Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines

Any film that stars ‘Bounder’ TerryThomas and Gert Frobe is likely to be good, and 1965’s Those Magnificent

Men In Their Flying Machines is just such a film. The story is set in 1910 Britain, where the fictional proprietor of the Daily Post, Lord Rawnsley (played by Robert Morley), offers a £10,000 prize to the winner of his London-toParis Air Race. Competitors from around the globe attempt to get to Paris at the expense of their fellow flyers, employing skulduggery, villainy and derring-do at every turn.

Thomas, Morley, Frobe, Eric Sykes, James Fox et al were the stars – but so too were the amazing variety of period and replica aircraft used in the film’s production, Ronald Searle’s illustrations in the credits and Ron Goodwin’s accompanying soundtrack.

Ken Annakin’s screenplay was the culmination of his ambition to make a feature film about aviation. When in the wartime RAF he directed documentaries and he later worked on the 1962 film

The Longest Day. With backing from Darryl F Zanuck, his aviation film got approval from 20th Century Fox and shooting began in England in 1964. To achieve the authentic flying scenes, a few original aircraft were used plus 20 replicas built using traditional methods. Some copied original designs, others were adaptations of Edwardian types.

An airfield and race circuit replicating Brooklands (and called ‘Brookley’) was constructed at Booker Airfield in Bucks, complete with period hangars and, oddly, a windmill. To fill the crowd scenes at the air race’s start, members of the Veteran Car Club turned up en masse, all in period clothing. Some sprinted their cars around the replica Brooklands-style banking, and actress Sarah Miles rode a motorbike.

‘A fanciful and clever piece of picture-making,’ declared one critic. We’d agree.