No Highway In The Sky

In what amounts to a riveting detective story, this pearl of a film appears to have been dwarfed by other 20th Century Fox releases of the time. Without a doubt, the template of a young aeronautical engineer - specializing in metallurgic forensics - stumbling upon what could be proof of catastrophic structural fatigue that could result in the deaths of airline passengers was a clear ticket for American actor, Jimmy Stewart. Playing the introverted and absent-minded Theodore Honey, Stewart's character is trying to convince the hierarchy of the Royal Aircraft Establishment that their most recent entry into the civil passenger livery may be seriously flawed. The four-engine, turbo-prop Reindeer passenger plane is prone to cataclysmic vibration harmonics in the tail empennage after approximately 1440 hours of flying time. At least, this is what it appears to be on paper to Mr. Honey who is waiting on actual testing of the tail structure to bear his hypothesis out. In the meantime, the Reindeer fly. One of the passenger planes has already crashed in Labrador and there may be evidence that it experienced a catastrophic tail separation before plummeting to the ground. The Director of the Establishment's Metallurgic Department, Sir John - played by Ronald Squire - insists that Mr. Honey be on the investigation team that goes to the crash site. In the meantime, Sir John's understudy, Dennis Scott - played by Jack Hawkins - gets some unique insight into the rather odd, yet talented, Mr. Honey. Honey, a Rhodes Scholar, is a widower with a young daughter, Elspeth - played with invigorating charm and youthful innocence by Janette Scott. Having lost his wife, Mary, during the war, Honey - among his many interests and endeavors, has struggled to raise a young 12 year old woman into the world, whose intellectual capacity and interests rival those of her father - yet, has had little exposure to a normal childhood. In a moment of discovery at Mr. Honey's tenement, Dennis Scott looks over the many stacked books in Honey's library and littered about the house. A singular small book deals with raising a child, which speaks oceans about Honey's understanding of the subject - he mentions to Scott that he doesn't entirely agree with the book!Honey leaves England aboard a passenger plane that turns out to be one of the planes which he is investigating - a Reindeer. We are introduced to a number of significant characters - a flight attendant, Marjorie Corder, ably and passionately played by Glynis Johns, and a sultry actress ("sultry" being all too cliché), Monica Teasdale, played with the reverent precision of Marlene Dietrich. Liall MacGinnis plays the pilot, Captain Samuelson, in an un-credited role. Kenneth More, also in an un-credited role, plays the co-pilot, Dobson. The flight is key to the story - as Mr. Honey, identified as a company employee and prominent engineer, is given a brief courtesy tour of the aircraft and speaks with the flight engineer, garnering information that this particular Reindeer has accrued a little more than 1420 hours of flight time - closely approaching the window of vulnerability that Honey has predicted with this calculations - 1440 hours... Nervous to say the least, Honey asks to speak to the Captain and asks that he turn back now - indicating his professional understanding of the Reindeer design flaw. Samuelson is skeptical, not having heard of any such problem through normal airline channels. But, it appears that he can't entirely ignore this warning. Honey explains that he is headed to Gander as part of an investigation team looking into the crash of a Reindeer wherein the tail section was not discovered with the bulk of the wreckage...suggesting that it separated before its fateful plunge. When Samuelson suggests that they go back and look at the structure of the internal tail assembly - looking for fissures or other signs of stress, Honey mentions, that this event will be all of a sudden...one moment the structure will be perfectly fine, then suddenly, the character of the metal will change - resulting in catastrophic separation...the plane will descend into the sea and they will all be killed. Samuelson considers this and states that he will make a call to get advice and will shut down the inboard engines in order to minimize vibration. From this, we gather that he is somewhat receptive as one would hope any human being responsible for the lives of others would be. Flight attendant Corder and Actress Teasdale are deeply touched when Mr. Honey reveals to them just where in the aircraft they are most likely to survive the initial impact into the sea, should they experience the inevitable tail separation. It appears that their safety is of paramount importance.The Reindeer uneventfully lands in Gander and within an instant, all of those who were convinced in Honey's vision of disaster, are simply relieved to be on the ground, and doubt that his prediction had any merit to begin with - but, the flight will soon resume on its second leg to Montreal. Honey is treated with indignation and placed in flight attendant Corder's custody while the Captain asks for a thorough inspection of the Reindeer. Both Corder and Teasdale are determined to resume with the continuing flight. Honey is a man of conviction and is determined to see that this Reindeer can't continue. SPOILER ALERT! To emphasize his determination to obtain the appropriate audience, Mr. Honey is able to make his way into the Reindeer cockpit and hits the landing gear retraction lever. The Reindeer crumples to the tarmac - damaged and no longer air-worthy. "Now, I've done it!", Honey exclaims...Back in England, Miss Teasdale and Miss Corder visit the Honey residence, sympathetically, to look after Elspeth while her father - whose fate is uncertain - undergoes grilling and psychiatric evaluation. In the meantime, his experiment with the static vibration testing of an exemplar Reindeer tail-plane continues. In the apex of suspense, Honey must attend a meeting of the Board of Directors who will consider his fate. Miss Corder decides that she will marry Mr. Honey who, obviously, needs just a little help and guidance. The speech Mr. Honey makes in defense is actions in Gander is priceless with its Jimmy Stewart twang - reminiscent of his many fine performances where he stands up for himself. While the testing of the Reindeer tail has exceeded his calculations in terms of time anticipated to fail, Mr. Honey resigns from the Establishment. A report reaches the Establishment that the repaired Reindeer from Gander experienced a catastrophic tail failure upon landing in England - just as Honey receives this message at his testing facility - his test bears out his theory - This is an absorbing film with great acting and very good special effects for the time period.

Why isn't this a better known Jimmy Stewart movie? Great story. Great acting. Marlena D. The female actor who 20 years later played the mom in "Mary Poppins". Based on a novel by the guy who, later, wrote "On the Beach" (and his original book, called "No Highway", is great too), the screen play adaptation is wonderful. Well worth viewing. Hopefully more people will learn about this super movie.

When there was news that the Air Force was having a problem with the tails on the refueling planes (believe that is correct) it reminded me of this movie that I saw so long ago. I remembered the name and was so happy to find it on fire tv, for a small price, but lots of fun and well worth it

This is a faithful film adaptation of a very good Nevil Shute novel. (Mr. Shute was the author of "On the Beach" and "A Town Like Alice," among other fine books.) This is a story of good people, simply trying to live their lives and often finding sanity and - dare I say it? - salvation through hard work, a recurring theme in Mr. Shute's writings. The central character is Theodore Honey, a boffin at the Royal Aircraft Establishment research facility shortly after World War II investigating the rather peculiar - for the time - theory that metal fatigue might cause catastrophic failure in aircraft structures during flight.Stewart's Honey is certainly a boffin, in the traditional British sense. A brilliant but introverted scientist, almost completely wrapped up in his work. His only real contact with society is through his daughter, who he is raising alone since his wife was killed by a German bomb during World War II. The rest of society is a complete puzzlement to Honey, as is Honey to the rest of society. He is only just barely intelligible to the scientific types he works with. Stewart plays the bumbling Honey to the hilt, with a messy house and few social graces. His daughter is much loved, but the audience can see she is starving for more from life than Honey can even imagine her needing. Stewart - and I am not a Stewart fan - makes Honey both believable and likeable, and even potentially lovable. (Part of his success is due to the fact that Honey's foibles as shown in the movie really are funny without being insulting to the character.)So where does the story line come in? Well, Honey's ideas about metal fatigue is actually very important, because he is testing them on the tail section of a new British airliner, the Reindeer, which is already in service flying between Britain and North America. According to Honey's calculations, tail assemblies are going to start falling off these planes after about 1400 hours of flight time. Luckily, the planes are so new in service that this deadline does not appear to be an immediate problem. Except, not so luckily, a few of the early production models used for testing are approaching the fateful 1400 hour limit, and one has already passed that limit and crashed in Canada, with the cause of the crash attributed to "pilot error."Quite reasonably, Honey is sent across the Atlantic to investigate the Canadian crash. It turns out that he flies off in - what else? - a Reindeer. A Reindeer which he discovers after take off has over 1400 hours of airtime. Suddenly Honey the boffin is thrust into the real world with a vengeance. His attempts to warn the flight crew of the potential danger fail, and his introverted personality encourages him to withdraw from the fight. Yet at the same time his basic humanity draws him to warn and to try saving both a famous movie actress on the same flight, well played by Marlene Dietrich, and a caring stewardess played by Glynis Johns. Honey's honest attraction to these very different people forces him out of his scientific shell to take drastic action to save them and the other passengers and crew.Within the story, we see character exposition and character development not only from Honey, but also by Dietrich and Jones. These later developments are both touching and fully believable. Especially poignant is Dietrich's character, who is drawn to Honey's honesty and commitment, but is literally beaten to the door by the stewardess played by Jones. The Dietrich character's sadness at what she believes is her own rather pointless celluloid life, and her sorrow at losing Honey are truly moving.Strong supporting roles are provided by Jack Hawkins (last seen helping to blow up that Damn bridge on over the River Kwai) and several other fine actors, especially the young Janette Scott who plays Honey's 12 year old daughter Elspeth. Scott's role as a young girl who loves and worships her father, and yet is paying a price for her constrained family life she can not even understand is beautifully done. (One of the best scenes of the movie is where Dietrich's character, about to leave the world of the Honey's for good, asks the stewardess, who is there to stay, to "tell [Elspeth] that she is pretty.")I know it may seem that I have given a lot away in this review. But be assured, there is a lot more to this movie that I haven't even touched on. For just one example, where else are you going to see real flight footage of the Meteor, the first British jet fighter? And for another example, just how Honey finally manages to save the lives of everyone on that apparently doomed Reindeer is fun, exciting, and empowering, to Honey and to other characters as well.Anyway, If you like people, you will like this movie.

This review was originally for the Grandes Clasicos DVD (Amazon have lumped together reviews for different formats and releases here) but having also bought the Hollywood Studios Collection version released on 31October 2016 (black and white image on cover), I can confirm that this latest one has a running time of 94 minutes, ie, 7mins longer than the Spanish version. The movie itself was 98 minutes long, but I would guess that the difference is due to 'PAL speed up' resulting from the transfer to DVD (comments welcome). In any case, the bits I felt sure we're missing are now there so I'm delighted! Great B&w print, good sound but no subtitles.FILM - I absolutely loved this gripping story, from a Nevil Shute novel, about an absent minded boffin of a mathematician, who is convinced that metal fatigue will cause a plane's tail to fall off, with terrifying implications for the whole fleet - but nobody believes him. James Stewart is brilliant as the widowed, 'bonkers boffin' (a line delivered beautifully by Kenneth More in a small part as a cabin steward), as is little Janette Scott as his 'Mini-Me' 12-year-od boffin of a daughter. There are also good roles for Glynis Johns, who is particularly warm and lovely as a stewardess, Jack Hawkins and the ultra-elegant and witty Marlene Dietrich as a sceptical passenger dripping with furs, travelling with the alarming Stewart. There's also plenty of 'techie' action with Stewart and other 'testers' on the ground. Niall MacGuinness also gets a small but memorable role, which shows his superb acting skills to good effect as a worried pilot. However, towards the end of the Spanish version, Janette Scott and Marlene Dietrich disappear from the proceedings in a very unsatisfactory way, which is where the cutting must have taken place. Thankfully, this is resolved in the Hollywood Studios DVD. The film was made by Twentieth Century Fox in the UK, and it has a nicely expensive look to it.

This review relates to the October 2016 Hollywood Studio Collection edition (black & white cover picture of Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart). The rating on the box is PG. It is really good to have this great film back again in a new edition. I too can confirm that the running time is approximately 94 minutes. As to whether anything is still missing compared to the original cinema version, I am not sure: I had a feeling that the episode in the book where Elspeth assists the search in Labrador with the help of an Ouija board was also covered in the original cinema film, but I can't now be sure; anyway it scarcely matters. This DVD is so good on so many fronts, not least a fine story from Nevil Shute - and I also urge you to read the book, which contains even more colour and detail, though all the essentials are in the film. Then we have an incomparable line up of actors: with James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns, the great Jack Hawkins and Kenneth More (who doesn't even get a credit!) together, who could wish for more? Incidentally I think the latter was one of the flight crew officers, not a steward. This is a real classic on so many levels.

This film is a more a vehicle for James Stewart, who hams it up in the part as an eccentric scientist, than a faithful retelling of Nevil Shute's novel about design faults in the construction of a new aeroplane. Marlene Deitrich does her best, despite being miscast, and seems to have wandered in from a different movie. Glynis Johns almost steals the film as concerned air stewardess. The young Janette Scott gives an interesting performance as the scientist's neglected daughter

I saw this movie many years ago on TV, It was different, and loving airplane stuff, I remembered there were some early British jets + a really neat mock up used for the defective airliner. Well acted, with Jimmy Stewart in a role really make for him as the absent-minded, but brilliant engineer who knows something is wrong with a new airliner, but can't figure out where the real solution to the problem is....until the last 10 seconds of the film. Great film editing, especially at the end (a quality missing in so many of today's movies). Marlene Dietrich is also very good...the kind of person I would love to meet on an airliner....although she probably wouldn't be in today's Economy Class.

Saw this when it was first relessed, you used to get double bills in those days. I wondered if it would still stsnd up today.. Someone once said that movies about trains were always good! That's true, I think it can also be said about aeroplanes. Mind, it seemed more of a pleasure in the early 50s where this movie is set. Then you were treat as a customer, unlike today where they think they are doing you a favour letting you fly with them. I've always liked James Stewart, and as usual he gives a good performance, this time as an abstend minded professer, Marlene Dietrich plays amovie star! Suporting players include Glynis Johns, Jack Hawkins, Kenneth Moore, Janette Scott and Wilfred Hyde White, so it's loaded with talent. The plot is good, so if you can get away from how flying was once pleasure, that's what makes it feel dated. I enjoyed it all over again, but I feel younger folk will be amazed at the airport scenes, but that's how it was kids.