Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines



Theatrical poster

Release date: 16 June 1965
Running time: 138 minutes
Budget: $6.5 million
Box office: $31,111,111 {that's a lot of ones}

Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; Or, How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes is a 1965 period comedy film featuring an international ensemble cast including Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, Robert Morley, Terry-Thomas, James Fox, Red Skelton, Benny Hill, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Gert Fröbe and Alberto Sordi. The film, revolving around the craze of early aviation, was directed and co-written by Ken Annakin, with a musical score by Ron Goodwin.

Based on a screenplay entitled Flying Crazy, the fictional account is set in 1910, when Lord Rawnsley, an English press magnate, offers £10,000 (equivalent to £1,030,000 in 2019) to the winner of the Daily Post air race from London to Paris, to prove that Britain is "number one in the air".

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Locations

The film used period accurate, life-size working aeroplane models and replicas to create an early 20th century airfield, the 'Brookley Motor Racing Track' (fashioned after Brooklands where early automotive racing and aviators shared the facilities for testing). All Brookley's associated trappings of structures, aircraft and vehicles (including a rare 1907 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, subsequently estimated to be worth 50 million dollars) were part of the exterior set at Booker Airfield, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England.

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Principal photography

The film was photographed in 65 mm Todd-AO (which produces a 70 mm print once the sound tracks are added) by Christopher Challis. The head technical consultant during planning was Air Commodore Allen H. Wheeler from the Royal Air Force. Wheeler had previously restored a 1910-era Blériot with his son, and provided invaluable assistance in the restoration and recreation of period aircraft for the film.

The camera platforms included a modified Citroën sedan, camera trucks, helicopters and a flying rig constructed by Dick Parker. Parker had built it for model sequences in Strategic Air Command (1955). The rig consisted of two construction cranes and a hydraulically operated device to tilt and position a model, along with 200 ft (61 m) of cables. Parker's rig allowed actors to sit inside full-scale models suspended 50 ft (15 m) above the ground, yet provide safety and realism for staged flying sequences, with the sky realistically in the background. A further hydraulic platform did away with matte shots of aircraft in flight. The platform was large enough to mount an aircraft and Parker or stunt pilots could manipulate its controls for realistic bluescreen sequences. Composite photography was used when scenes called for difficult shots; these were completed at Pinewood Studios. Some shots were created with rudimentary cockpits and noses grafted to an Alouette helicopter. One scene over Paris was staged with small models when Paris refused an overflight. However, for the majority of flying scenes, full-scale flying aircraft were employed.

Aircraft

The film includes reproductions of 1910-era aircraft, including a triplane, monoplanes, biplanes and also Horatio Phillips's 20-winged multiplane from 1904. Wheeler insisted on authentic materials but allowed the use of modern engines and modifications necessary to ensure safety. Of 20 types built in 1964 at £5,000 each, six could fly, flown by six stunt pilots and maintained by 14 mechanics. The race take-off scene where seven aircraft are in the air at once included a composite addition of one aircraft. Flying conditions were monitored carefully, with aerial scenes filmed before 10 am or in early evening when the air was least turbulent, as the replicas, true to the originals, were flimsy, and control, especially in the lateral plane, tended to be marginal. When weather conditions were poor, interiors or other incidental sequences were shot instead. Wheeler eventually served not only as the technical adviser but also as the aerial supervisor throughout the production, and, later wrote a comprehensive background account of the film and the replicas that were constructed to portray period aircraft.

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Todd-AO



Industry: Post-production, broadcast media, motion pictures, television
Founded: 1953
Headquarters: Hollywood, California, United States
Owner: Todd Soundelux
Website: www.todd-ao.com

Todd-AO is an American post-production company founded in 1953 by Mike Todd and Robert Naify, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. For more than five decades, it was the worldwide leader in theater sound. The company now operates one facility in the Los Angeles area.

Todd-AO is also the name of the widescreen, 70 mm film format that was developed by Mike Todd and the Naify brothers, owners of United Artists Theaters in partnership with the American Optical Company in the mid-1950s. Todd-AO had been founded to promote and distribute this system.

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History

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Todd-AO process



Figure 1. Todd-AO: 65 mm negative and 70 mm positive

The Todd-AO process uses two separate film stocks; a 65 mm negative is used during production and then used to produce the 70 mm positives for distribution. The sprocket holes perforations on the two are the same, and the positives are printed using contact printing with the negatives centered on the larger 70 mm film. Contact printing was used on prints that were to be "double system," using a separate, synchronized 35 mm full-coat magnetic film for the 6 sound tracks, in addition to the 70 mm film for the picture. The much more common 70 mm release prints used a slightly optically reduced picture, and placed four of the soundtracks on either edge outside of the perforations, and two more soundtracks inside the perforations, providing a total of six soundtracks, on a 7.5 mm magnetic surface. It is a common error to suppose that only 5 mm of space was devoted to the soundtracks, perhaps because writers do the math and find that 70 - 65 = 5, not allowing for a slightly reduced picture area to accommodate two tracks inside the sprocket holes, as well as four outside, and perhaps because the souvenir program for Around the World in Eighty Days made the same error. Anyone with a release print in front of him would immediately see the tracks between the picture and the holes, as well as the wider tracks (to hold two tracks each) outside the holes. They can be seen in Figure 1 of this article, above the caption "positive 70 mm.". Todd-AO soundtracks were very high fidelity, and could still compete with modern digital tracks above 40 Hz. Even though there were no subwoofers in theaters in those days, Todd-AO delivered high-impact bass using crisp-sounding horn-loaded speakers. Four lens options covered a 128, 64, 48 or 37 degree field of view. The aspect ratio of this format was 2.20:1.

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Todd-AO and roadshows

Todd-AO films were closely associated with what was called roadshow exhibition. At the time, before multiplex theatres became common, most films opened at a large single screen theatre in the downtown area of each large city before eventually moving on to neighborhood theatres. With the roadshow concept, a film would play, often in 70 mm at a movie palace downtown theatre exclusively, sometimes for a year or more. Often a "hard ticket" policy was in effect, with tickets sold for specific numbered seats, and limited showings per day. Most Todd-AO films through the late 1960s, including Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and The Sound of Music, were initially shown on a roadshow basis.

In some US cities, individual theaters were converted for use in the 1950s as dedicated Todd-AO "Cinestage" showplaces. These theaters showed exclusive roadshow engagements of Todd-AO and other 70 mm films on large, deeply curved screens. They included the Rivoli Theatre in New York City, the Cinestage Theatre in Chicago, and Hunt's Cinestage Theatre in Columbus, Ohio.

The roadshow era ended in the early 1970s, although a very few films (among them Gandhi) were shown in roadshow format after that.

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Films produced in 70 mm Todd-AO

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