Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Very well executed

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

. . . his characters always get second and tenth chances, no matter how many "friendly fire" deaths they cause. Moreover, America's propagandists made sure that all of Cagney's war-time sinners became saints by the final credits to offset all the collateral damage and havoc they'd wreaked in their wakes. In THE FIGHTING 69th, Cagney's role is to portray a WWI dough-boy so "yellow" that scores of his comrades and company's officers are needlessly killed in multiple outrages on the Western Front (including the "Trees" poet, Sgt. Joyce Kilmer). Whenever this wayward Yank is given an order, he behaves as if they're having an "Opposite Day" to amuse him. But on the eve of his long-overdue execution, a German artillery shell springs him from his cell, whereupon he single-handedly breaks up a Hun counter-attack, dying a brave hero in the process. This plot went over so well that it gets embedded just a few years later into this WWII yarn, CAPTAINS OF THE CLOUDS. This time Cagney's "Brian" is briefly a RCAF officer, but Brian's just as loathe to follow orders as Cagney's WWI dough-boy. Brian succeeds in killing off about half his friends. But with his sixth chance, he's in a position to put an end to it when the Germans begin to pick off the other half. If Cagney was a YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, think how that makes two-time losers Germany feel!

Filmed in glorious Technicolor, and masterfully directed by Michael Curtiz, "Captains of the Clouds" is a gripping World War II drama concerning the careers, romances, and bravery of the Canadian bush pilots. Boasting an exciting screenplay full of witty dialogue and thrilling aerial footage, this is a motion picture well worth the price of admission. Young, cocky bush pilot Brian MacLean (James Cagney) is a "price-cutting son of a bozo" who swipes jobs left & right from other envious pilots, including Johnny Dutton (Dennis Morgan), Francis Patrick "Tiny" Murphy (Alan Hale), "Blimp" Lebec (George Tobias), and "Scrounger" Harris (Reginald Gardiner). Their attempts at revenge start a chain of events that eventually lead all five men directly to the Royal Canadian Air Force. Despite the RCAF's plans to make a flying instructor out of him, Brian has an intense desire to fight in the war. His superior happens to be Johnny, his "rival" for the "affections" of Emily Foster (Brenda Marshall). In the end, when everything is forgiven, Johnny and Brian lead several squadrons of unarmed bombers toward England, when Brian's gallantry is suddenly put to the test.Some of the highlights from "Captains of the Clouds" include the following. Near the beginning, there is an extended edge-of-the-seat chase sequence as Brian transports a nervous scruffy old-timer (Clem Bevans) in his seaplane. Typically not following RCAF protocol, Brian (now a staff pilot for a bombing & gunnery school in Jarvis, Ontario) takes a young Alabaman recruit (Russell Arms) on an unauthorized bombing test flight, unfortunately buzzing the targets too close and getting hit by the bomb splinters. Cashiered from the RCAF, Brian and Tiny spend all day in a back room at a tavern and harmonize a catchy number: "Bless them all, bless them all, / the short and the wide and the tall...", etc. In a private talk with Johnny, Brian's determination to fly an unarmed bomber with Johnny's squadron clearly shines through, and when that armed Messerschmitt appears, tension surely mounts as the squadrons are powerless to fight back, until Brian decides to break formation! And finally, the patriotic song "Captains of the Clouds", written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, can be heard several times throughout this picture; wonderfully orchestrated by Max Steiner, is it any wonder that this song was quite effective in boosting morale for all the Canadian & American servicemen fighting overseas? In closing, let us call our attention to the splendid casting of "Captains of the Clouds". James Cagney was the perfect choice to play Brian MacLean, an undercutting young rogue who feels that the rules do not necessarily apply to him. Handsome Dennis Morgan is superb as the dashing Johnny Dutton, who dreams of someday owning his own airline, but whose life takes an unexpected turn. Brenda Marshall is fine as the morally shallow Emily Foster, torn between Johnny and Brian; how she finally ends up is somewhat bizarre! Not to mention the likable Alan Hale as Tiny Murphy, George Tobias (a great dialectician) as the French-Canadian Blimp Lebec, and Reginald Gardiner as the British weasel who lives up to his name - Scrounger Harris.

Captains of the Clouds (1943) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Extremely exciting actioneer from Warner about a bush pilot (James Cagney) who pisses everyone off and then joins the Canadian Air Force to train pilots for battle in WW2. Top-notch acting, incredibly flight sequences and an all around good story makes this a wonderful little gem that really sticks out from the various war films produced in this era. I've had the chance to see this movie countless times over the years but kept pushing it back and I'm really kicking myself for doing that. The love triangle between Cagney, Dennis Morgan and Brenda Marshall is very well handled and doesn't come off simply as formula melodrama. This mixes in well when we hit the action stuff and the reasoning behind the constant battle between Cagney and Morgan. The entire cast does a great job in their roles and this includes the three leads as well as Alan Hale and George Tobias. The flight sequences are incredibly impressive and the ending is packed with intense action. The Technicolor (Cagney's first) also benefits the film greatly with all the beautiful locations and it really brings the blues out of the skies. The film was certainly made to be patriotic and it pulls that off extremely well with the ending.

A great idea to shoot this picture in Canada AND in colour, as the scenery just wouldn't have had the same impact in black and white. Cagney, as bush pilot Brian McLean, is his typical bad-boy self. Something theater audiences around the world had come to expect. Some favorite lines: "If you're lookin' for me, I'll be the drunkest man in the biggest hotel in Ottawa", "I like to swipe my jobs honestly" or "You worked up enough lather to shave all of Montreal".The first half of the picture seems to set up the conflict he initiates between he and Dennis Morgan back in the rugged bush country of Northern Ontario, while the second half resolves the conflict through Cagney's humbling. Brenda Marshall is stunning as a manipulative small-town tart. Her good sense, or lack of same, is painfully evident when she begs Morgan to "Please take me to Winnipeg!" I understand a North Bay area woman had the good fortune of doubling for Marshall during the scene where Cagney's plane brushes just above her head, as she waves at him from a haystack.I got the biggest kick from the scene where Cagney and Hale go on and on about Billy Bishop, who is a native of a city in my local area (Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada). Everyone who grew up in Owen Sound and surrounding Grey County knows the name William Avery "Billy" Bishop, a legendary WWI flying ace, who had been promoted to Air Marshal during WWII. After viewing many still photos and silent films of Bishop, this was my first opportunity to see the man move, walk and talk. When I viewed COTC for the first time, I was stunned to find that the Owen Sound Library didn't yet have a copy of COTC (they assure me this is soon to be remedied), but the Bishop Heritage Museum in his native city definitely does and featured COTC on a "Movie at the Museum" night in early 2006.To clarify a question by one of the previous reviewers, Air Marshal Bishop's comments to the Texan pilot ("Ahhh Texas! One of our most loyal provinces!") is clearly a joke. Bishop, who appears quite comfortable in front of the camera, was undoubtedly improvising with a little dry Grey County wit. Exhibiting a voice and manner that is a cross between Foster Hewitt and Lester Pearson, how can you deny Mr. Bishop was Canadian! I swore Alan Hale Sr. was going to thwack Cagney with his skipper's hat, he was so similar to his son, Alan Jr. of Gilligan's Island fame and seeing Abner Kravitz (of Bewitched fame) before he hitched up with Gladys is a treat, too. We even get a cameo of the actor who played Mr. Brewster from the Beverly Hillbillies. Some interesting TV connections to this 1942 flick.The North Bay interest in this Hollywood movie, the first one shot entirely on location in Canada, is well documented. See the several pages on the "miscellaneous" link for this film from the North Bay Nugget. One link, on famous Canadian cartoonist Lynn Johnston's website, claims the flick was shot not far from her art studios on Trout Lake, near Corbeil.