Variety considered Wings of the Morning, "one of the
few features in color which is not merely a demonstra¬
dubious

as to

the film's

tion of color."

Rennahan,

Annabella, director
Harold Schuster, and
Fonda

the set of

Wings of the
Morning.

ther, Wings of the Morning vividly illustrates a compari¬
made a little earlier by Pioneer Pictures publicist,
Paul Snell, who likened black-and-white films to Harlem
in a snowstorm, and Technicolor pictures to a field of
spring flowers.
son

Mrs. Natalie Kalmus

coordination of the colors in

explained the

Wings of the Morning: "In

this

picture we have tried to preserve one level of color
throughout. Over half the picture was filmed out-ofdoors, so that in these scenes the predominant color is
the soft and restful green of the English countryside [she
meant Irish countryside]. Even in the gypsy prologue to
the picture, where some of the costumes are very vivid,
they are offset by the masses of green. When we cut
from these exterior scenes to interiors
the same 'high level.' Our sets are

try to preserve

brown, grey and
green - warm, rich shades of color for walls, furniture,
tapestries and curtains, but all soft and tending to ab¬
sorb light rather than reflect it. In this way the colors of
the interiors and exteriors are kept at the same level.
"In the preparation of a color picture
such as Wings of the Morning we read the script and
prepare a color chart for the entire production; each
scene, sequence, set and character being considered.
This chart may be compared to a musical score and
amplifies the picture in a similar manner.
"If colors are properly handled it is
possible to make it appear as though the actors were
standing there in person, thus creating the illusion of the
third dimension.
"There

slogan too,
applied: 'Color is not the star of the
it is an additional factor. Don't use color for
was

one

which everyone

pictures

color's sake."
If the color is above criticism in

Wings of the Morning, the pacing is not. At best it is
leisurely and at worst, slow. It moves along at its own

Harold Schuster, Robert T. Kane
and Annabella were reunited for their next film, Dinner
at the Ritz, which went into production at Denham as
Follow the Sun, with Phil Tannura photographing.
Schuster

later to direct My Friend Flicka (1943), So
My Fleart (1948) and The Courage of Black
Beauty (1957), among some twenty-seven other features.
In July 1937, Dr. Kalmus announced
that Alexander Korda had signed a contract with Tech¬
nicolor to produce six films in the process at Denham,
beginning with The Divorce of Lady X, starring Merle
Oberon, Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson. Mr.
Kalmus was to remain in London to supervise the pro¬
ductions. Also at Denham, Lawrence Butler, director of
special processes of London Films, became the first man
to achieve optical double-printing in the Technicolor
process, superimposing a shot of the Denham Laborato¬
ries upon another shot of the River Colne. By the end of
1937, Technicolor was able to report that its London
plant was working at full capacity, processing 2-million
was

Dear to

feet of film

American

Cinematographer

month.
In

Morning, the

age

Europe, thanks to Wings of the
of the Technicolor feature had

arrived.

Wings of the Morning
Century-Fox Release
(i937)
A New World Pictures Production; produced by Robert T. Kane;
directed by Harold Schuster; screenplay by Tom Geraghty, John
Meehan, Brinsley MacNamara; based on the story, "A Tale of a
Gypsy Horse" by Donn Byrne; cinematography, Ray Rennahan,
ASC; cameramen, Henry Imus and Jack Cardiff; art direction,
Ralph Brinton; costumes, Rene Hubert; music by Arthur Benjamin;
film editor, James Clark; running time, 88 minutes.
Prologue: Marie, Annabella; Lord Clontarf, Leslie Banks;
Mairik, D. J. Williams; Valentine, Sydney Frost; Police Sergeant, Pat
Noonan; Gypsy Dancer, Hermione Darnborough.
The Present: Maria, Annabella; Kerry Gilfalien, Henry
Fonda; Sir Valentine, Stewart Rome; Paddy, Harry Tate; Marie,
Irene Vanbrugh; Jenepher, Helen Haye; Don Diego, Edward Un¬
derdown; Jimmy, Mark Daly; Angelo, Sam Livesey; Don Frasco,
Emmanuefo; Benito, Nicholas Nadejine; Racing Commentator,
Captain R. C. Lyle; Himself, Steve Donoghue; Himself, John
A Twentieth

McCormack.

American Cinematographer - February 1986

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