The story of Amy Johnson may be a positive and inspiring one, but this film fictionalization of it never flies higher than a routine, check-all-the-boxes aviator yarn.
What could be described as primitive, even for 1942, special effects really mar the suspense points, when the important flights she and/or her husband undertake. The pathetic miniatures, and obvious shoddy backgrounds give the film an uneven, cheap look. The shots of what the pilots see never match well, and at no time do we ever feel the supposed danger from the scenes of looking in on the cockpits, it's just so obviously a nice safe, immobile prop. The reliance on newspaper headlines (or the British equivalent, the newsagent's heralds) to help the story along, is truly ridiculous, more than any other film I believe I have ever seen.
I don't know the reason why, but the print shown on TCM seems to be the original British film with the title switched out from the American version, though that copy is obviously a low-quality, perhaps 16mm print. But more strangely, there seems to be inept, ham-handed editing throughout, shortening scenes abruptly, or crashing out as a new scenes start. Why? If there were two prints at hand, couldn't a more complete one be assembled from them? Even second-choice quality material is better than missing altogether.
Review of Wings and the Woman
