They Flew Alone

This film tells the story of Amy Johnson, the first female pilot to make all sorts of solo flights and set records in the 1930s. She meets fellow aviator Jim Mollison who, likewise, sets all kinds of records in what can be seen as a rivalry. Fate brings them together and they marry. However, the marriage has problems and then the 2nd World War breaks out where they both take their places and play a role. Unfortunately, for Amy...

Anna Neagle portrays Amy Johnson and Robert Newton plays Jim Mollison and it's not a bad film. It certainly seems shorter than its hour and three quarters running time. We have the obvious patriotic call for all women to join in the war effort at the film's end and it's a shame that Neagle tries a northern accent. She kind of slips in and out of it and sounds like a posh person putting on a northern accent. Still, we get an accurate portrayal of events in her life including a glimpse of the alcoholism that was to plague Mollison. What do you expect, he's Scottish!

They Flew Alone is a creaky biopic of the British female flying legend Amy Johnson (Anna Neagle) who in the 1930s broke many solo flying records such as flying alone to Australia.

Johnson had a tumultuous marriage with fellow aviator Jim Mollison (Robert Newton). Although they had flying in common their exploits to fly as a duo were rarely successful and the marriage ended in no part due to his alcoholism and womanising.

During World War 2, Johnson served for the Air Transport Auxiliary and was tragically killed in a plane crash in January 1941.

This film was rushed out a year later primarily as a propaganda piece to boost female employment during the war in skilled professions such as mechanics and flying.

The film does a good job in showcasing a pre war female pioneer but Neagle despite a good attempt in doing a northern accent also shows her limited skills (although even a great actress would had found it difficult to pass herself off as a convincing schoolgirl at the beginning of the film.) She is just workmanlike and the film is pedestrian but works better with its feminist subtext.

At least Newton who is more restrained here than he was in later years as Long John Silver stands out as someone who loves Johnson but is too flawed to be her constant companion.

Anna Neagle gives a sterling performance in this otherwise dreary and pedestrian biopic of flying ace Amy Johnson - she even manages a very credible northern accent for a lady with such natural RP delivery. Anna was always slighted as an actress of limited range, promoted to major stardom by her besotted husband Herbert Wilcox, however of the two personalities, Wilcox was really the lesser talent. His direction of this - and every Wilcox/Neagle film - is uninspiring and flat. No wonder Anna rarely came across brilliantly on the screen, under her husband's leaden workmanship. How sad that the man who did pick her from nowhere and promote her to stardom was a director of such limited skill: had she been spotted by a Hitchcock, or a Korda, for example, who knows how much more Miss Neagle might have brought to her roles.

The story of Amy Johnson may be a positive and inspiring one, but this film fictionalization of it never flies higher than a routine, check-all-the-boxes aviator yarn. What could be described as primitive, even for 1942, special effects really mar the suspense points, when the important flights she and/or her husband undertake. The pathetic miniatures, and obvious shoddy backgrounds give the film an uneven, cheap look. The shots of what the pilots see never match well, and at no time do we ever feel the supposed danger from the scenes of looking in on the cockpits, it's just so obviously a nice safe, immobile prop. The reliance on newspaper headlines (or the British equivalent, the newsagent's heralds) to help the story along, is truly ridiculous, more than any other film I believe I have ever seen. I don't know the reason why, but the print shown on TCM seems to be the original British film with the title switched out from the American version, though that copy is obviously a low-quality, perhaps 16mm print. But more strangely, there seems to be inept, ham-handed editing throughout, shortening scenes abruptly, or crashing out as a new scenes start. Why? If there were two prints at hand, couldn't a more complete one be assembled from them? Even second-choice quality material is better than missing altogether.

If any scholar of film wants to know better why the British Film Industry died on its feet, then watch this one. Essentially a propaganda piece whose aim was to (belatedly) encourage women into the second-line in WWII, with the achievements of Amy Johnson merely as the McGuffin (pardon my Hitchcock phraseology!). The stiff-upper lip was rarely stiffer, though the legendary Newton was less hammy than usual (recall he gave us the Long John Silver that we automatically think of). Once the need for propaganda had passed (along with its better actors) the British Film Industry had no real subject matter to interest anyone other than parochial Brits (I would only exempt David Lean and his entourage from this) and died a slow and painful death. It would have been better if this subject had been tackled after the War and concentrated more on Amy's endeavours (and indeed those of the great Jim Mollison).