Wings Of Fame

Review by Adam Cook ???½

What a strange compelling little film this is. Made in 1990, I think it only got a TV release in the UK and has now largely been forgotten (how fitting it should have been forgotten given the subject matter) not helped by no UK DVD release. However, it is a film that could do with a mini-revival. The film is about two deceased people, one famous in his lifetime as a celebrated actor, the other famous for killing said actor. They arrive at a strange timeless hotel aboard a boat. Inside the hotel only famous people reside. The more famous you are the better your room is which means people are continually moving up and down the pecking order based on the whims of the living. Time on earth goes much quicker than in celebrity purgatory so whilst O'Toole and Firth are only there for a short time 20+ years pass in reality. But what happens when celebrities are forgotten by the living? Well it is never fully explained but they do disappear from the hotel and all the staff have no recollection of them ever having stayed there. They may well have to forever swim in the sea of obscurity that laps at the shores of the hotel. Although maybe the people that are glimpsed at sea are something else entirely.

Whilst the film deals cleverly with the fleeting nature of fame, an even more relevant subject in this day and age, the world that is created is the most fascinating element. The set up could almost be from a giallo (I certainly got a hint of Bazzoni's Footprints in the locale) but the lighter tone and British sensibility at times turns it into a farce (a very enjoyable one). The way history is condensed here, how the hierarchies are illustrated and the way the most coveted types of fame in our society are so superficial in the grand scheme of things all make for a thought provoking experience. To discuss more would spoil the film for anybody bothered enough to try and track it down.

The performances are good - O'Toole plays a slightly larger version of himself and Firth is very solid even if his character doesn't give him much to do.