M7 ne répond plus

Director Anthony Asquith, better known for adapting plays to the screen, is surprisingly involved in what I see labeled as a B pic, THE NET, which seems to borrow a few ideas and shooting angles from David Lean's THE SOUND BARRIER (UK 1952).

The Cold War in its infancy, THE NET already has Noel Willman as a sly and ruthless villain, the ever reliable James Donald as the scientist putting his life (and marriage) at risk, and the lovely Phyllis Calvert as Donald's loving wife who has the briefest of affairs with Herbet Lom, who plays Dr Axel Leon, the man supposed to control the M7 aircraft from the military base, and so ensure that Donald stays alive.

Curiosity: Herbert Lom, who would rise to fame as the bungling and vindictive police inspector in several PINK PANTHER films in the late 1960s and during the 1970s, has in the cast the closest to a name sake: Herbert Lomas playing the part of George Jackson.

Pretty Pavlow and Lomas are supposed to be in love but, unlike Calvert and Lom, they never kiss on screen, and you end up wondering whether the film or the plot needed them at all.

Photography is so-so (some of the model shots are quite rudimentary), the acting not exactly memorable (villain Willman steals the show), and the script by William Fairchild certainly has holes. One detail I could not work out: why is this film called THE NET? Spy net? The net provided by ground control? That "net of a fossilized scientist" keeping him from his wife (who just turns up in the high secretive and sensitive control room and even takes over communication with the aircraft, as if that could ever happen) just does not convince me one bit.

In the end, it is a somewhat interesting foray into post WWII aviation, and how the trials and errors of the time paved the way for the much safer flying we have today.

This movie came out a year after David Lean's BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER and can probably best be described as Antony Asquith's take on the matter. James Donald -- whom I best recall as the wan Senior British Officer in THE GREAT ESCAPE -- is the boffin-pilot of the M-7, a plane that can go three times the sound barrier. Top-billed Phyllis Calvert is underused as his loyal wife who is tempted by continental Herbert Lom; and there is a spy somewhere at the testing facility, which has everyone on edge.

Asquith seems happiest with the soap opera aspects of the movie, which is the least interesting part to me; the "Flying Wing" design of the plane, with its "atomic motors" looks good, but I kept expecting someone to begin singing the theme from "Supercar!"

For a soap opera with scientific bafflegab, it's a well-constructed bit of fluff. Cinematographer Desmond Dickinson does his usual interesting work, shooting the majority of the scenes in a dark, foreboding fashion that suggests the murky loyalties and emotions; only the control room and the scenes of the plane in flight are brightly lit: that's where reality and certainty lie.

Still, it's an uneasy melding of the two genres. I'd stick with the Lean movie, even if the plane only goes a third as fast.

Anthony Asquith always delivers, and here is a further development of the experimental paths of David Lean's "The Sound Barrier" some year before, getting almost metaphysical on flying as high and fast as possible.

But like most of Asquith's films, it's really a psychological delving and charting this time into the weird issue of science as an obsession bordering on madness. Prof. Michael Heathley (James Donald) lives only for his airplane and neglects his charming beautiful wife Phyllis Calvert, always a joy on the screen. He is evidently at risk as he is constantly overworking and prone to take risks - his only fear is to get stuck in "the net of a fossilized scientist", and much of the film is symbolically behind barbed wire. In his team are Robert Beatty as a security major and Herbert Lom admiring his wife and actually going a bit far flirting with her, but you excuse him since she is neglected and so irresistible. Another cheerful doctor (Noel Willman) is also with them, but you are alarmed from the start by his demeanour, and he will surprise you. The music adroitly illustrates the border line element in the workshop, and there is some spying business going on as well.

There are some nerve-racking flying sequences, just like in "The Sound Barrier", but David Lean's film sticks more to the ground and reality, while here you are taken for a ride beyond consciousness bordering almost on science fiction. It's a thriller, and as the tension increases at constantly higher gear as the film climaxes, you will not able to relax until after the very last minute.

As has been previously mentioned this film followed The Sound Barrier by one year.If you have to watch only one demented scientist in the air then chose the original.This film fails to engage either as drama or aviation epic.In fact the film turns almost to farce when Donald decides to take the plane up again despite having been forbidden to do so.For some reason Donald cannot seem to appreciate that if he crashes the plane and its development will reach a conclusion.I think this film will most appeal to aviation buffs or people who enjoy seeing shots of loudspeakers with voices coming out of them.Since I am neither I found the film a complete bore.

After watching this again, from an original film copy, I was most impressed by the technical special effects by Albert Whitlock. The story is mostly drama, with the actual flight around 40 minutes into the film. The plane appears again later on. I was really impressed by the plane in flight. I couldn't tell it was a model. And the sound effects it made were very impressive. In the plot, there may be someone on the team who isn't who he seems. Very thrilling end to the film. Highly recommend.