Out of the Clouds

Ealing loved its portmanteau films.If the stories are good enough eg Dead of Night then the film becomes a classic.If they are as bad as these then the film becomes instantly forgettable.None of the stories in this film is of much interest,and the love story is badly written and acted.Having seen this film before I decided to fast forward through the sequences featuring this laboured tale of romance.Therefore the only real interest is in watching a film set in an airport at the beginning of the jet age and comparing the differences to the current age of jet travel.Everything seems so stress free and controlled unlike today's environment.By the way this was definitely not a B feature.Colour was too expensive for B features in the fifties,it just feels like a B Feature.

I watched this on December 21st of December 2006, and it's really a thick fog covering most of the country, including of course London airports. The t.v. was full of pictures of massive crowds trying to get away. This film took you back to the same airport that is fog bound today. In those days it looked almost an enjoyment to be fog bound. It's a great old film full of atmosphere of the times. No drunken swearing passengers dressed as if they had come straight from work, all well behaved passengers who spoke very well and behaved admirably. None of the passengers complained it was the airports fault like today, all agreed it was the terrible weather. Good old fashion British black and white film, with stars of the day. Watch it again and again and you will find its different every time, its almost as if you were there It does what 'Oh Mr. Porter' and the 'Ghost train' did for rail travel fans, pure yester year atmosphere. Peachy Mead

At London Airport, a variety of staff and passengers pass each other, their various stories are told here – some intertwined some separate. Two passengers passing through meet briefly and develop a bond that seems due to be broken, an ex-pilot tries to pass his medical and get his wings back while another has to make a decision when faced with temptation.

Modern audiences will be very familiar with ensemble films that have several characters whose stories overlap around one theme (in this case the airport). However it doesn't really manage to pull this off to any great degree and it struggles to really paint an overall picture that engages. The main part of the plot is the romantic meeting between two passengers; this doesn't work for several reasons. Firstly, the plotting of it is strained and I never really bought into it. Secondly the performances from the two actors involved are so poor that the material can't survive past that.

The rest of the film has a few interesting strands with the pilots but again these don't really work out. Part of the reason for this is the film just not having enough time to really develop the characters into real characters, rather than just stories. The lack of character meant that I wasn't involved in the tale, rather just watching it. It is a shame because I haven't seen such a film from this period, even though I could name several from the past 10 years, but it just doesn't work out.

Overall it was a good try but the poor stories really draw a lot away from those that had potential. The film struggles more because the stories with potential are not supported or developed enough to be involving.

An amusing and quaint period piece with a couple of interesting parallels with life today (holocaust references and international drug smuggling). A good cast but the true stars are BOAC's Lockheed Super Constellation and the transatlantic Boeing Stratocruiser. Objects of beauty confined to museums these days.

After enjoying the customer care experience arriving at Stansted Airport recently I was reminded of how air travel it's magic and romance in the past sixty years. I'd first saw this film over fifty years ago and a recent showing of it on the excellent Talking Pictures channel has reminded me of what a great film this was. A typical Ealing portmanteau film with several story lines for me as a lifelong plane spotter was to see the location shots at Heathrow with the BOAC Constellations and Stratocrusers on the tarmac was truly magic. and the next time that fly with Easyjet or Ryanair I'll try to imagine that I'm flying first class with BOAC