Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes

I think everyone has a few old movies stashed away in their brains that for some reason or another are a part of their lives. Our personal soundtrack if you will. This film is one of mine. I know I saw it at a drive-in when it came out but can't recall which one. My older brother still recalls this one fondly also. It was gut busting funny at the time but hasn't aged that well due to the general public's far more sophisticated mindset these days. But it's still funny. Anyone who is a fan of flying or the history of traditional European nationalistic rivalry will still howl at this clever and at times very sharp satire. We see some of the attitudes that would help fuel the violent world wars that would erupt soon after 1910. The vintage aircraft, some authentic, some not, are sure to excite aircraft fans. The footage of the genuine planes actually flying across the English countryside is genuinely MAGNIFICENT. Many running gags through the length of the movie. My favorite is the obvious one...the redhead. I caught this on our PBS station just last night and as always I was hooked again and had to watch till two in the morning. There's something about most English movies from the 60's that is just magical. Even the bad ones like "Casino Royale" are still fascinating to watch. Great international casts, clever scripts, funny situations, sight gags...whole packages. Fun Movies, plain and simple. "Those Magnificent Men..." isn't a great film or even a great comedy. But it's still a genuine Fun Movie and well worth at least a rental fee. Now that I've seen it again for the zillonth time my brother and I will be talking about it and laughing out butts off the next time I see him. For us it's one of those kind of movies.

"Those Magnificent Men" probably looked on story boards like merely a colorful, often humorous and very enactable satire of an era, of its nations and of the early days of manned flight. Its plot line involved an international air race, from England to Paris, for whose prizes competitors in home-made aircraft from all over the world would journey to compete. The racers included Stuart Whitman aided by his brother Sam Wanamaker (Wilbur and Orville) from the U.S., James Fox of England, Albert Sordi from Italy, Gert Frobe and his team from Germany, Jean-Pierre Cassell and his ebullient hard-drinking group from France, plus a Scotsman and his dog, the villainous Sir Percy and his henchman, Terry-Thomas and Eric Sykes, a Japanese entrant and many others. Others in the large cast of the ensuing film also included Robert Morely as the wealthy patrician organizer of the race, a rather weak Sarah Miles as his daughter, beautiful Irina Demick who keeps turning up in every locale (in a new persona) and many more. But what the film's makers forgot was that the bravery and beauty of these canvas-winged and wooden primitive aircraft taking off and actually achieving flight would upstage even the often-hilarious comedy of the well-written proceedings. Using Red Skelton as "every man who has ever dreamed of flight", the producers prepared for the race, staged the race, and awarded the prizes--the climax being the arrival of the racers and what happened near the finish line, plus a justly happy ending. The film was written by Ken Annakin with Jack Davies, and Annakin directed it very competently also. Ron Goodwin's music and title song are well-remembered treats too. Others in the large, attractive cast include narrator James Robertson Justice, Gordon Jackson, Zena Marshall, Karl Michael Vogler, Yujiro Ishihara, Benny Hill, Flora Robson and Jeremy Lloyd. The film's pace is beautifully varied and consistently-maintained; the action includes acts of sabotage by the villains, practice flights gone wrong, low-comedy, a duel between the dour Frobe and devil-may-care Cassell conducted in hot air balloons, national humor at the expense of all concerned and incidents before and during the race. This is a very well-acted film; but the fine technical achievements and subordinate arts here had to take a back seat to the flight of the many wonderful "early birds", who outshone even the amusing national types who flew them. A much-imitated and superior comedy classic of its sort.

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.

An interesting collection of early aircraft in a lighthearted comedy. Set in the early 1900s, an "international" air race, from England to France, and of course across the English Channel, was proposed, ostensibly to advance aviation. Naturally, the film presents cultural/national stereotypes, but not maliciously.

Spoilers in the following.

One stereotype is the German team leader, played be Gert Frobe, who is so systematized that when his pilot is sick, feels that simply following the instruction books would enable him to fly the German entry. And it works, for a while. (Aside: taking off and guiding such ragwings could possibly work, but textbooks or no, the landings probably would be worth watching on something like America's Funniest Home Videos.) His antics, as his aircraft gets into trouble, thumbing frantically through his manuals, is classic.

The very end of the film (not counting the Red Skelton epilogue)is amusing. When it was filmed, the contrast of the early aircraft with modern jets was rather neat, but watching those antique jets now is rather quaint.

I first watched this movie in a remote part of colonial Mozambique, brought around by a touring Catholic priest, and projected on a bed sheet, with all the local residents sitting on grass.

Perhaps because most locals had never watched a film before, or seen aircraft, what I remember is people laughing throughout, with some kids (including me) trying to imitate what went on the screen.

I remember finding Gert Frobe and Cassel very funny. Since then, I have watched this movie some four times at different points in my life and I've always found it both touchingly absurd and uproariously funny in parts. One can find many loopholes in the story, but that hardly matters in a well-intentioned film clearly determined to get a good laugh out of you.