Wings of the Morning: Technicolor horses and Henry Fonda

Is it worth a watch?

If you like old-school Technicolor that looks like it was painted directly onto your eyeballs, sure. It’s a Sunday afternoon movie for people who want to see Henry Fonda being charming in a way that feels like it belongs in a different century entirely.

But if you hate movies where the plot is mostly just a vehicle for showing off expensive horses and fancy outfits, skip it. You will probably find the whole thing a bit too sugary for your taste. 🐴

The first thing that hits you is the color. It’s early Technicolor, so everything looks like a postcard that’s been left in the sun for twenty years. It’s loud. It’s bright. It makes Funny Face look positively muted by comparison.

Annabella plays both the grandmother and the granddaughter, which is a neat trick, I guess. She’s got this intense energy that feels like she’s trying to hold the whole movie together with her eyebrows. Some scenes work, others just feel like someone forgot to yell 'cut' ten seconds earlier.

The Henry Fonda factor

Henry Fonda shows up as the Canadian horse trainer, Kerry. He’s so Canadian in this it’s almost funny. He’s all smiles and 'aw shucks' while wearing clothes that look like they were tailored specifically to make him look like the hero of a dime store novel.

There’s a moment during the horse training scenes where he’s just staring at a horse, and I swear he spends more time acting with the animal than with his co-star. It’s weirdly endearing, though. He has this way of leaning against fence posts that makes you think he’s never done a day of real work in his life, but he’s having a great time anyway.

• The horse racing footage is actually pretty decent for 1937.
• The Spanish fiancé character is about as subtle as a brick through a window.
• There is a lot of running around in fields. A lot.

The whole thing feels like a fever dream of the 1930s British studio system trying to be 'epic.' It doesn't have the grit of Burning Gold, but it has this weird, optimistic pulse. It’s not trying to be a deep meditation on anything, which is honestly refreshing.

One scene where they’re at the Derby goes on for ages. It’s just crowd shots and people pointing at horses. I think the director just really liked the horses. I can’t blame him, they are nice horses.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s barely a coherent story, if we’re being honest. But it’s got that weird, faded charm that you only get from movies that weren't trying to be 'cinema' and were just trying to be a show. Sometimes, that’s enough.