Q Planes (1939)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Directors:

Tim Whelan
Arthur B. Woods

Writers:

Brock Williams (story) &
Jack Whittingham (story) ...

Release Date:

20 June 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

Lighthearted romp of a pre-war spy story: quirky British secret service man finds out who's using a secret weapon to steal experimental planes.

Plot Keywords:

British Secret Service | Spy | Ship | Impersonation | Propaganda

Cast

Laurence Olivier	...	Tony McVane
Ralph Richardson	...	Maj. Charles Hammond
Valerie Hobson	...	Kay Lawrence
George Curzon	...	Jenkins
George Merritt	...	Mr. Barrett
Gus McNaughton	...	Blenkinsop, Hammond's Butler
David Tree	...	R. Mackenzie
Sandra Storme	...	Daphne
Hay Petrie	...	Stage Door Keeper
Frank Fox	...	Karl
George Butler	...	Air Marshal Gosport
Gordon McLeod	...	The Baron
John Longden	...	John Peters, a Pilot (as John Longdon)

Also Known As:

Clouds Over Europe (USA)

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Denham Studios, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Irving Asher Productions

Trivia:

The destroyer sent to intercept the SS Viking is the HMS Echo (H23). This was one of 9 E class destroyers of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1934. During the Second World War she sank a U boat in 1943 and was transferred to the Greek Navy in 1944.

Quotes:

Mr. Barrett: Alright! Alright! Will you as a personal favour take that plane up?
Tony McVane: Well of course I will, you parboiled, pudding-minded, myopic deadhead!

Who Is Stealing The Airships of Great Britain?

Some 20 years before Ian Fleming started writing about these things, it's nice to know that the British Secret Service was on the job and apprehending spies and saboteurs even if they're a bit slow to catch on at times.

With a little inside help from the air plant, some Teutonic looking gentleman have perfected a ray that immobilizes airships and brings them down real nice on the ocean. No trace of about four warships has been found at all or their crews. It's of concern to test pilot Laurence Olivier, to British agent Ralph Richardson, and to news reporter Valerie Hobson.

Hobson and Richardson are brother and sister. As you can imagine his job involves secrecy and undercover work and Hobson's from the Lois Lane school of journalism. Family dinners must really be something in that family. She also falls for Olivier while she's undercover working as a waitress at a coffee shop near the plane factory.

Q Planes must have been seen as wildly fantastic by the 1939 audience, but two generations who saw Sean Connery and Roger Moore engage in even wilder derring-do than is shown in this film, would regard Q Planes as all in a day's work.

Olivier and Hobson are fine, but Richardson steals the film whenever he's on screen. Q Planes will never be ranked as in the top 10 of any of these players, but it's a nice breezy espionage comedy/drama made a lot better by some of the greatest thespian talent in the English speaking world of the last century.