Another candidate for the worst film is "The Lion Has Wings".

It was made just prior to WW2 and was meant to reassure the public that the air defences would deter any aerial attack on the green and pleasant lands. The best scene was the German bomber pilot telling his crew that he was turning back as the barrage balloons made it too dangerous to continue.:D

A truely hideous film. So bad its fun to watch.:}

Gathering Of Eagles
 

B52 SAC movie starring Rock Hudson. An awful story with good a/c shots. Its IMDB synopsis was telling:
"He is also recently married, and as a tough commanding officer doing whatever he has to do to shape his men up, his wife sees a side to him that she hadn't seen before."
So did his men, I assume.

Off Topic...
 

... but nevertheless an aviation related film (I think).

When I were a yoof, I recall a film. A thriller.
The main part I remember was a lady with nice bongos displaying said items :ooh:
I seem to recall the film was about an ex RAF Jaguar Pilot whom took to the bottle and was being 'framed' for killing ladies, including the aforementioned bongos woman. Probably 1970s vintage.
Did I dream this :confused:

Best - Battle of Britain. No explanation needed - it's just perfect.

Worst: 12 O'clock high. Cheesy (and not just because I had to sit through it at IOT).

Hello GLB
I think is the one:-:ok:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048364/

"Catch 22"

Sir Percy, that movie (it was in colour) was indeed 'Conflict of Wings'.

Lots of contemporary Meteor and Vampire shots - and the odd Swift (prototype I think).

This is a precussor to the old joke of the time when Rock H was eventually revealed to be gay... his wife didn't know which way to turn.

Someone mentioned that the Beeb had done a very good radio dramatisation of Len Deighton's 'Bomber' a few years ago. I've just trolled through the BBC site, but it doesn't appear to be listed there.

Is there someone who may be a bit more adept at searching the BBC site who can say whether it is available as a podcast from the BNC?

The radio version Bomber was available on BBC audio tape at one time

....... sounds like Hitchcock's "Frenzy" to me. ISTR Jon Finch's character being a drunk ex-pilot - his wife even gives him a hard time about his AFC at one time I think.

Frenzy
 

Thanks Teetering,
Frenzy, that's the film :ok:
An RAF Pilot that likes a drink, gets a hard time from his wife and gets blamed for something he didn't do.
Where does Hitchcock get his inspiration from :confused:

:)For a good laugh, you have to include "These Magnificent Men" and "Airplane", I also remember seeing good American Navy flying films in the 50s when I were a lad, Cougars of decks, ect, I wouldn't mind seeing them again if I could find a source.

I saw the film 'Stealth' last night.
I had to have a few drinks afterwards, its was tosh of the highest order.
My darling wife had a go at me for moaning about it then and I got blamed for ordering the wrong food from the chinese (not guilty).

A download is available here

http://www.downloadaudiobooksonline....px?titleId=340

or you could order it on CD from here

http://www.bbcshop.com/invt/9780563523550

There are other sources such as Amazon

Attn Buster 11

Not quite correct sir.

Air to airs were shot at Duxford after which we decamped to Binbrook for the ground sequences.

William Wyler's daughter was Catherine.

Matthew Modine had the lead part.

Great bunch of crew on the film set who gave it their all. Just a shame that the story line was a bit weak and watery in parts and that they used those horrendous models representing serried ranks of B17s in the sky. I honestly believe some of the best stuff ended up on the cutting room floor.

Being at the coal face it was an amazing experience to be surrounded by acres of B17s with 109s half rolling towards you. The way the cheek guns started hammering blanks was still, nevertheless, enough to make your hair stand on end. To people my age the war was fought in black and white. For a few seconds I started to understand.......

I could go on but would be rightly accused of being a sad old git!

AW

Not at all Fokkerwokker.

My moment of understanding came when I saw the look in the eyes of doctor who, while doing my annual aviation medical, spoke of the loneliness he felt while hearing a fellow squadron pilot being shot down over North Africa. Chilling.

Sorry about the thread drift.

Bloopers
 

A few interesting bloopers / gaffs gleamed from t'nternet relating to a couple of films frequently mentioned in this thread:

Pearl Harbour
In the movie, Rafe is assigned to an RAF Eagle Squadron prior to USA involvement in WW II by order of Jimmy Doolittle. In reality, active duty personnel could not be assigned to serve with a belligerent nation while the US was neutral. They would have to resign their USAF commission and re-enlist into the RAF (usually via Canada). This practice was greatly discouraged.

Rafe wears an Eagle Squadron badge, as do the Spitfires. The squadron code 'RF' is for No.303 Squadron, which was a Polish unit. The only Hurricane seen in the film has the correct codes for an Eagle Squadron, 'XR-T' for No.71 Squadron.

In the England scene, a spitfire with a four-blade propeller is seen. This was a late-war model. All Spitfires at the time of the Battle of Britain were models with three-blade constant pitch propellers.

Top Gun
When Top Gun first came out, everybody in our squadron made a big joke of the "Deadly Blue Tubes". This refers to the sidewinder missiles that were supposedly launched from the Tomcats. Those who are familiar with aircraft weapons would know that the blue tube is a sidewinder simulator. If you were to launch this from the aircraft, all it could do is drop like a rock.

During the briefing before the final scene, the Captain says, "The Migs carry the Exocet missile. They can fire that missile from a hundred miles away." Yes they could fire the Exocet from a hundred miles away, but the Exocet's maximum range is around 40 miles.

Take notice of everyone's hands during the action sequences. No one is wearing gloves. As standard issue for military pilots, the gloves are made of Nomex and provide protection from fire and allow for a better grip when things get a little hot and heavy.

(text copied directly from web pages (moviemistakes.com), so apologies for any spellling mistakes)

Fokkerwokker, I think I could safely say I speak for quite a few others when I say "prattle on - as much as you like", about the making of the movie.

If I may be allowed a bit of thread drift myself, when I was still at school, my next door neighbour was a bloke who, at age 18, had been an ambulance driver at a major northern Australian military airfield during WW2. Sitting listening to the men yarning under the house over a few beers towards the end of a BBQ one night, (and keeping very quiet, hoping I wouldn't be noticed and told to go upstairs to join the women, who, back in those days, would always finish the evening in the kitchen cleaning up while the men stayed downstairs knocking over a few beers, half choking in the smoke from their roll yer own ciggies and the stinking mosquito coils they'd have burning under their chairs), I heard him casually say how they often used to run fire hoses in through the waist gunner's window and down to the tail gunner's cubicle on the USAAF B17s that got back from missions over New Guinea to clean the blood and gore out.

It was the first time I'd ever heard use the phrase "we hosed them out", and possibly the first time I realised that war might involve something more than a clean cut shoulder wound that allowed the hero in my Biggles comics to wear a semi-decorative sling over his uniform.