Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes

So STRANGE that I get to write a first review of this movie. This movie, short handed to TMMTFM, is so much fun to watch, and on a DVD (or Blue Ray), you can pause it while you fetch your O2 bottle so that you do not turn blue. I will leave it up to proper aeroplanists as to whether or not this is good flying instruction. However, as a former unit Safety Officer, spotting safety hazards can be a real sport. I think I counted six at my last use/view. Researching material on the internet can be a real diversion. Although TMMTFM is about airplanes, automotive buffs can get a fix on some splendid specimens, that were before my time.

I remember this was always on STV when I was a child, and so with all the adverts it ran to over three hours and so I’m not sure I’ve ever got to the end of it until now. Now that I have, I found it quite an enjoyable romp in the style of David’s Niven’s “Around the World…” from 1956. “Lord Rawnsley” (Robert Morley) is worried that British preeminence in the aviation race might, well, not actually exist. With French, German, Italian, Japanese and yes, even the old colonials across the pond taking the lead, he determines that something has to be done. A prize of £10,000 ($50,000) is to be offered to someone who can fly from London to Paris. Nowadays that takes about as long as it takes to neck a glass of wine, but here we are talking about it probably taking fifty times that amount of time as the great and the good of international aeronautics gather together. Aside from now showing us a splendid array of contraptions that looked no more aerodynamic than Windsor Castle, it also introduces us to the romantic shenanigans that are going to underpin much of the rivalry. You see, “Patricia” (Sarah Miles) is the daughter of their sponsoring peer and she is unofficially affianced to the dapper but pretty hapless “Mays” (James Fox) - assuming, that is, that he can find a spare evening between his card games, his snooker and his flying. His goose might be about to be cooked, though, as the arrival of the charming American “Orvil” (Stuart Whitman) risks sweeping the perfectly savvy girl off her feet. With each of them constantly threatening to thrash the other, that leaves room for the Machiavellian schemer “Sir Percy” (Terry-Thomas) to wander the aerodrome sabotaging at will so that his is the only plane that might win. With temperatures rising and tempers flaring, it’s time for the actual race - who’s going to get the cheque? This features an all star cast that looks like it is enjoying itself as the slapstick and the engineering take off quite entertainingly. A slew of familiar faces each have their moment in the sun, or in the air, and it doesn’t miss out on stoking some international incidents and poking fun at some stereotypes along the way. There is some aerial photography that isn’t so terribly convincing sixty years later but with Terry-Thomas at his most dastardly and Gert Frobe knowing just how to deflate his own balloon, there’s plenty here to raise a smile.