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Absolutely brilliant

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

A surprisingly little-known gem from the '30s. Sure, there's a lot of hokum in the story. But Myrna Loy as a daring aviatrix and Cary Grant as an inventive young pilot make it believable and compelling. Grant is working on new technology to enable pilots to fly and land "blind"-- using only the controls in the cockpit and communication with the ground -- when his eyes are seared by an exploding stove. Loy's growing affection for him runs into a cold, bitter barrier. But when she accepts a dangerous challenge, he literally rises to the occasion and becomes her eyes in the sky. Even some seemingly minor scenes -- like one in which Grant reacts badly to the gift of a guide dog -- have real emotional impact. And the stuntwork, involving open single-engine planes of the past, ranges from exciting to spectacular.

Cary Grant and Myrna Loy star in "Wings in the Dark," a 1935 film. It's obvious with films like Christopher Strong and others that with Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart around, aviation was a huge topic. In this film, Grant and Loy play aviators Ken Gordon and Sheila Mason - she does the stunt circuit. After Gordon is wounded in an accident in his workshop, he goes blind, and Sheila is there to help him. Gordon wants to continue his work, and is interested in perfecting the plane instruments so that even a blind man could fly a plane, that is, fly in terrible fog or other weather conditions.Gordon doesn't realize it, but Sheila is funding his work by telling him that articles he's written have been sold. When his plane is taken away due to lack of payments, she agrees to fly a plane from New York to Moscow so she can collect $25,000. It isn't the smooth flight she anticipated.This is a pretty good film with both actors turning in good performances. Grant gets to show his dramatic flair - the man could really do anything. Now that I've seen so many of his early films, I'm convinced he had a nose job - his nose is definitely longer early on. Nevertheless he was always extremely handsome.Loy and Grant went on to make other films together, and this early one isn't mentioned much. It doesn't compare to Mr. Blandings or the Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer, but the stars raise it up a level.

Producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr. borrowed Myrna Loy from MGM for a loan out film at Paramount and teamed her for the first time with Cary Grant who was under contract there. This must have been a courtship film of sorts because the following year Hornblow married Myrna Loy. I'm betting that top billing went to Loy because of Louis B. Mayer as a condition of the loan out and because Hornblow was courting her hot and heavy.In the Forties Cary and Myrna did The Bachelor And The Bobby Soxer and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, both films more of the usual sort of material for both of them. Wings In The Dark is a drama about an Amelia Earhart type aviatrix and an aeronautical inventor who find love and happiness. But it's a bumpy road to all that.Grant is a cynical fellow who despises Loy as a circus stunt flier with no feel for the progress of aviation. Myrna properly puts him in his place when she points out that due to the status of women at the time, her kind of flying is all that's open to her and in doing what she does she is showing her sex as capable as the male. A very far reaching treatise on feminism for its time.During an accident Cary goes blind and he's not one to take charity. But as it were he happened to be working on developing instrument flying through thick clouds and fog and in the end he gives his machine the ultimate test.Wings In The Dark is dated because aviation has made light years more progress than when this film was made. And it does pale beside the two classic screen comedies that Grant and Loy later did. Still it does offer an interesting glimpse of both stars in their earlier year and for Grant an unusual bit of casting.

I noticed that one of the reviewers thought this was one of Cary Grant's and Myrna Loy's best films. Well, I am glad they liked it, but can't see why they were this enthusiastic about a film that looked an awful lot like a B-movie despite having Ms. Loy in the film. Now in 1935, Cary was still not a major star, so his playing lead in this decent time-passer isn't all that surprising. But, with Loy reaching great heights with her THIN MAN film the year before, it's surprising to see her in such an ordinary film. In quality and number of bad clichés, this film isn't nearly the film you'd expect for her in 1935.The film begins with both stars playing great pilots. Loy is a barnstormer while Grant is more sophisticated and is famous for his heroics and aviation pioneering work. Loy is clearly smitten by him, though he has little idea who she is. When Grant suffers a terrible eye injury that blinds him, she comes to his aid and he comes to love her. However, he's a bit of a fat-head about accepting help from her at first, so she secretly helps fund his research, as now that he's blind no one wants to risk the funds on his idea to perfect "flying blind"--no, not letting blind folks fly but allowing pilots to fly in foggy weather that would normally ground them.The romance aspect of the film is pretty good and the film is an amiable movie until near the very end. In a very difficult to believe twist, blind Cary flies up to save Loy! And, in a scene that made me want to scream, although he had just announced his intention to kill himself due to his blindness, in the final scene (where Loy saved him from this), Cary announces "I am beginning to see!!!!"--and his blindness is lifting!! I half expected to hear a chorus of angels and the sky open up with this abysmally clichéd finale. Before this terrible ending, the film would have earned a 6 or maybe 7. BUT, with this finale I think I am being very generous in giving it a 5.By the way, this is on the same DVD as "Cary Grant: Disc 2--The Screen Legend Collection. I advise you try to get it, as the other film (BIG BROWN EYES) is a wonderful and seldom seen gem.