THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES Best Comedy, 1965 - 5 Stars Perfect Sixties British Humor and Authentic 1910 Flying Machines Two films were made in 1965 that both catered to the current interest in turn-of-the-century history and wacky humor: The Great Race and Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines. The latter also catered to Americans' fascination with everything British, which, in this case, includes some of the top British comedians of the day: Terry Thomas, Robert Morley and Benny Hill, to name a few. Director Ken Annakin has taken his love for aviation history and infused it with a host of wonderfully funny characters engaged in a loosely historical race: a flight from London to Paris in 1910. At a time when people were literally obsessed with flying, there were some incredibly weird machines being put into flight, and many of them appear in this film. All the planes used were authentic reproductions of actual planes, built on spec with the original materials, but souped up a bit with more powerful engines. Even though there is strong British flavor to everything in this film, it is truly an international race, with French, Italian, Japanese, German and American pilots participating. Stewart Whitman plays the American cowboy pilot flying a plane modeled after the Wright Brothers' machine. Sarah Miles is beautiful as Stuart's love interest, and is also pursued by suave British pilot James Fox. Robert Morley plays her father, and the sponsor of the race. Terry Thomas is the dastardly villain who is not above sabotaging his fellow competitors' planes, and Benny Hill plays an early version of an airfield controller. Other notables are Alberto Sordi as the rich Italian pilot, whose enthusiasm for flying is only matched by his enthusiasm for child-bearing; Gert Frobe as the German pilot, who does everything by the book, and to marching music, which he produces without the help of instruments; Jean-Pierre Cassel as the Frenchman, who is infatuated by Irena Demick, no matter how many different women she appears as; Eric Sykes as Terry Thomas' man Courtney; Yujiro Ishihara as the Japanese pilot; and Red Skelton as a variety of comic flyers from pre-modern times. It's amazing how many parallels there are between Ken Annakin's Those Magnificent Men and Blake Edwards' The Great Race. One might almost think they were looking over each other's shoulders. But there is quite a different flavor to each. Those Magnificent Men is strongly British and very realistic; The Great Race is very American and a spoof on early film comedies, such as the Keystone Cops, as well as more serious white-hat melodramas. As wonderful as both films are - especially for art, costume and other technical achievements - it's hard to believe that the only Oscar they won was for sound effects, which went to The Great Race. But, when you consider that they were competing against The Sound of Music and Dr. Zhivago, maybe it's not so incredible. In their own right, they're both very entertaining. Waitsel Smith, October 20, 2005 Text, © 2006 Waitsel Smith. Pictures, © 20th Century Fox. All Rights Reserved.

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