Watch Captains of the Clouds For Free

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

"Captains of the Clouds" was the first technicolour film James Cagney made and it is a pretty good one. The photography showing the airplanes is the main attraction here but Cagney's performance is good. He, along with four other pilots based in Canada, specialise in transporting various goods across the country. Being typically cocky and slightly arrogant, Cagney rubs his fellow pilots up the wrong way by stealing their business. Events take a more serious turn as Cagney sustains a serious head injury. Dennis Morgan has to fly a surgeon to where Cagney is holed up in the middle of a fierce storm. Those scenes are well done. Eventually, the five pilots are drafted into the Canadian Air Force. Cagney fooling around lands him in serious trouble and he finally begins to mature, assuming some responsibility for his actions. I think Cagney's performance got better after he is officially disciplined by his superiors. He begins to realise the trouble he had caused and this is highlighted in the way he delivers his lines more slowly. The scene where he has a private chat with Dennis Morgan is well done. A pretty good film.

. . . 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!

James Cagney's first color film is a formulaic but entertaining effort about a bush pilot who joins the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII. The Technicolor is beautiful -- rich, luscious, vibrant colors that just pop out at you. It really brings the photography of the Canadian wilderness to life. This was also the first Hollywood movie shot on location in Canada. The cast is made up of solid WB contract stars. In addition to Cagney, there's Dennis Morgan, Alan Hale, Brenda Marshall, and the annoying George Tobias.I'll admit, as much as I like Cagney, in some of his pictures I just can't stand his characters. The plot here is very similar to previous Cagney films. He plays a cocksure jerk who "steals" friend Dennis Morgan's girl (Brenda Marshall). The movie does mix things up a bit by having him do this to HELP Morgan, if you can believe that! At least the altered formula allows Morgan to keep some dignity, unlike poor Pat O'Brien who played runner-up to Jimmy in several earlier films like this. Of course, this alteration to the formula is at the expense of Brenda Marshall's character. So if you're looking for a strong female character, look elsewhere. All in all, it's an enjoyable picture that's really nice to look at. Watch it for the fine cast and stunning Technicolor.

There are few surprises here but they aren't really needed. In fact, we might be shocked if any genuine innovation appeared in a 1942 Warners flag-waving adventure about a small gang of Canadian bush pilots who join the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. No, this fits the template in a way that satisfies and uplifts. In a changing and often disappointing universe we can always depend on director Michael Curtiz and his studio to deliver the reassuring goods.Half a dozen bush pilots fly around in the lake country transporting supplies to isolated settlements. The pilots include some familiar names -- the handsome Dennis Morgan, the comic George Tobias, the avuncular and not overly bright Alan Hale. James Cagney brings his own float plane into this milieu and begins to undercut everyone else's business. On top of that, he marries Morgan's girl friend, Brenda Marshall, simply to keep Morgan from ruining his plans to establish his own airport. Morgan would fail if he hooked up with the flighty and impulsive Marshall. Just a pal looking out for his buddy. Actually I'm not too sure that Cagney, with his New York cockiness, fits too well into this picture of rural Canadian types. He overcomes any weaknesses, though, by dint of the application of sheer skill. He's so graceful, so bouncy, in speech and manner. When he's knocked cold by a spinning propeller he practically does an entre chat before he collapses.The friendships and rivalries come to a head when war is declared and they all join the RCAF. Hale is rejected for being too old. Cagney's daredevil style during training gets him cashiered, but there is the usual climactic expiation.In addition to the easily grasped plot and the headlong pace, there are some dazzling shots of airplanes in flight. The skies are royal blue, the fir forests are veridian, and the scattered fair-weather cumulus clouds are puffs of cotton. Makes one want to take to the air. Well, makes SOME of us want to take to the air anyway. Others of us are guided by the maxim that what goes up must come down, without any specifics about exactly how the descent is achieved. The model work is of the period and not very convincing but who cares? It zips along enjoyably at a riotous pace.