Flying with Prudence

A fun but quite strange information film made to encourage pilots who were used to taking risks in the war to put safety first in peace time. Some good flying shots and a delightful female lead. The pilot needs grounding though!

Coming cold to this film, it's not at all clear for whom it was intended. The end title reveals that it was sponsored by the Air Ministry's Directorate of Accident Prevention. It was made to remind daredevil fighter pilots during World War II that they must use more care and attention during peace time. In her film debut Patricia Cutts climbs down from a safety poster and gives advice to a pilot and his navigator. The film has only become available to the public in recent years and it's quite a privilege to see it. The insight into commercial air travel in 1946 is fascinating. The plane (an Avro York) mainly carries military personnel, but there are two civilians. The flight consists of several short hops to India. At one stopover the flight crew gets tanked up in a bar and considers going on to a nightclub. At another there appear to be no facilities whatever apart from a tent. (There were still tents at London Airport at this time). According to the Imperial War Museum site the destination may be Karachi. I was left with the feeling that, if pilots really were behaving so recklessly in 1946, commercial passengers were extremely brave to fly with them. Technical credits are quite high for this type of information film and the so-called "trick" effects (Cutts keeps materialising in the cockpit) are smoothly done. Well worth catching.

Jolly good RAF instructional film warning the chaps about the dangers of women, as Dickie, a frightfully posh pilot, struggles to keep his mind on the job, due to being plagued by visions of a disagreeable trollop called Prudence. Thankfully, this popsy turns out to be a decent sort after all, the type you'd bring home to meet mother in fact, and gives Dickie a stern telling off for being such a irresponsible blaggard. "Peace needs men, not maniacs"

Well said, Dear Prue, and as for Dickie, a cold shower was clearly in order.

The way they did Bizarre in 1946, something quite magical about the naivety

Clearly there must have be major problems with air safety to have persuaded the air ministry to make this film.It is frightening and entertaining.However I do wonder how air crew might have responded to sitting through this for 40 minutes.