Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes (1965)

Director:

Ken Annakin

Writers:

Ken Annakin (written by)
Jack Davies (written by)

Release Date:

16 June 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Action

Tagline:

or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes

Plot:

Sabotage efforts damage an international air race.

Plot Keywords:

Air Race | Prize | English Channel | Deception | La Marseillaise

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 6 nominations

Cast

Stuart Whitman	...	Orvil Newton
Sarah Miles	...	Patricia Rawnsley
James Fox	...	Richard Mays
Alberto Sordi	...	Count Emilio Ponticelli
Robert Morley	...	Lord Rawnsley
Gert Fröbe	...	Colonel Manfred von Holstein (as Gert Frobe)
Jean-Pierre Cassel	...	Pierre Dubois
Irina Demick	...	Brigitte / Ingrid / Marlene / Françoise / Yvette / Betty
Eric Sykes	...	Courtney
Red Skelton	...	Neanderthal Man
Terry-Thomas	...	Sir Percy Ware-Armitage
Benny Hill	...	Fire Chief Perkins
Yûjirô Ishihara	...	Yamamoto (as Yujiro Ishihara)
Flora Robson	...	Mother Superior
Karl Michael Vogler	...	Captain Rumpelstoss

Also Known As:

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines

Runtime:

138 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French | German | Italian | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System) (70 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:S | Norway:7 | Portugal:M/6 | Spain:T | Sweden:Btl | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Booker Airfield, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The locomotive pulling the train that Sir Percy lands on is actually Scottish. It's Highland Railway No 103 of 1894, the only surviving Highland Railway locomotive, and is now on static display in Glasgow Museum of Transport.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Just before the German airplane falls into the sea, it flies almost level while in an inverted attitude with the tail higher off the water than the nose. This is impossible. Also when the Colonel drops into the sea he is under it, but the plane is then seen to crash some distance behind him, not past him.

Quotes:

Colonel Manfred von Holstein: There is nothing a German officer cannot do.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Blackadder Goes Forth: Private Plane (#1.4)" (1989)

Soundtrack:

LA CALUNNIA UN VENTICELLO

Set against an old-time air-race, this is a charming spoof of national characteristics.

Centred around a London-to-Paris air race early in the 1900's, this is a wonderful English comedy spoofing national characteristics! You know the sort of thing, the expansive American hero, the fair-playing Englishman, the great French lover, the emotional Italian count, the enigmatic Japanese, the humourless pomp-loving German, and so on.

The casting is interesting, for this light-hearted movie's principal roles are filled by actors who are far more familiar playing the heavy: Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, James Fox, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and Gert Frobe. And make no mistake, they are superb at it!

Offending no-one of any age, this movie plays out against the back-drop of the air race, with a fantastic array of primitive aircraft. It is fun and full of life, tripping along easily and smoothly from one delightful absurdity to another. The English have made this movie, and while they have considerable fun at the expense of the Frenchman and the German, they cannot resist poking the bulk of the fun at themselves. They do so by augmenting the cast with the shifty Englishman (Terry-Thomas), the confidence man (Tony Hancock), and the foreigner-distrusting representative of the upper crust (Robert Morley).

This movie is a must see for anyone with any pretense to a sense of humour!