Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
| Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; Or, How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes |
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Theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Ken Annakin |
| Produced by | Stan Margulies |
| Written by | Ken Annakin Jack Davies |
| Starring |
Stuart Whitman Sarah Miles Terry-Thomas Robert Morley James Fox |
| Music by | Ron Goodwin |
| Cinematography | Christopher Challis |
| Edited by | Anne V. Coates |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
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Release date
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Running time
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138 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6.5 million |
| Box office | $31,111,111 |
Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; Or, How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes is a 1965 British comedy film starring Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, Robert Morley, Terry-Thomas and James Fox, directed and co-written by Ken Annakin.
Based on a screenplay entitled Flying Crazy, the fictional account is set in 1910, when Lord Rawnsley, an English press magnate, offers £10,000 (equivalent to £920,000 in 2015) to the winner of the Daily Post air race from London to Paris, to prove that Britain is "number one in the air".
A brief narration outlines man's first attempts to fly since the Stone Age inspired by a bird's flight, seen with footage from the Silent Film Era, and man being represented by a "test pilot" (Red Skelton) encountering periodic misfortune in his attempts.
In 1910, just seven years after the first heavier-than-air flight, aircraft are fragile and unreliable contraptions, piloted by "intrepid birdmen".
Pompous British newspaper magnate Lord Rawnsley (Robert Morley) forbids his would-be aviatrix daughter, ardent suffragette Patricia (Sarah Miles), from flying. Aviator Richard Mays (James Fox), a young army officer and (at least in his own eyes) Patricia's fiancé, conceives the idea of an air race from London to Paris to advance the cause of British aviation (and his career). With Patricia's support, he persuades Lord Rawnsley to sponsor the race as a publicity stunt for his newspaper. Rawnsley, who takes full credit for the idea, announces the event to the press, shocking everyone with the amount of the prize.
Invitations and newspaper advertising go out worldwide, and dozens of participants arrive in England with their aircraft. The aircraft are housed and maintained in the hangars at the airfield on the "Brookley" Motor Racing Track (actually a reasonably historical representation of the contemporary Brooklands), where the fliers make practice runs in the days prior to the race. During this time, predictable patriotic antagonisms quickly develop. Most of the contestants conform to national stereotypes, including the by-the-book, monocle-wearing Prussian officer Colonel Manfred von Holstein (Gert Fröbe); the impetuous Italian Count Emilio Ponticelli (Alberto Sordi), whose test flights wreck one aircraft after another; and the amorous Frenchman Pierre Dubois (Jean-Pierre Cassel). Yujiro Ishihara is the late-arriving Japanese naval officer Yamamoto, with a perfect (dubbed) Etonian accent.
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Wikipedia