Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes (1965)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Ken Annakin

Writers:

Ken Annakin (written by)
Jack Davies (written by)

Release Date:

16 June 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Action

Tagline:

or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes

Plot:

Sabotage efforts damage an international air race.

Plot Keywords:

Air Race | Prize | English Channel | Deception | La Marseillaise

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 6 nominations

Cast

Stuart Whitman	...	Orvil Newton
Sarah Miles	...	Patricia Rawnsley
James Fox	...	Richard Mays
Alberto Sordi	...	Count Emilio Ponticelli
Robert Morley	...	Lord Rawnsley
Gert Fröbe	...	Colonel Manfred von Holstein (as Gert Frobe)
Jean-Pierre Cassel	...	Pierre Dubois
Irina Demick	...	Brigitte / Ingrid / Marlene / Françoise / Yvette / Betty
Eric Sykes	...	Courtney
Red Skelton	...	Neanderthal Man
Terry-Thomas	...	Sir Percy Ware-Armitage
Benny Hill	...	Fire Chief Perkins
Yûjirô Ishihara	...	Yamamoto (as Yujiro Ishihara)
Flora Robson	...	Mother Superior
Karl Michael Vogler	...	Captain Rumpelstoss

Also Known As:

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines

Runtime:

138 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French | German | Italian | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System) (70 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:S | Norway:7 | Portugal:M/6 | Spain:T | Sweden:Btl | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Booker Airfield, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The Passat Ornithopter airplane in this movie was given to Cole Palen for promoting this movie. It can now be seen at the Old Rhinebeck Areodrome.

Goofs:

Continuity: As the racers reach the French coast, we see a wide shot with five planes: three monoplanes and two biplanes. One of the biplanes is the German plane, which we've already seen crash into the English Channel. The only biplane left in the race by this point should be Newton's Phoenix Flyer.

Quotes:

Colonel Manfred von Holstein: There is nothing a German officer cannot do.

Movie Connections:

Edited into "The Monkees: Monkee See, Monkee Die (#1.2)" (1966)

Soundtrack:

LA CALUNNIA UN VENTICELLO

lengthy and funny piece

One of the numerous comedy epics of the 1960s (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World, and Monte Carlo or Bust being others), this movie is very funny and memorably so. The tale of several flyers from different nationalities (British, America, French, Italian, German, etc.) piloting their planes across the Channel from London to Paris - and the vintage model planes are fabulous - takes the form of a number of different interwoven stories leading up to the race in the last part of the movie.

The cast includes Terry-Thomas as Sir Percy, the cheating upper-class Englishman; James Fox as the irritating fop Richard; Stuart Whitman as Orvil the American nice guy; Jean-Pierre Cassell as the randy Frenchman; and Gert Frobe as the blustering German officer. Cameos a-plenty, from Benny Hill, Tony Hancock, William Rushton, Eric Sykes, Fred Emney, and so on. Irina Demick (in multiple roles), and Sarah Miles play what love interest the film has.

Highly recommended if you fancy a laugh. And a fantastic and memorable theme song as well.