The World Owes Me a Living

The World Owes Me a Living
Jack Livesey, Judy Campbell & David Farrar
Directed by	Vernon Sewell
Produced by	Louis H. Jackson
Written by	Vernon Sewell Irwin Reiner
Based on	a novel by John Llewellyn Rhys
Starring	David Farrar Judy Campbell
Music by	Hans May
Cinematography	Geoffrey Faithfull Gerald Gibbs
Production company	British National Films
Distributed by	Anglo-American Film Corporation
Release date	January 1945
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The World Owes Me a Living is a 1945 British Second World War drama film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring David Farrar and Judy Campbell. The film is based on a novel by John Llewellyn Rhys, a young author who was killed in action in 1940 while serving in the Royal Air Force. Its credits acknowledged the assistance and co-operation of the Air Ministry and the de Havilland Aircraft Company.

In June 1944, Air Commodore Paul Collyer (Farrar) crash lands his plane on return from a reconnaissance mission. He appears to be suffering from amnesia and is unable to pass on the vital information he learned from the mission. The surgeon diagnoses no actual injury to the brain, but states that the memory loss is most likely attributable to shock, and in such cases memory is most often recovered through some mental jolt from the past. Moira Barrett (Campbell) is summoned to his bedside; he seems to recognise her, and his mind starts to go into flashback mode.

Paul is seen as part of a flying circus display at which Moira is a spectator. A serious accident to one of the planes brings them together. That evening he meets old flame Eve Heatherley (Sonia Dresdel), who is now engaged Paul's friend Jack Graves (Jack Livesey). He runs into Moira again, and they talk of her passion for flying. The display accident causes the flying circus to fold and Paul is out of a job. He drifts from job to job for a time, before running into Chuck Rockley (Eric Barker), a fellow performer in the old flying circus, who informs him that he and Jack are starting a new flying circus to be financed by Eve, now married to Jack. Paul accepts the offer to join them, and together they open the Pegasus Flying Field.

The venture is a success, but Eve soon loses interest and starts to take an interest in Jerry Frazer, a local ex-pilot. One afternoon an aircraft makes an emergency landing at Pegasus, and it turns out that the pilot is Moira, who is training for a record-breaking long-distance flight. She says she is looking for a co-pilot and asks Jack, who is talked out of it by Eve, and Paul, who refuses on the grounds of the plan being too risky. He does however agree to give Moira instruction in blind flying.