Film nostalgia

[Sturmvogel]

After all the recent contentious Channel 4 programme correspondance, it is good to see that they havn't given up on aviation nostalgia-on tuesday 7th November at 13.35 they are showing the 1955 Ealing film 'Out of the Clouds', which portrays Heathrow Airport in a gentler age, and BOAC Stratocruisers. Enjoy!

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[Cyclic Hotline]

I watched a very enjoyable old film this past summer called (I think) "The Maggie", about a Clyde puffer. Beautifully made, shot in Glasgow and the West Coast.

One of the highlights was the aerial search for the vessel, carried out in a chartered BEA Dragon Rapide. The charterer was complaining that he was spending 15.00 Pounds an hour for the aircraft! Ahhh, the good old days.

[411A]

Ah....Stratocruisers. The only aircraft that I have flown that had 50 GALLON oil tanks behind each engine. And it was ALL needed on a 10 hour flight!

[Slasher]

Yeh 411A. Jimmy Stewart summed it up once with what he said in that movie:

"Flying used to be fun Lou, it realy was! There were times when you took real pride in just....getting there. I suppose pilots are just as good now as they ever were, but they sure didnt fly the way we did."

[Self Loading Freight]

Here's a synposis/review for Out Of The Clouds... Seems to contradict itself, but there y'go.

R

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Out of the Clouds, directed by Basil Dearden, was yet another of Ealing's attempts at a behind the scenes approach - this time an anatomy of London Airport, a much smaller community in the mid-Fifties than now. Compared with Arthur Hailey's treatment of the same formula in the Sixties in his novel Airport, the result is remarkably tame. As is usual in such Ealing pictures, and in this one more than most, the background and setting are more interesting than the foreground characters, and Paul Beeson's Eastmancolor photography provides a fascinating record of how Heathrow looked in its early days. The films characters include Gus Randall (Anthony Steel), a pilot with a chronic (and potentially fatal) gambling weakness; chief duty officer Nick Milbourne (Robert Beatty), who yearns to be a pilot himself; American engineer Bill (David Lorenz), who finds romance in the form of Jewish girl Leah (Margo Lorenz); and Captain Brent (James Robertson Justice), whose doubts about a new aircraft prove to be well-founded. The obligatory romantic triangle involves Gus, Nick and airline -hostess Penny Henson (Eunice Gayson).

One of Ealing's largest-ever sets was used for the interior of the terminal. The script, by Michael Relph and John Eldridge, is larded with the customary parade of minor characters - a comic cab driver a difficult passenger and so on -but so much of the original spirit has by this time deserted Ealing that the peripheral action, far from filling out a rich tapestry of incident, is merely a tiresome diversion from the main thread of the narrative.

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

This film was adapted from a book called "The Springboard" by David Beaty, a 1950s BOAC captain who packed in flying to become an author. "Cone of Silence" was another one of his and he wrote a good human factors book too. He died recently. The set was inaccurate in that it depicted a lavish terminal, like the (then) new Main Concourse, now Terminal 2. In fact long-haul operations were still being conducted from the shacks on the North Side and continued to do so for another seven years.
Worth it for the Stratocruiser sequences, with James Robertson Justice as a crusty old martinet captain, barking orders. (WOT-no CRM?) His role of "Capt. Brent" was modelled on a famous BOAC captain, O.P.Jones, who Beaty must have known, of course.

[Sturmvogel]

In 1956 David Beaty's book 'The Proving Flight' was a good read, and still is if you can find a copy. Flyleaf synopsis starts 'The proving flight of "Emperor Able Dog" had made the world's headlines before the giant aircraft took off from London Airport.For here at last,it's sponsors claimed, was the final answer to transatlantic air travel, a machine capable of operating non-stop to New York even against the strongest headwinds.....The machine had been fully tested, it had as joint Captains, Bellamy,the youngest and most brilliant pilot in civil aviation(!),and Cavendish,veteran flyer with thirty years experience behind him.What could possibly go wrong?'
I wish I had experienced a transatlantic journey in one of the piston greats-what a drama flying with that amount of spark plugs, cylinders, and whirling master rods all relying on high octane avgas, and vast oil tanks as has been mentioned in a post about the Stratocruiser-all worth it for the noise!
No doubt the aeroplane in The Proving Flight was loosely based on the Comet or the Avro whats it's name which featured in a film called No Highway I think.

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[Georgeablelovehowindia]

No, I think the Reindeer (what a poncy name for an aeroplane, even in a book) was probably based on the Brabazon. This great British world-beater (not) trundled down the specially lengthened runway at Filton on its maiden flight and finally wobbled into the air. Bill Pegg, the test pilot captain allegedly remarked to the person in the other seat: "Well, my side's airborne.....Is your's?"

[m&v]

Anybody heard anything new on the rerelease of the John Wayne Films(in Video)of "high and the mighty" and the black/white "Island in the Sky"(both by Ernie Gann)circa 1953/54.
I understand they were tied up in his(Waynes)estate,to be released by his son,mike,on a periodic basis.There was some talk in the"airliner'magazine re the reissue-since then silence.Anybody any info'????

[Localiser]

Slightly off an aviation theme....

But, you can't beat a good Carry On film!

LOC :)

[Fokker28]

Not a movie, but...
The other day I caught an old Twilight Zone episode in which a 707 crew found themselves crossing the Atlantic westbound at about 3000 knots! They were, naturally, concerned (no profit sharing, I guess). When they made landfall over New York they found that they had been traveling back in time, eventually witnessing some decidedly jurassic scenery. I was impressed by the technical accuracy of the cockpit scenes, though, which were much better than most of todays tripe.

Fokker28

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In a world full of people, only some want to fly. Isn't that crazy?
-Seal

[CrashDive]

That clip with James Robertson Justice, chewing out a fellow colleague, is now available directly here at PPRuNe - classic stuff imho - ah, nostalgia, those were the days.....

Nb. It's a '.avi' file of just over 4.2Mb,

Click here to download: Out of the clouds (http://www.pprune.org/photos/prevs/images/OutOfTheClouds2.avi)

[pax domina]

Someone mentioned a thread on "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" of aviation films a while back - sadly lost in a server crash. http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/frown.gif

I have seen the film of Neville Shute's No Highway (titled No Highway in the Sky in the US) and thought it was pretty good. I also enjoyed the Spirit of St. Louis (James Stewart starring as well) and wondered if anyone else has seen it? Acting is acting, but did the fact that he was a pilot in real life somehow make him a more convincing pilot on film?

Slasher (or anyone) what film is that quote from? Please tell. :) (I know he said "that film" - but it doesn't appear to have been "Out of the Clouds", look at the cast listed above. http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/confused.gif )

Speaking of bad - at least three aviation related films were considered "worthy" (a polite way of saying "bad enough") to merit Mystery Science Theater 3000 lampooning - "The Skydivers" (directed by Coleman Francis - perhaps sometimes confused with a better film of the same name), "The Starfighters" and "San Francisco International".

[This message has been edited by pax domina (edited 09 November 2000).]

[Sink Rate]

Does anyone have on video a copy of "Out of the clouds" they might lend to me to copy?

I'd pay P&P and all associated costs. Perhaps pick it up a the Gatbash?

Thanks to anyone that may be able to help out? (Set the video wrong - never find a nine year old kid when you need one!).

Cheers!