Tonight's Movie: No Highway in the Sky (1951)

NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY is an unexpected little gem of a movie with an unusual storyline, a sharply written script, and excellent performances.

Theodore Honey (James Stewart) is an American-born scientist who has lived in England for many years, where he works on airline safety. Mr. Honey is the proverbial eccentric absent-minded professor type, a widower whose life consists solely of his work and raising his young daughter Elspeth (Janette Scott) -- although one wonders who is raising who as Elspeth tries to keep their home life in order.

Mr. Honey develops a theory that a new type of airplane will suffer metal fatigue after a certain number of hours in flight, which will cause the plane's tail to fall off. While en route to a plane crash site in Canada to research his theory, Mr. Honey suddenly realizes that the plane he's flying on is in danger of the very same structural failure. He struggles to convince the crew that they must land as soon as possible, but despite the fact that he is an airline employee, they view him as an odd crank. The only people on the plane interested in listening to Mr. Honey for any length of time are a skeptical film star (Marlene Dietrich) and a kind stewardess (Glynis Johns).

This is a very different movie in many ways, starting with the fact that 20th Century-Fox made the film in England with a largely British cast. The storyline is quite unusual, and Jimmy Stewart's Mr. Honey is a unique character. Stewart often played innocents and gentle bumblers but in this film he takes that type of characterization to a new height, so to speak.

The script is excellent, injecting nice bits of humor, suspense, and character development along the way. Ronald Squire as Sir John, the frazzled airline director, is marvelously funny, and despite the pressures he is under, he doesn't descend into being a cliched, unsympathetic cartoon character villain but retains his patience with the eccentric scientist.

Indeed, the writers didn't take the easy way out with their characterizations; the characters are fully rounded and human. For instance, little Elspeth may be very smart and responsible, but it's clear that Mr. Honey is oblivious to the fact that he hasn't allowed her to be a normal child; he may be brilliant, but he's at a loss to handle real life.

I usually don't care for Marlene Dietrich, truth be told, but I liked her in this quite well. As movie star Monica Teasdale, Dietrich is less mannered (and less mannish), quieter, and more sympathetic than in her other films I've seen. (She just about ruined A FOREIGN AFFAIR for me.) This was a nice reunion for Stewart and Dietrich, a dozen years after they costarred in DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939).

Glynis Johns (recently seen by me in MIRANDA) is charming as Marjorie, the stewardess who takes care of Mr. Honey in more ways than one. Although skeptical of his theory, Marjorie sees past Mr. Honey's odd exterior to the caring, dedicated man inside, who stands by what he believes even if others think he's a loon. Marjorie also helps encourage him to break out of his reserved shell and not retreat when his tests don't initially go as expected.

The cast also includes Jack Hawkins, Elizabeth Allan, Jill Clifford, Felix Aylmer, and Wilfrid Hyde-White.

20th Century-Fox released this film in the UK several months ahead of the United States release. The UK title is simply NO HIGHWAY.

The film runs 98 minutes. It was directed by the underrated Henry Koster, a studio system craftsman who had a knack for turning out entertaining movies, ranging from several of Deanna Durbin's best films to the Christmas classic THE BISHOP'S WIFE (1947) to the James Stewart film which immediately preceded NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY, HARVEY (1950).

NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY was released on VHS. It does not appear to have had a release on DVD.

This film is regularly shown on Fox Movie Channel. I very much recommend setting your recorder for this interesting, entertaining film.

Update: NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY is now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.