August 12, 1927 –
One of only two silent films – the other being The Artist in 2011 – to win an Oscar for best picture, Wings, opened in NYC on this date.
As a former pilot, director William A. Wellman knew how vital it was to have clouds for the dogfights, but the skies over Texas were clear for the first four weeks of production so no aerial scenes had been shot. When executives at Paramount Pictures questioned him about the delay, he explained that without clouds the audience would get no sense of speed or even movement–clouds gave audiences a sense of perspective, speed and direction, and without them planes flying around in a clear sky would just look like a swarm of flies.
The Haus of Dcaligari 