Paramount know he was refusing to turn up as he wanted a raise from his salary of $500 a week. Production on I Wanted Wings began in the summer of 1940 at Randolph Field near San Antonio, Texas. Principal photography took place from August 26 to December 19, 1940. The United States Army Air Corps provided 1,160 aircraft, 1,050 cadets, 450 officers and instructors and 2,543 enlisted men for the film. One of the film's premieres was subsequently held at Randolph Field. Paramount's production company relied heavily on location shooting, bringing 130 actors and technicians to Texas. The cast and crew blended in with over 200 student pilots in primary training. Aerial coordinator Paul Mantz was able to utilize massed formations of North American BT-9 and BT-14 trainers. He was backed up by Elmer Dyer, Hollywood's best aerial cinematographer, filming from Mantz's Lockheed Orion camera ship, equipped with six different camera positions. The early series Boeing B-17B bombers from the 19th Bomb Group, March Field, were also prominently utilized in the final aerial sequence. Additional footage was shot at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, where a B-17 mock-up, built for $40,000, was used for the climactic interior aircraft scenes. Reception I Wanted Wings, released when the U.S. was still neutral in World War II, was well received as the first film to promote the then little-known Army Air Corps in anticipation of the necessary aviation training to come. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times noted that "Paramount set out to exalt the spirit and efficiency of the program whereby hundreds of keen American youngsters are now being trained to fly—as military pilots, firstly, and as the nucleus of a future nation of winged men... this cinematic salute to the Army Air Corps and to the young men who are entering it today is a vastly exciting motion picture and a dependable inspiration to the youth of the land." Its writer, Richard Maibaum, who would go on to pen twelve of the first fifteen James Bond films, was very proud of writing this film. This was "the first movie that introduced the American public to the importance of training airmen for the defense of the United States in a war many recognized as coming," his widow Sylvia reported when she donated his papers to the University of Iowa. Diabolique called it "an entirely decent piece of 1940 Hollywood hokum, mostly worth