WAce of Aces, also known as Bird of Prey, is a 1933 American pre-Code war film based on the story "The Bird of Prey" by World War I pilot John Monk Saunders that explores how war can turn a man's moral compass from pacifism to warmonger. Starring Richard Dix, it was similar to many of the period films that appeared to glorify the "knights of the air", but was more complex, examining the motivations of those who choose to go to war.
WAces High is a 1976 war film starring Malcolm McDowell, Peter Firth, Christopher Plummer and Simon Ward. The film, which is an Anglo-French production, is based on the 1928 play Journey's End by R. C. Sherriff with additional material from the memoir Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis. It was directed by Jack Gold. The screenplay was written by Howard Barker.
WAces: A Story of the First Air War is a 92-minute 1993 Canadian historical drama film directed by Raoul Fox and produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The film chronicles the career of a fictional Canadian aviator during the First World War. From his commissioning in 1914, he becomes an observer and then wins his wings as a fighter pilot, and by 1918, is involved in the deadly air combat over the front lines.
WBiggles is a 1986 British sci-fi adventure film directed by John Hough. The plot involves a time traveller from the 1980s who travels to World War I to help the character Biggles from the series of novels by W.E. Johns and where Biggles also travels to the 1980s to save his new friend. The film stars Neil Dickson, Alex Hyde-White, and Peter Cushing in his final feature film role.
WThe Blue Max is a 1966 war film directed by John Guillermin and starring George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Karl Michael Vogler, and Jeremy Kemp. The film was made in DeLuxe Color and filmed in CinemaScope. The plot is about a German fighter pilot on the Western Front during World War I. The screenplay was written by David Pursall, Jack Seddon, and Gerald Hanley, based on the novel of the same name by Jack D. Hunter as adapted by Ben Barzman and Basilio Franchina.
WBody and Soul (1931) is an American Pre-Code action drama film directed by Alfred Santell and starring Charles Farrell, Elissa Landi, Humphrey Bogart, and Myrna Loy. The story, adapted from the stage play Squadrons by Elliott White Springs and A.E. Thomas, depicts Royal Air Force pilots in World War One.
WCaptain Eddie is a 1945 American drama film directed by Lloyd Bacon, based on Seven Were Saved by "Eddie" Rickenbacker and Lt. James Whittaker's We Thought We Heard the Angels Sing. The film stars Fred MacMurray, Lynn Bari and Charles Bickford. Captain Eddie is a "biopic" of Rickenbacker, from his experiences as a flying ace during World War I to his later involvement as a pioneering figure in civil aviation, and his iconic status as a business leader who was often at odds with labour unions and the government.
WThe Crew is a 1928 French silent drama film directed by Maurice Tourneur and starring Jean Dax and Camille Bert.
WCrimson Romance is a 1934 American drama film directed by David Howard and written by Milton Krims and Doris Schroeder. The film stars Ben Lyon, Sari Maritza, Erich von Stroheim, James Bush, William Bakewell and Hardie Albright. The low-budget project utilized footage from Hell's Angels (1930) and was released on October 12, 1934, by Mascot Pictures.
WDarling Lili is a 1970 American musical and spy film written by William Peter Blatty and Blake Edwards, who also directed. It starred Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson, and Jeremy Kemp. It was the last full musical to have song lyrics written by Johnny Mercer.
WThe Dawn Patrol is a 1930 American pre-Code World War I film starring Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. It was directed by Howard Hawks, a former World War I flight instructor, who even flew in the film as a German pilot in an uncredited role. The Dawn Patrol won the Academy Award for Best Story for John Monk Saunders. It was subsequently remade in 1938, with the same title, and the original was then renamed Flight Commander and released later as part of the Warner Bros. film catalog.
WThe Dawn Patrol is a 1938 American war film, a remake of the pre-Code 1930 film of the same name. Both were based on the short story "The Flight Commander" by John Monk Saunders, an American writer said to have been haunted by his inability to get into combat as a flyer with the U.S. Air Service.
WDumb Patrol is a 1931 one-reel short subject, part of the Looney Tunes series. It was released in May 1931 and is directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. The film score was composed by Frank Marsales.
WThe Eagle and the Hawk is a 1933 American Pre-Code aerial war film set in World War I. It was directed by Stuart Walker and Mitchell Leisen and was based on an original story by John Monk Saunders. The film stars Fredric March and Cary Grant as Royal Flying Corps fighter pilots. The supporting cast includes Carole Lombard, Jack Oakie, and Sir Guy Standing.
WFlyboys is a 2006 war drama film set during World War I, starring James Franco, Martin Henderson, Jean Reno, Jennifer Decker, David Ellison, Abdul Salis, Philip Winchester, and Tyler Labine. It was directed by Tony Bill, a pilot and aviation enthusiast. The screenplay about men in aerial combat was written by Phil Sears, Blake T. Evans and David S. Ward with the story by Blake T. Evans. Themes of friendship, racial prejudice, revenge and love are also explored in the film.
WGame of Aces is a 2016 World War I action film written and directed by Damien Lay, in his debut in helming a fiction feature. The film stars Chris Klein, Victoria Summer and Werner Daehn whose role is as a German double-agent with all of his dialogue in German with English subtitles; Summer also speaks German for most of the film.
WLa Grande Illusion is a 1937 French war film directed by Jean Renoir, who co-wrote the screenplay with Charles Spaak. The story concerns class relationships among a small group of French officers who are prisoners of war during World War I and are plotting an escape. The title of the film comes from the 1909 book The Great Illusion by British journalist Norman Angell, which argued that war is futile because of the common economic interests of all European nations. The perspective of the film is generously humanistic to its characters of various nationalities.
WHard-Boiled Haggerty is a 1927 American silent war film directed by Charles Brabin. The film stars Milton Sills and Molly O'Day, taking on two roles as both the character Germaine and her look-alike sister. Hard-Boiled Haggerty was one of the first American films to portray aerial combat in World War I.
WHell's Angels is a 1930 American pre-Code independent epic war film directed and produced by Howard Hughes, with James Whale directing the dialogue. Written by Harry Behn and Howard Estabrook and starring Ben Lyon, James Hall and Jean Harlow, it was released through United Artists. The film was originally shot as a silent film, but Hughes retooled it over a three-year (1927–1930) gestation; most of the footage is black-and-white but there are several one-color-tinted scenes chosen for dramatic effect, such as a nighttime gun duel, as well as part-screen full-color for the flames consuming an Imperial German Zeppelin and full-screen full-color for one sequence: the only color footage of Harlow's career.
WIkarus, the Flying Man is a 1918 German silent war film directed by Carl Froelich and starring Ernst Hofmann, Esther Carena and Gustav Botz. While a press screening was held in October 1918, during the final weeks of the First World War, it did not go on general release until the following July when it premiered at the Marmorhaus in Berlin.
WLafayette Escadrille, also known as C'est la Guerre, Hell Bent for Glory (UK) and With You in My Arms, is a 1958 American war film produced by Warner Bros. It stars Tab Hunter and Etchika Choureau and features David Janssen and Will Hutchins, as well as Clint Eastwood, in an early supporting role. It was the final film in the career of director William A. Wellman and is based on his original story.
WThe Legion of the Condemned is a 1928 American silent film directed by William A. Wellman and produced by Jesse L. Lasky, Wellman, and Adolph Zukor and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Written by former World War I flight instructor John Monk Saunders and Jean de Limur, with intertitles by George Marion, Jr., the film stars Fay Wray and Gary Cooper.
WPour le Mérite is a 1938 propaganda film produced and directed by Karl Ritter for Nazi Germany. The film follows the story of officers of the Luftstreitkräfte in the First World War who were later involved in the formation of the Luftwaffe. Pour le Mérite propagates the "stab legend", which consigns the German military defeat in World War I to an alleged treason in the homeland. At the same time, Ritter also glorifies the former fighter pilots as heroes of National Socialism.
WThe Red Baron is a 2008 German-British biographical action war film written and directed by Nikolai Müllerschön about the World War I fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen, known as the "Red Baron". The film stars Matthias Schweighöfer, Joseph Fiennes, Til Schweiger and Lena Headey. The Red Baron was filmed entirely in English to improve its international commercial viability.
WRichthofen is a 1927 German silent war film directed by Desider Kertesz and Peter Joseph. The film was subsequently re-mastered with sound and music effects and re-released in the United States in 1929. The film stars Georg Burghardt, Sybil Moore and Arne Molander. Richthofen was the first film to portray the life of the First World War fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen.
WThe Service Star is an American silent film directed by Charles Miller. The film stars Madge Kennedy as a young woman who pretends to be the fiancée of a famous flying ace during World War I. The film was copyrighted under the title The Flag of Mothers and was released in July 1918, four months before the end of the conflict.
WSky Bandits, also known as Gunbus, is a 1986 British adventure film about two outlaws from the Wild West, drafted to the battlefields of WWI, who enlist in the fledgling Royal Air Force flying early warplanes called gunbuses.
WSuzy is a 1936 American drama film directed by George Fitzmaurice and starring Jean Harlow, Franchot Tone and Cary Grant. The film was partially written by Dorothy Parker, based on a novel by Herman Gorman. The Academy Award-nominated theme for Suzy, "Did I Remember?", was sung by Virginia Verrill (uncredited).
WToday We Live is a 1933 American pre-Code romance drama film produced and directed by Howard Hawks and starring Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Robert Young and Franchot Tone.
WVon Richthofen and Brown, alternatively titled The Red Baron, is a 1971 war film directed by Roger Corman and starring John Phillip Law and Don Stroud as Manfred von Richthofen and Roy Brown. Although names of real people are used, the story by Joyce Hooper Corrington and John William Corrington makes no claim to be historically accurate, and in fact is largely fictional.
WWings is a 1927 American silent war film set during World War I, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman, released by Paramount Pictures, and starring Clara Bow, Charles Rogers and Richard Arlen. Gary Cooper appears in a small role which helped launch his career in Hollywood.
WThe Woman I Love is a 1937 American film about a romantic triangle involving two World War I fighter pilots and the wife of one of them. It stars Paul Muni, Miriam Hopkins, and Louis Hayward. Anatole Litvak's Hollywood directorial debut was a remake of his French film L'Equipage, which was, in turn, based on Joseph Kessel's novel of the same name.
WYoung Eagles is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by William A. Wellman for Paramount Pictures. It stars Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Jean Arthur, and Paul Lukas. The story is based on the stories "The One Who Was Clever" and "Sky-High", written by American aviator and war hero Elliott White Springs. The film's hero is a "heroic combat aviator of the Lafayette Escadrille".
WZeppelin is a 1971 British World War I action-drama directed by Étienne Périer in Panavision and Technicolor. The film stars Michael York, Elke Sommer and Anton Diffring. Zeppelin depicts a fictitious German attempt to raid Britain in a giant Zeppelin to steal or destroy Magna Carta from its hiding place in one of Scotland's castles.