Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines Blu-ray Movie Review

Thumbs up-diddly-up-up.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 10, 2012

As I mentioned in my review of the lamentable film version of Boeing, Boeing, whatever initial allure the film (and the stage play upon which the film adaptation was based) may have had could have been due to its funny double entendre title. (Some would say the title was about the only funny thing about that sex farce). In that review, I mentioned the great William Goldman book The Season, about a long ago year on Broadway, and Goldman’s chapter on the musical How Now, Dow Jones, which Goldman averred achieved its minimal success only because of its inventive title. Could the same be said of Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, or: How I Flew From London to Paris in 25 Hours, 11 Minutes? Co-writer and director Ken Annakin isn’t very shy about stating that the film’s original title Flying Crazy probably wouldn’t have whipped up much interest. In his commentary included on this Blu-ray as a supplement, Annakin states that Daryl Zanuck and his team came up with the revised, incredibly lengthy title and that everyone immediately recognized it as being catchy. (According to lore repeated on some online sites and alluded to in the liner notes accompanying this release, the title was actually forced upon Annakin when 20th Century Fox’s European division head announced his wife had written a lyric to a theme song which started out with that phrase. The theme was apparently at the very least not initially loved by Annakin—he states in the commentary that it sounded “too pompous” to him—but it became insanely popular in the mid-sixties and Annakin ultimately came around to appreciating its unique charms.) Annakin is also not particularly shy about talking about how he and co-writer Ray Davies wanted to “out-Kramer” Stanley Kramer’s It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World with a series of chases and stunts all designed to up their film’s lunacy quotient to heretofore unimagined heights (no pun intended). Rather interestingly, two quite similar films followed in the wake of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and they both opened within a couple of weeks of each other in 1965. Blake Edwards’ manic farce about car racing (as opposed to Magnificent’s air race), The Great Race, has a similarly international cast, larger than life characters, and a relentlessly hyperbolic tone. At the time of its release, The Great Race was compared rather unfavorably to Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (which had just opened), and if time has been a bit kinder to the Blake Edwards film, Magnificent still enjoys a certain supremacy as one of the better examples of an intentionally bloated, often glamorous, approach to slapstick and old fashioned thrills.

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines is a distinctly more “serious” film than The Great Race is, despite its comedic elements. Annakin’s love of early aviation (indeed, of all aviation) suffuses this film with a sort of sweetness that is missing from Edwards’ more sardonic take on the same era. That said, Magnificent is not above (and/or beneath) having a virtual kaleidoscope of stereotypical, overly cartoonish characters take the stage, many of whom would be labeled politically incorrect in today’s more squeamish environment. Annakin and Davies populate the film with a gaggle of broadly drawn “national” types, including the exuberant Italian (Alberto Sordi), the amorous Frenchman (Jean-Pierre Cassel), the stalwart Brit (James Fox), the martial German (Gert Frobe, Goldfinger himself), and the gung ho American cowboy (Stuart Whitman). Also along for the ride is the Brit’s proto-feminist girlfriend (Sarah Miles), who soon has eyes for the strapping American, as well as a British villain (Terry-Thomas) who seems to have been ported directly over from a Tex Avery or Chuck Jones animated short.

It’s somewhat indicative of the leisurely pace of this film that we get nearly an hour of exposition before anything approaching the real race elements kick in. Along the way we get little character bits introducing the various “nationals” as well as the set up for the race itself, sponsored by Miles’ character’s father (played by the inimitable Robert Morley). The various nationalities then assemble and we have various goings on as planes are tested and various mayhem ensues. (Watch for Benny Hill in a brief featured role). There’s nothing particularly subtle about any of the humor here, and in fact more often than not laughs are generated by simple sight gags of various contenders crashing into a sewage pond.

The film actually ambles along rather amiably, though some might feel it outstays its welcome just slightly at close to two and a half hours. (Annakin, once again baring a “warts and all” strategy in his commentary, talks about the reigning opinion in the mid-sixties that the only way to pry viewers away from their televisions was to offer them huge roadshow pictures which ran for close to three hours and included an intermission.) But the film is full of nicely done comedy bits, with the overall dramatic arc of the romantic triangle between Fox, Whitman and Miles providing added interest. The film is just impossibly beautiful from a production design standpoint, with fantastic use of vintage airplanes and some very exciting stunt sequences. Terry-Thomas brilliantly chews the scenery as the main villain here, and his comedic contributions probably provide most of the film’s outright belly laughs. But Magnificent Men turns out to be perhaps surprisingly less laugh out loud funny than The Great Race seems all these years later. That doesn’t diminish its immense charm and appeal, and perhaps only adds to it.

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Twilight Time with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.20:1. According to our resident historian Robert Siegel in his always excellent Silver Screen column, this transfer was generated from a new interpositive generated from the original negative, scanned at 8K. Neither of Twilight Time's principals can confirm this, and this article seems to suggest a perhaps more likely 2K scan. One way or the other, the results are astoundingly gorgeous, easily one of the best releases yet from Twilight Time and Fox. The larger format Todd-AO image reveals startling clarity and dimensionality, though the increased resolution of the Blu-ray does show the seams of some of the optical and blue screen work (you'll notice clear lines surrounding Whitman and Miles in their joint flying sequence, for example). Colors are breathtakingly vivid and the elements here were either in fantastic shape or HTV Illuminate did an impeccable job in restoring them. I'm sure the usual naysayers will point out the admission of grain reduction in the linked article, but it's clear it was used judiciously in only the optical sequences, which tend to be overly grainy simply by virtue of the multi-pass techniques that were standard in those days. A large format image like this is not going to have heavy grain, and this transfer preserves a beautifully accurate and filmic appearance.

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0 mix that is incredibly boisterous but which tends to favor the front channels most of the time, reserving the rear channels for occasional foley effects and Ron Goodwin's appealingly eccentric score. Fidelity is top notch here, with wonderful reproduction of all frequency ranges. Despite this being "only" a 5.0 mix, the low end is really rather fulsome, and the occasional crash or roar of engines is rather bombastically reproduced. Dialogue is cleanly presented and the mix, while perhaps not at the "wow" factor levels of modern surround mixes, offers excellent clarity and precision.

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Ken Annakin. Annakin is fairly soft spoken and lets large swaths of material pass by without offering any piquant reminiscences, but when he does chime in, he's engaging and incredibly informative. He gets into the backstory of the film, the technical challenges of the shoot, and offers several interesting glimpses into the personalities involved (evidently Miles and Whitman weren't especially fond of each other and were actually at each others' throats by the time the wrap rolled around).


• Isolated Score. Ron Goodwin's playful music is presented via a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix.


• Teaser (SD; 1:08)


• Trailer (SD; 3:08)


• 20 Second TV Spot (SD; 00:22)


• 60 Second TV Spot (SD; 1:01)

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Those Magnficent Men in Their Flying Machines is a love affair to man's pursuit of absolute freedom (and not so coincidentally to woman's as well, as personified by Miles' suffragette character). Wrapped up in some tasty little comedy bits, but more serious than it might appear at first glance, the film is undeniably a behemoth from a bygone age, and certainly not suitable for those in the attention deficit disorder generation. Graced with one of the most beautiful production designs of its era, the film is also full of great little turns by an impressive international cast. This Blu-ray offers stunning video, certainly one of the best looking large format transfers in high definition, and excellent sound. The Annakin commentary and isolated Goodwin score are simply icing on an already delicious confection. Highly recommended.