when this movie first came out a little of folks called it a silly piece of tripe. just watching this scene reminds me how much better it was than 95% of the cinematic offal we have to put up with today.
@@raypurchase801It is one of the amazing things about this movie that they actually did build all of these functioning replicas of historical aircraft.
A BEAUTIFUL movie, lovely photography, very funny, a vast number of talented actors in every role, music by Ron Goodwin. Completely unlike any other film, A phenomenal effort which will never age. It still excites and makes us giggle today.
I remember seeing this at the theatre when it came out. I went with my parents and that was cool because we all had something good to share for days and days after that. That also happened with great films in no particular order, like Lawrence Of Arabia, Zulu, North To Alaska, all the way to The Sting.
0:16 The Prussian officer portrayed by Gert Frobe might not be the best pilot (he must unforeseenly replace their original trained pilot and use the instruction manual of the plane), but you have to admit that he is courageous. The scene over the English Channel where he must ditch due to a bird stealing his manual is priceless :-)
German audiences loved him. Because Gert Frobe was a Saxon and to their ears he was portraying a stick-up-the-arse Prussian with their equivalent of a farmer voice.
Antoinette ! What a beautiful french marvel. Should have crossed the english channel first but Latham water landed instead and smoked a cigarette while wainting for the rescue boat. The demoiselle was such a wonderful Santos Dumont plane. He gave the plans away so that whoever was interested could build its own. Santos Dumont killed himself as WW2 was glooming. He felt responsable, as a plane pioneer, of the new "killing " machines used in 1938 in his beloved skies.
A brilliant film, one of the all time greats. They wouldn't make a film like this, with such a marvellous collection of real flying machines now. Just love it. (And the way they send up just about every possible racial stereotype save the Russians, gently and lovingly, is terrific.)
It's interesting to see Robert Morley in this considering he was a spokesperson in British Airways television commercials. There's one commercial of him standing in front of a picture of Concorde.
Released in 1965. One of the first movies I remember as being approachably "epic!" (It took me a while to appreciate other movies of the time such as "Dr. Zhivago.")
More than that, it couldn't fly with a "full size" pilot - they had to get hold of one of little the "girls", who flew aircraft to the bases during WWII to fly it, cannot remember who, but I'm sure google know!
This clip shows the beauty and wonder of early flight, when it was a big deal to just get off the ground and get there! Also, these are real survivor and replicated airplanes that actually are being flown. Really cool but scary stuff! It's a good movie!
Another notable film role, was Derek Piggott's contribution to Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines in which he flew and advised on the construction of several of the early aircraft recreated for use in the film. Many of the planes employed wing warping for control in roll, which involved re-discovering how to fly them safely without the better roll control that comes from the use of ailerons. Several of the aircraft had dangerous features and he had a number of narrow escapes. -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Piggott (1922-2019)
I can imagine if one of the engines stalled as they flew towards the crowds... either that, or the lightweight construction was so flimsy that the pilot could break the plane in half just from their weight alone. It's lucky that the wheel from one of the planes didn't hit anyone. I can't judge the movie given that I've never watched it, but man... just looking at some of those planes is enough for me to refuse flying in them even if it was a life or death situation.😂
A real life incident happened a year after the 1910 setting of this film. At the start of the 1911 Paris to Madrid air race, immediately after taking off, the plane piloted by Émile Train turned around due to engine troubles and tried to land on the field. However, a large part of the crowd had surged onto the field and a cavalry troop was galloping across the field to contain them. To avoid that mass of people and horses, the pilot landed on the other side but he couldn't avoid a smaller group of dignitaries who were also crossing the field.. The French Minister of War, Henri Berteaux, was killed. Several others were injured including the Prime Minister.
