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.

Flight of the Intruder has some cracking A6 scenes in it, especially the one where they are just playing around with the (IIRC) padre, trying to make him sick...........

I seem to recall that the '83 TVM "The Aerodrome" had a shot (or two) of a TSR-2 in it.

Makes it worth it's weight in gold, whatever the rest of the movie was like.

Dan D'Air - I thought it was the Doc in FLight of the Intruder.

And Wigan - saw an interesting pic of a Tomcat Pilot in the Gulf. He had cut 3 fingers out of his Nomex Glove, claiming it gave him a better feel of controls during "busy" periods..................

Black Hawk Down
 

I saw Black Hawk Down last night.
I was sceptical beforehand, but after watching it I was very impressed.
The cast, direction, filmography and special effects were very good.

I was very surprised to find out how many of the cast were Brits.

I much prefer films based on true stories, I feel it gives them an extra dimension.

How about True Lies with the awesome AV8B?

Or Blue Thunder with its whisper mode?

Both cracking aviation scenes.

Best: Probably Top Gun. I wish there were more cheesy hollywood films about fast jets.

Worst: Stealth. It's meant to be futuristic, so the key cast members don't fly real jets, but there are some real jets in the movie. This isn't just the worst aviation film I've ever seen, it's the worst film period. It's not even so bad it's good. It's worse than that.

Scran, You are right, obviously I didn't recall correctly, thanks!!!

Ritero, blimey mate!!! Don't beat about the bush, just say it how it is!!

The best has to be "Its In The Air" staring George Formby made in the mid 1930's. Story is that our George joins the RAF by mistake and gets up to all sorts of daft antics. Lots of "crazy flying" from old prewar aircraft flown supposedly by George, but in fact by a bloke called Jimmy Wells who was a member of 600 Sqn AAF. Lots of real RAF people and a real RAF airfield used for the filming to save the production company money.
The film is a complete farce, and funny if you like that sort of thing.

Or in similar vein, how about Frank Spencer doing OASC at Biggin Hill (them were the days!) in Some Mothers Do Ave Em?

Confucius is correct. But of course it did not fly. Lots of 50s hardware and a Vulcan.


How about the one where NIMITZ (the ship) is transported back in time to just before the attack on Pearl Harbor (sic) and does nothing except listen to the radio. The Dogfight between the Zeros (Harvards) and F14s was fun.

Also, as some one (Sorry) started on about tv series as well, I loved "Piece of Cake". I know the old boys who flew in the battle did it did not like it. But for me it realy brought home tensions and realities of fighting every day and living amoungst people who did not have a clue by night. I came to regard them with even more respect. Beside the characters were believable, I was at school with people like that!

How about the one where NIMITZ (the ship) is transported back in time to just before the attack on Pearl Harbor (sic) and does nothing except listen to the radio. The Dogfight between the Zeros (Harvards) and F14s was fun.

The Final Countdown. Apparently Grumman Company Pilots flying the F-14's versus the Zarvards. Superb photography IIRC including an F-14 getting pretty close to the water whilst playing with the veteran opposition.

The Final Countdown
 

I thought that, in its' way, a good film with a neat twist in the story; I am sure I am not the only person who wished for a sequel / different ending on the lines of ' sod corrupting the time-line, let 'em have it ! '

Then again I enjoy sci-fi and time travel stories; there was a 2-part story in 'Enterprise' - the last & possibly best in every way Star Trek derivative, much better stories & effects, a certain gritiness - where a shuttle craft entering Earth airspace was bounced by .50 bullets pinging against the hull, to find it was being attacked by Mustangs wearing swastikas - never did see the second part to know how well or not the story developed !

In the 50s I remember watching a film callled 'Fighting Lady'. It was about an American aircraft carrier in the Pacific. The first half in B&W and the second half in colour. Apart from a few brief interludes it was non-stop mayhem.

Flight of the Intruder definately, with quotes like 'you got the time, we got the beer' why they didn't win an oscar is beyond me :}

Good A6 and A1 scenes though.

Worst has to be Iron Eagle 1 trough 14 :yuk:

"Flight of the Intruder"- is that the one set in the Libyan desert with the crew of a crashed B25?

Shall I give away the creepy ending? :E

Narvik, its the one with Willem Dafoe as the BN who goes to bomb downtown Hanoi, gets court-martialled and then miraculously reprieved on some ludicrous pretext.

Never happen in real life, you'd get shafted by this lot for just trying to do your job properly!!!

Ps., If you ever see the film, look out for the fuel gauges, they are like the LED's on an '80s Matsui stereo, Fantastic!!!!

Double Zero - The Final Countdown indeed! Superb Navy sequences before the toning down job.
The Bridges at Toko Ri - same but earlier!
Strategic Air Command - just to see Jimmy Stewart back in a bomber!
Dambusters is good - obviously!
Pathfinders TV series for more lovely Lancs!
By Dawn's Early Light, just for the amazing quality radar picture on the rear gunner's scope (think green screen video game!) and the use of a "Special Weapon" as a defensive measure. Won't give the game away any more than that!

I always want to like BoB for Hamish Mahaddie's outstanding organisation of the world's 23rd or 24th largest air force (I sure someone knows the right answer!), some superb sequences and so forth, but I can't help getting to the end and getting the feeling that something has been missed out. Heresy, I know!

The Adjutant
 

Wonderful. I had forgotten al about George Formby's classic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyXPT4GgurA

It highlights Tom Cruise as the charlatan he is.

Anyone know what the dog was called :eek:

The more synical commentators may point to the excellent portrayal of a stereotypical back-seater; hasn't a clue what's going on, realises and gives it silk :p

Narvik, the one set in the desert with the B25 is ''sole survivor'', iirc, with the crew actually (SPOILER ALERT !!) dead. But they don't know it. & Richard Baseheart as the weaselly member that jumped and survived.

Top film actually

Strangelove, nice clip :ok:

In a 'Top Gun' styleee, what do you think George Fomrby's callsign was?

'banjo' (I can't spell ukelele)

A top bloke from Wigan, not much of a warrior though, watching that clip, more of a worrier.