Q Planes
| Q Planes | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Directed by |
Tim Whelan Arthur B. Woods |
| Produced by |
Irving Asher (producer) Alexander Korda (executive producer) |
| Written by |
Brock Williams Jack Whittingham Ian Dalrymple |
| Starring |
Ralph Richardson Laurence Olivier Valerie Hobson |
| Music by | Muir Mathieson |
| Cinematography | Harry Stradling Sr. |
| Edited by | Hugh Stewart |
|
Production
company |
Harefield —
London Films |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
82 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Q Planes (known as Clouds Over Europe in the United States) is a 1939 British comedy spy film starring Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier and Valerie Hobson. Olivier and Richardson were a decade into their 50-year friendship and theatrical collaboration and had just completed Othello, with Richardson in the title role and Olivier as Iago, when this film was made. The film was produced by Irving Asher, an American, with British film impresario Alexander Korda as executive producer.
The name Q Planes may have been derived from the British "Q-ships", armed ships disguised as merchantmen, used in the First World War as decoys to lure German U-boats. The film was directed by American director Tim Whelan (Sidewalks of London and later in 1940, co-director of The Thief of Bagdad), who had been in Britain since 1932, working for Korda at Denham Studios.
In 1939, advanced British aircraft prototypes carrying experimental and secret equipment are vanishing with their crews on test flights. No one can fathom why, not even spymaster Major Hammond (Ralph Richardson) or his sister Kay (Valerie Hobson), a newspaper reporter, who is working undercover in the works canteen used by the crews at the Barrett & Ward Aircraft Company.
At first Major Hammond is seen as an outsider at the aircraft factory, especially by Mr. Barrett, the owner (George Merritt), who is working under a government contract but he soon finds a friend in a star pilot, Tony McVane (Laurence Olivier) who helps him try to solve the case. Hammond becomes convinced that Jenkins (George Curzon), the company secretary at the factory, is a foreign agent and mole but Jenkins is killed by unseen gunmen before he can give up the names of his contacts.
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Wikipedia