Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines

Introduction

It was Mark's review of Monte Carlo Or Bust last month that got me thinking again about chase movies. Ever since the earliest days of film, audience have been cracking up to the slapstick and pratfalls that ensue when one person pursues another, but for everyone, there has to be a special film, the first one that opened your eyes to a comic genre, and one that you remember most fondly. Like many others, I grew up with Roadrunner cartoons, Sylvester and Tweety, Tom and Jerry. Over the years I've enjoyed plenty a madcap live action chase in films like the Cannonballs, the Smokey and the Bandits, Rat Race, and God help me, even The Gumball Rally. But that first feature, the one that still holds a special place in my heart, must be Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines. I've always had a fascination with flight, and I must have been three or four, when one Sunday afternoon this film was shown on television. It was comedy and wonder in one package, and I was hooked. It begat Monte Carlo Or Bust 4 years later, with much the same cast and the same director at the helm, and even I have to admit that Monte Carlo is the better film, for a couple of distinct reasons. But I saw this first, and it's my chase movie.


The year is 1910, barely a year since some French fellow proved the possibilities in aviation by crossing the English Channel without getting his feet wet. Aeronautists are springing up the world over, creating wondrous contraptions and inspiring thousands with their dreams of touching the sky. The trouble is that all that genius and invention is being pulled in a thousand different directions. What if all the best fliers and engineers could get together and share their ideas? The pace of progress would accelerate. That's the thinking of Lord Rawnsley, when he has his paper, the Daily Post, sponsor an air race from London to Paris, with a prize of £10000 into the bargain. Of course he expects Great Britain to come first, and take the lead in the burgeoning science of aeronautics. But with money, pride, and national honour at stake, soon pilots from all over the world are gathering, along with their aircraft.


There are many who will try to claim the prize for Blighty, but first among them is army aviator Richard Mays, who also happens to be courting Patricia, daughter of Lord Rawnsley. She's the one who planted the seed of the idea in her father, when simply asking for a chance to fly among the clouds led to a stark refusal. From Italy comes Count Emilio Ponticelli, a family man who keeps promising his wife that he will give up his dangerous vocation for the sake of his ever expanding brood, but who keeps being tempted by the lure of the sky. From France comes Pierre Dubois, a charismatic pilot with an eye for the ladies, well one lady, sort of. America's entry is Orvil Newton, a pioneer of a flyer who's wagered everything on the competition, but wagers even more when he catches a glimpse of Patricia. The German entrant is Colonel Manfred von Holstein, racing for the glory of the Fatherland, and proving that the German ability to read instruction manuals is superior to everyone else. Then of course there is the unscrupulous Sir Percy Ware-Armitage, a man who will leave absolutely nothing to chance, the sort of man who actually advertises in the paper for henchmen. His henchman at this current moment in time is the put upon Courtney. If Patricia can't get Richard to take her aloft, them maybe another aviator will, anyone except Sir Percy that is.

Picture

The 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer is unproblematic, and the film has held up stunningly well for its 40 years. If you want to get away from the most minor of aliasing, then you'll have to go for the full HD, if this film ever gets released that way. More obvious are the signs of age, small flecks of dirt and dust, and I did feel that reds were a little over-saturated, especially in the presence of Richard's practically glowing red army tunic.

Sound

You have a choice between DD 5.0 English, along with DD 2.0 mono French, German, Italian, and Spanish, along with plenty of subtitles to choose from. The English is pretty much a distributed mono track, it keeps the dialogue to the front, adds a hint of ambience, and has some plane engine noise whizzing around the soundstage to make you feel Surround-ed.

Extras

Buy the Region 1 disc and you get a director's commentary from Ken Annakin, a featurette, galleries, storyboards, trailers…

This disc gives you one of those 'You wouldn't tickle a monarch' anti-piracy ads. On the other hand, I did pay £3 for it.

Conclusion

There's just something so civilised about a film with an intermission.

The first problem with Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines compared to Monte Carlo Or Bust, is that it's about an air race, which in this era was a matter of taking off, flying as fast and directly as possible to the destination, then hopefully landing. In between the take off and landing, there's not much of a chance for the racers to interact, to hoodwink each other, to cheat, hornswaggle or finagle. The flying bits can get pretty dull as anyone who's seen Firefox can testify to. In the case of a car race, that's completely different, as there's plenty of opportunity to paint a tunnel entrance on a cliff wall, then watch goggle-eyed as your opponent drives through. While Monte Carlo was 80% race and 20% build up, the reverse is true for Flying Machines, as it's the preparation for the race that supplies the comedy and entertainment, while the final 30 minutes of race action is almost an afterthought. It still works though, and is fabulously entertaining this way.


There's plenty of slapstick to be had, from the moment that caveman Red Skelton first tries flapping his arms to be one with the birds, and the oddball contraptions and lunatic pilots always offer some hilarity. There's also the Keystone Firemen, in the form of Benny Hill and his intrepid men, who are being chased by out of control airplanes more often than they charge to the rescue. Also, when your racing circuit turned aerodrome is situated next to a sewage farm, then you know that more than one pilot will end up in the unsavoury drink.


My favourite aspect of the movie is the national rivalry that springs up between the pilots, especially the Germans and the French, who have to outdo each other at the daily flag raising, and the buffoonish Holstein is easily riled by the mischievous Dubois, leading to a memorable duel in a couple of hot air balloons. Of course the Italians refuse to yield to the French, the Japanese have the best technology, the Scottish planes may be fuelled by kerosene, but their pilots are fuelled by Scotch, and it's all tremendous fun, although there is a passing comment from Courtney, which while innocuous 40 years ago, cuts pretty close to the edge today.


Then of course there is the arch-cad, the ultra bounder, the sneak, the cheat, the brilliant Terry-Thomas as Sir Percy, along with his henchman Courtney (Eric Sykes) who plan to win the race by hook or by crook, and who plan to nobble the opposition. It's a joy to watch these schemes unfold or be thwarted, and the relationship between the two is utterly entertaining. Percy abuses his poor servant mercilessly, albeit with that trademark twinkle in his eye, and while Courtney is just as unscrupulous as his master, he also has a secret joy in seeing Percy thwarted. I also enjoy the Holstein character played by Gert Frobe, a man who is his own marching band, and who believes he is capable of anything as long as he reads the instructions. He's tormented by the Frenchman Dubois (Jean-Pierre Cassel), who makes it his personal mission to deflate the rotund German. Dubois also has his own confusing trademark, of meeting the same woman over and over again, albeit from a different nationality each time, giving him a chance to practise that Gallic charm.


If there is another problem with the film, it's Stuart Whitman as the cowboy aviator Orvil Newton, who quite frankly is no Tony Curtis. He's pretty wooden and unimpressive, and as the third point of the Patricia Richard Orvil triangle, he's the blunt corner. It's ever been thus in these comedies, that when it comes to the romance the air goes out of the tyres. With someone like Tony Curtis, who has a twinkle and a great sense of comic timing, you get the romance and comedy in one shot, and it's one reason why Monte Carlo works better than Flying Machines. Of course this film has Tony Hancock, someone who personally I always found to be a misfire of a comic talent.


So Monte Carlo is the better film, the Terry-Thomas Eric Sykes partnership is honed to perfection, it's got more of a race and less of a build up, it has Tony Curtis, it has Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and the film's humour is much more complete and developed. Flying Machines at times seems like a dry run for that film, it's a little more piecemeal, some ideas are left not fully formed, some characters get short shrift, and the leading man has about as much personality as a plank. But then I look at those vintage planes, I remember that this film was made long before CGI and Health and Safety came along, that they actually went back to 60 year old designs and recreated those original aircraft, perfect replicas that flew in the same way as those early pioneers of aviation flew, and then I see some of the most beautiful shots of those planes in flight, as they would have been a hundred years ago, and it all takes my breath away. And when all is said and done, when I watched this film last night, I was in tears of laughter. Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines is my chase movie.