Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines

This is one of my most favourite comedies. I saw it no less than five times in my life and every time I liked it even more. A wonderful, merry, intelligent and heart-warming film. Below, more of my impressions, with some limited SPOILERS. In 1910, at a time when aircraft were still fragile and unreliable contraptions, Lord Rawnsley (Robert Morley) a British newspaper magnate, decides to sponsor an air race from London to Paris, offering a shocking 10.000 pounds as the prize. That immediately attracts numerous intrepid competitors, of which no less than fourteen will finally qualify to participate. Here they are, in order of starting numbers Number 1: Richard Mays (James Fox); a very formal Army officer, Mays is also courting (well, sort of) Patricia (Sarah Miles), the daughter of Lord Rawnsley Number 2: Sir Percy Ware-Armitage (Terry-Thomas, splendid as always!), a ghastly character and a vilainous cheater Number 3: Orvil Newton (Stuart Whitman) from Arizona, a brilliant (but so colonial) pilot; the only American in the contest; he also courts Patricia, in a much more direct way than Richard Mays... Number 4: Lieutenant Parsons (Jeremy Lloyd), a Royal Navy officer; a rather likeable fellow, who flies with his pet dog, "The First Flying Dog in History" Number 5: Harry Popperwell (Tony Hancock); his plane is somehow mysteriously named "Little Fiddler" Number 6: Captain Rumpelstoss (Karl Michael Vogler) and later Colonel Manfred von Holstein (Gert Froebe, absolutely wonderful!); those two Prussian officers from Imperial German Army were mandated by the Kaiser in person to win - at al price! Number 7: Mr Wallace. As I couldn't even find the name of the actor who plays him you can reasonably assume, that his participation will be short... Number 8: Charles Wade. Same thing as above... Number 9: Mr Yamamoto (Yujiro Ishihara), an extremely impressive Japanese pilot, flying a splendid airplane. Mr Yamamoto is one of the favourites in this race. Number 10: Count Emilio Ponticelli (Alberto Sordi, hilarious!), an Italian aristocrat who survived a record number of crashes, but who is also one helluva pilot. The count is also married to splendidly beatiful Sophia (Zena Marshall), who gave him nine children and who every day begs him to finally stop flying... Number 11: Henri Monteux. Same thing as points 7 and 8. Number 12: Pierre Dubois (Jean-Pierre Cassel), a brilliant (but so continental) French pilot whose two main purposes in this race seem to be to sleep with every woman he meets and especially to troll the Germans...))) Number 13: Mr Mac Dougall (Gordon Jackson), a proud Scot flying an airplane named "Wake up Scotland" Number 14: Harry Walton. Same thing as points 7, 8 and 11. For the needs of this film the director requested that authentic flying replicas of some of planes which really existed in 1910 are build - and those planes were really used! For that reason this film gives really a great feeling of authenticity. There are many other treasures in this film, like national stereotypes, Benny Hill as fireman, air crashes, slapstick humour, romance, sexism and sexual harassment, German military, Courtney (the low-class butler of Sir Percy), "La Marseillaise", blunderbusses, national stereotypes, Catholicism, sabotage, promiscuity, fistfights, guineas, female underwear, one HUGE navigation error, white cliffs of Dover, diarrhea, cultural shock, practical jokes, national stereotypes, Neanderthal man, French kissing and last but not least Brigitte (Irina Demick), Marlene (Irina Demick), Ingrid (Irina Demick), Françoise (Irina Demick), Yvette (Irina Demick) and Betty (Irina Demick)...))) I absolutely LOVE this film! It is one of the best comedies EVER. To watch ABSOLUTELY!

Wonderfully entertaining film with a magnificent cast including Jean-Pierre Cassel, Gert Frobe, Albert Sordi, the caddish Terry Thomas, Eric Sykes as his hapless assistant, Tony Hancock, Sarah Miles, James Fox, Robert Morley and many others. Plenty of extras including a narration and interview with the film's director, Ken Annakin. The real stars are the aeroplanes and director Annakin goes into great detail about how scenes were shot and technical difficulties overcome. Because of the cost and the going over budget the whole project was very nearly abandoned. Thank goodness it wasn't - despite the lack of CGI this film looks realistic and perhaps because of the lack of modern technology it has retained an immense charm which all the family can enjoy. And the musical score is wonderful as well. Beautifully restored in anamorphic full screen this is a film not to be missed. Highly recommended!!

Awesome Movei

CHARACTERS. This movie discloses events leading up to, and including, a competition where about a dozen aviators in the year 1910 fly from England to Paris. The main characters include a wealthy British newspaper publisher (he sponsors the event), his lovely daughter, the fiance of the lovely daughter (a handsome British aviator), an American cowboy aviator from Arizona, and Terry-Thomas (plays the bad guy). SOURCES OF MILD CONFLICT. Amusing tension arises from some mild attempts by the American cowboy to win the heart of the lovely daughter. The fiance and the American trade punches briefly, but what we see barely qualifies as a fist-fight. Amusing tension arises from Terry-Thomas' behavior in sabataging several of the airplanes of the competing aviators. Amusing tension also takes the form of the lovely daughter disobeying her father, by riding motorcycles, and by going up in an airplane with the American cowboy. The most dramatic episode occurs when the girl joins the American cowboy in his airplane, but is forced to take the stick, because the American needs to leave the cockpit to walk out on the wing in order to repair a broken strut. SOURCES OF COMEDY. Comedy arises from repeated stereotypical behavior of Germans, e.g., the behavior of Germans in adhering strictly to protocol and repeatedly consulting instruction booklets for even the simplest of tasks. Comedy also arises from the trousers of various people being pulled down. On a couple of occasions, a woman's dress gets pulled down, revealing her bloomers (we don't even see her bare legs). On one occasion, a man's pants fall down. In this case, a strut on the man's airplane broke while the plane was in the air, and the pilot (the cowboy) needed to walk out on the wing and fix the broken strut with his belt, but this causes the man's pants to fall down. More comedy arises when a man is clinging to the back of an airplane when the plane aloft, and he inches his way forward, and manages to tumble into the cockpit, face down. His head gets inserted towards the floor of the cockpit, and the man's two legs jut upwards, and wiggle about, one to the right of the pilot's head and the other leg to the left of the pilot's head. (Ha, ha, ha, so funny I am in great pain.) Another amusing moment occurs where a plane makes a forced landing in front of a convent. At first, the nuns refuse to help the Italian aviator, and insist that he leave at once. But the Italian aviator is clever, and proclaims, "You wouldn't want a Protestant to win the race, would you?" At this point, the head nun instantly changes her mind, and commands all the other nuns to come to the aid of the Italian aviator. EYE CANDY. But best of all, the viewer is treated to a continual parade of turn-of-the-century aircraft, some with improbable conformations, such as an airplane with circular, donut-shaped wings. We see close-ups of engines. We see dozens of crash landings -- into a sand dune, into a sewage treatment pond, into the English Channel. SUMMARY. The movie is a storehouse of juvenile humor. Every ten or 15 minutes, there is an airplane crash where nobody gets hurt. The pilot just falls out the airplane, lands in the grass, and proclaims something like, "whoops" or "upsy-daisy!" There are no bad words in this movie. Understanding the movie requires only the shortest of attention spans. The quality of the image in the DVD is excellent. The movie brings to mind the continual action and calculated chaos of, IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD. In FLYING MACHINES, I liked every minute. (But in MAD WORLD, there were a couple of sequences that I thought were irritating and annoying.) FLYING MACHINES also might be compared, to a small extent, with Spielberg's fine movie, 1941. In both movies (FLYING MACHINES and 1941), a beautiful young woman becomes attracted to men because the result is a trip in the man's airplane. At any rate, the intellectual level of FLYING MACHINES is somewhere between that of SPONGE BOB and TELETUBBIES. Also, the comfort level, as it applies to the comfort of young children, of FLYING MACHINES is also somewhere between that of SPONGE BOB and TELETUBBIES. If you are a parent of a young child, there is only a handful of other suitable movies that I can recommend. In particular, I recommend WONDERFUL WORLD OF BROTHERS GRIMM, also with Terry-Thomas (as the bad guy), and with Buddy Hackett, Russ Tamblyn (WEST SIDE STORY), and the adorable Barbara Eden.

Would you like to take a ride in my ornithopter? No? How about a quick jaunt in my aerial steam carriage? Maybe a lift in my oscillating monoplane? It's hard for many of us to imagine when airplanes were not the efficient, quick, safe, and somewhat affordable mode of transportation that they are today, but there was a time when the technology was still in the experimental stage, back in the early 20th century, and that's when the film Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines, or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes (1965)...whew! That's one heck of a title... Directed by Ken Annakin, a British director who gained acclaim working on such Disney films like The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), The Sword and the Rose (1953), and Swiss Family Robinson (1960), Those Magnificent Men (shortened for sanity's sake) stars Stuart Whitman (Call Him Mr. Shatter) and Sarah Miles (The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing). Also appearing are Robert Morley (The African Queen), Gert Fröbe (Goldfinger), Eric Sykes, Benny Hill, Yûjirô Ishihara (Japan's most popular film, TV, and recording star at the time), along with England's most recognizable gap-toothed character actor Terry-Thomas (his most famous roles involve him playing an upper-class British twit, as he does here). The story is pretty straightforward here...basically, a rich (in both money and snobbery) English newspaper owner named Lord Rawnsley (played by Morley) happens upon an idea, one which would increase his paper's circulation greatly, of having an aeronautical race from London to Paris, with the winner to receive not only a large sum of dough, but the prestige of being the first man to accomplish such a daring feat. Applicants from all over the world begin appearing, most for the money, but some for the honor of their respective country. Orvil Newton (Whitman), arrives from America, Colonel Manfred von Holstein (Fröbe) from Germany, and so on and so on...and lest we forget native Englander Sir Percy Ware-Armitage (Thomas), along with his less than able henchman Courtney (Sykes), a pair of bounders (Sir Percy being the bigger bounder of the two) who will stoop to almost any form of chicanery in order to win the race. As far as grand, epic comedies go (the film runs roughly 138 minutes, but there is a lengthy intermission about halfway through, for those of you with the weak bladders), this isn't the best in my opinion, but it's certainly not the worst. My favorite has always been It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), with others being Around the World in 80 Days (1956), The Great Race (1965), Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies, aka Monte Carlo or Bust (1969). As with any of these films, Those Magnificent Men... has a few separate storylines going on at the same time that tie themselves up by the end, the main one usually being a romantic plot, here being a tepid love triangle between Patricia Rawnsley (played by Miles), whose father is sponsoring the race, Orvil, and a local man named Richard Mays (played by James Fox, who, by the way was involved with Sarah Miles in real life, around the time of the making of this film). I had read somewhere that the makers of this film had originally hoped to get Dick Van Dyke for Whitman's role, but couldn't for whatever reason. Casting Whitman as the male lead was a serious boo boo, as Whitman is one of the most unfunny, uncharming, and unwatchable actors I've seen in a long time. Come to think of it, the entire movie isn't really all that funny, but it does give effort and it has a lot of charm. The working replicas of the old-timey planes are really wonderful, along with the various authentic vehicles displayed, i.e. motorcars, motorcycles, etc. The aeronautical shots were excellent as was the scenery, the Cliffs of Dover, the Eiffel Tower, etc. I was kind of disappointed Terry-Thomas didn't have a bigger part in the film, as his on screen time probably ran about 15 minutes total at most. He plays the pretentious, foppish English twit better than most any other actor I'm familiar with...Come to think of it, I thought there was an awful lot of comic talent appearing in this film, with so little of it actually used (I'm still stuck on the whole `casting of Whitman as the comedic male lead' thing). The rest of the fliers, from various countries (which country made extremely obvious by not only their clothing but manner of speech), fills out a good deal of time. The stereotypes presented (an uptight German lacking a sense of humor, an animated Italian who has like 15 children, an overly amorous Frenchman) are goofy caricatures of themselves, and, while probably not entirely funny, they probably wouldn't offend except for the most sensitive. The special effects in the film are pretty obvious, but the scenes to watch are the ones with planes actually flying. All in all, this is just good fun, and a really good-looking film that can be enjoyed by all. The wide screen picture on this DVD looks really good, and the sound quality is superior. Special features include a full commentary by the director Ken Annakin (use the Force, ken, use the Force...a lame attempt at humor, to be sure), a theatrical Trailer, a TV spot, various still galleries featuring the actors, the planes, the visual effects, and storyboards. There is also a feature containing conversations with the director. I was surprised to see the amount of special features available here, and beware ye who enter the still galleries, the number of photos seems endless... Cookieman108

Reviewers have an understandable tendency to compare "Those Magnificent Young Men" with "Those Daring Young Men" and "The Great Race." A surprising number, in my opinion, consider "The Great Race" the best of the three and "Those Magnificent Men" as still funny, but the weakest of the three. I would like to argue for the exact reverse ranking of the three. "The Great Race" is watchable, and funny, if cartoonish slapstick is your preferred form of comedy. Every character in the film, but most especially the three leads--Jack Lemmon as the villain, Natalie Wood as the "liberated" female reporter, and Tony Curtis as the Dudley-do-Rightish hero, is a caricature as opposed to a fleshed-out character. The fight scene in the saloon could have come out of a Three Stooges film, and the film as a whole operates just a cut above that level of humor. "Those Daring Young Men" also leans heavily on the slapstick. But the slapstick is served up with a lighter touch than in "The Great Race" and the budding romance between Schofield (Tony Curtis) and Armitage's cousin (Susan Hampshire) is deftly handled and a delight to watch unfold. Both of the "young men" films play liberally with national stereotypes, but the characters representing Italy, Germany, France, etc. are not two-dimensional cartoon cut-outs--as the characters of "The Great Race" are. They are easily recognizable as stereotypes, and yet they retain individual personality as well--although more so in the "flying machines" film. Two things, in my estimation, make that the better film than "Jaunty Jalopies." First, there's the fascinating nature of the planes themselves. These really do become independent characters within the film, in a way that the jalopies never do in the sequel--perhaps because antique cars are so much more commonplace for us, even today, than are antique "flying machines". (To call them "planes" almost misidentifies them, given how little they have in common with what we now mean by "planes".) And second, there's the even more interesting romantic triangle between the Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles and James Fox characters. If farce is your cup of tea, you'll prefer "Jaunty Jalopies" to "Flying Machines". But if you prefer your comedy to be grounded in believably human behavior, you'll give first prize to the air race.

One of my favorite, quality is excellent

as described

This is the English version of an old classic. If you have't seen it, you should watch this. Good fun for all the family

Busque por muchos lados esta película y finalmente la encontré. Es una película muy divertida.

Nicht gerade ein Schnäppchen, aber ein Sammlerstück. Ich habe was, was andere nicht haben, und das auch noch in Blu-ray.

I saw this a long time ago but wanted a copy and i's great

Great film i remember from my childhood, and still good entertainment today.