Men with Wings

Overview

Reporter Nicholas Ranson is jubilant when, on 17 Dec 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright take their first airplane flight. Back home in Underwood, Maryland, however, his uncle Hiram F. Jenkins, owner and editor of the local newspaper, refuses to print the story. Nicholas quits and continues to work on his own airplane, with the devoted help of his little daughter Peggy. Peggy is actually the first in her family to fly when her friends, Patrick Falconer and Scott Barnes, induce her to get inside a large kite they have made, and run with it in a field until she is airborne. The kite is caught in a tree, however, and Peggy gets a black eye. Later, Nicholas dies when his experimental airplane crashes, leaving his wife and children alone. By Peggy's adulthood, planes are capable of flying at an altitude of 11,000 feet, and speeds of nearly 100 m.p.h. Peggy continues her father's obsession with flight by helping Scott and Pat to build a plane.

Cast

Fred MacMurray

Pat Falconer

Ray Milland

Scott Barnes

Louise Campbell

Peggy Ranson

Andy Devine

Joe Gibbs

Lynne Overman

Hank Rinebow

Porter Hall

Hiram F. Jenkins

Walter Abel

Nick Ranson

Kitty Kelly

Martha Ranson

Virginia Weidler

Young Peggy Ranson

Donald O'Connor

Young Pat Falconer

James Burke

J.A. Nolan

Willard Robertson

Col. Hadley