Tonight's Movie: Out of the Clouds (1955)

I especially enjoy films about aviation and airports, so last year when I heard about Indicator's Region A release of OUT OF THE CLOUDS (1955) I promptly ordered it, despite knowing nothing else about it.

A British film about an airport simply sounded good to me!

It took a few months for the movie to work its way out of my "watch" stack, but I've now seen and enjoyed it.

OUT OF THE CLOUDS is a bit like an early version of AIRPORT (1970) as it depicts a busy day at London Airport. London Airport would be renamed Heathrow Airport a little over a decade later.

Nick Millbourne (Robert Beatty) is the airport supervisor, a role somewhat akin to Burt Lancaster's in AIRPORT. He deals with weather delays, passenger and staff problems, and much more.

A main subplot finds a pair of Jewish airline passengers meeting and falling in love; Bill (David Knight) is an American engineer on his way to work on water projects in Israel, while Leah (Margo Lorenz), whose family died in the Holocaust, is headed to the U.S. for a marriage of convenience to an older military man who'd been kind to her.

The Indicator Blu-ray includes both an 89-minute UK cut and a 80-minute U.S. edit. Glenn Erickson wrote that the shorter version cuts out "shots of the workings of the airport and in-flight procedures," and since that's part of what interested me about the movie, I watched the UK version.

OUT OF THE CLOUDS was written by written John Eldridge and Michael Relph adapted from THE SPRINGBOARD by John Fores.

One of the things I wondered while watching the film: Were passengers ever truly coddled and nursed along by airport staff as closely as they are in this film? It's hard to know from this juncture if this was truly a bygone era of flying -- perhaps also more expensive and less accessible, to make such personal care possible -- or if it was a movie fantasy even in the '50s. The care taken of stranded passengers by Jean (Melissa Stribling) is remarkable. (Stribling, incidentally, was married to the film's director.)

This was the third film I've seen this year directed by Basil Dearden, following CAGE OF GOLD (1950) and ALL NIGHT LONG (1962). There's nothing especially noteworthy about this film, but Dearden keeps the cast moving along in congenial fashion.

Beatty is likeable as Nick, who is hoping he'll soon be cleared to return to flying. But perhaps he's meant to be running things from the ground instead? Eunice Gayson plays Penny, a flight attendant who's interested in Nick.

I especially enjoyed James Robertson Justice of Disney's THE SWORD AND THE ROSE (1953) as Captain Brent, a burly and somewhat cantankerous -- yet very professional -- pilot who pays close attention to engine noises; Captain Brent proves to have a very good sense of things based on what he's hearing. One of my favorite scenes finds Captain Brent guided by radar and the control tower to make an emergency landing in heavy fog.

Bernard Lee seems to turn up in my viewing regularly this year, and here he's a customs agent who suspects pilot Gus Randall (Anthony Steele) may be smuggling. It's also fun to see Megs Jenkins (GREEN FOR DANGER) in a small role as a landlady who gives Bill and Leah a pleasant dinner out in London.

The Bill and Leah storyline is pleasant if very milquetoast; they are nice people but the roles are blandly written and performed. It's a funny thing, given the American edit, but I would have shown less of them and much more of the workings of the airport!

All in all, this film is simply a nice "slice of life" looking at airplane travel in the mid '50s. It's the type of previously unknown-to-me film I love to discover.

The Indicator print looks good; the film has a pleasant color palette, shot by Paul Beeson.

Indicator has put together a fine package including a 40-page glossy booklet, a vintage 89-minute documentary interviewing Robert Beatty; a 42-minute featurette on James Robertson Justice; a 31-minute short on Edinburgh, WAVERLEY STEPS (1948); image galleries and more, plus reversible case cover art. Optional English-language captions are included.

Post