1965's Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes, which screens tonight and tomorrow, Tuesday August 31st and Wednesday September 1st, at the Paramount Theater, is one of the big-budget "epic comedies" of the mid-'60s, along with Blake Edwards' The Great Race and Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Originally released as a 70mm Todd-AO "roadshow" attraction, the film played to packed houses - with reserved seating, no less.
Directed by Ken Annakin from a script, he co-wrote with Jack Davies, the film has a "classic" feel, a host of great comic characters from Goldfinger himself, the great Gert Frobe, to Red Skelton to Benny Hill, and some of the greatest aerial sequences ever put on film. Annakin had directed the battle sequences on 1962's The Longest Day, and was clearly the man for the job.
Another veteran of the The Longest Day, Stuart Whitman, plays Orville Newton, the flash American pilot. Terry-Thomas, in all his gap-toothed genius, is great as Sir Percy Ware-Armitage, one of the villains of the piece. James Fox is the British flier, Jean-Pierre Cassell the French guy, Alberto Sorley is the Italian, and Frobe is, naturally, the German. Robert Morley plays Lord Rawnsley, Sarah Miles plays his daughter, while Irina Demick plays a chameleon-like role as Brigitte, Ingrid, Marlene, Françoise ,Yvette, and Betty.
Skelton does some wonderful silent comedy bits, proving that he was first and foremost a film comedian, after years of television success.
The animated opening titles are also a highlight, set to the old-timey, insidiously catchy theme song. It's all jolly good fun, even if drags a bit leading up to the climactic air race in the third act. A splendid time is guaranteed for all, especially in the panoramic widescreen splendor of 70mm.
Annakin and Davies re-teamed for the similarly-themed Monte Carlo or Bust in 1969 (the same year that Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines was first shown on television), which was later retitled Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies.
A rare 70mm print of Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes screens tonight and tomorrow, Tuesday August 31st and Wednesday September 1st at 7:30 p.m. at the Paramount Theater, 713 Congress Avenue in downtown Austin.
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