The Sound Barrier
| The Sound Barrier | |
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| Directed by | David Lean |
| Produced by | David Lean |
| Written by | Terence Rattigan |
| Starring |
Ralph Richardson Ann Todd Nigel Patrick John Justin Denholm Elliott |
| Music by | Malcolm Arnold |
| Cinematography | Jack Hildyard |
| Edited by | Geoffrey Foot |
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Production
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| Distributed by |
London Films British Lion Films United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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118 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £250,000 |
| Box office | £227,978 (UK) |
The Sound Barrier (known in the United States, as Breaking Through the Sound Barrier and Breaking the Sound Barrier) is a British 1952 film directed by David Lean. It is a fictional story about attempts by aircraft designers and test pilots to break the sound barrier. David Lean's third and final film with his wife Ann Todd was also his first for Alexander Korda's London Films following the break-up of Cineguild. The Sound Barrier stars Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd, and Nigel Patrick.
The Sound Barrier was a great box-office success, but it is now rarely seen and has become one of the least-known of Lean's films. Following on In Which We Serve (1942), the film is another of Lean's ventures into a genre of filmmaking where impressions of documentary film are created.
After his aircraft company's groundbreaking work on jet engine technology in the Second World War, John Ridgefield (Ralph Richardson), its wealthy owner, employs test pilot Tony Garthwaite (Nigel Patrick), a successful wartime fighter pilot to fly new jet-powered aircraft. Garthwaite is hired by Ridgefield after marrying Ridgefield's daughter, Susan (Ann Todd). Tensions between father and daughter are accentuated by Garthwaite's dangerous job of test flying. In a noteworthy illustration of the new technology, Susan accompanies Garthwaite on a ferrying assignment of a two-seater de Havilland Vampire to Cairo, Egypt, returning later the same day as passengers on a de Havilland Comet.
Ridgefield's hopes for his new jet fighter, "Prometheus", has placed the company in jeopardy. The problems faced by the then-new jet aircraft in encountering the speed of sound, the so-called "sound barrier", are ever present. In an attempt to break the sound barrier, Garthwaite crashes and is killed. Shocked at the death of her husband and at her father's apparently single-minded and heartless approach to the dangers his test pilots face, Susan walks out on her father and goes to live with friends Jess (Dinah Sheridan) and Philip Peel (John Justin), another company test pilot. Ridgefield later engages Peel to take on the challenge of piloting "Prometheus" at speeds approaching the speed of sound. In a crucial flight, and at the critical moment, Peel performs a counterintuitive action (presaged in the opening scene of the film) which enables him to maintain control of the aircraft and to break the sound barrier.
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