No Highway in the Sky

No Highway

United Kingdom

1951

98 Min

Black and White

1.37:1

English

Currently 3.2/5 Stars.
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SCR Nevil Shute, R.C. Sherriff, Oscar Millard, Alec Coppel

CAST James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns, Jack Hawkins, Janette Scott, Elizabeth Allan, Ronald Squire, Jill Clifford, Niall MacGinnis, Kenneth More, Dora Bryan, Felix Aylmer, Maurice Denham, Wilfrid Hyde-White, John Lennox, Bessie Love, Arthur Lucas, Pete Murray, Hugh Wakefield

The film follows Theodore Honey (James Stewart), a highly eccentric “boffin” with the Royal Aircraft Establishment. A widower with a precocious young daughter, Elspeth (Janette Scott), Honey is sent from Farnborough to investigate the crash of a “Reindeer” airliner in Labrador, which he theorizes occurred because of a structural failure in the tail caused by sudden metal fatigue. To test his theory in his laboratory, an airframe is continuously shaken in eight-hour daily cycles.It isn’t until Honey is aboard a Reindeer that he realizes he himself is flying on one such aircraft and that it may be close to the number of hours his theory projects for the fatal failure. Despite the fact that his theory is not yet proven, Honey decides to warn the passengers and crew, including actress Monica Teasdale (Marlene Dietrich). After the Reindeer lands at Gander Airport an inspection clears it to continue on. He takes drastic action to stop the flight by raising the undercarriage while the aircraft is still on the ground. The ensuing flap includes demands that he be declared insane to discredit his theory. Teasdale and flight attendant Marjorie Corder (Glynis Johns) both take a liking for Honey and Elspeth, who is lonely and isolated from her schoolmates. Teasdale speaks on his behalf to his superiors, while Corder, seeing that he is decent but disorganized, decides to marry him. During a hearing in which his sanity is questioned, Honey resigns but continues trying to prove that his mathematics are sound. In the laboratory, the time he predicted for failure passes without failure. However, the Reindeer he disabled is repaired, but after landing from a test flight the tail falls off. Shortly afterwards, the same thing happens to the test frame in the lab, and Honey discovers that he failed to include temperature as a factor in his calculations. Although the film follows Shute’s original novel closely, the film notably omits references to the supernatural that had been contained in the original novel, including the use of automatic writing to resolve a key element in the original novel’s story. (UK title: No Highway). —Wikipedia

Director

Henry Koster

Henry Koster (May 1, 1905 – September 21, 1988) was born Hermann Kosterlitz in Berlin, Germany. He became a film director and later moved to Hollywood. Koster’s father, a salesman, left home when Henry was a young man. Koster still managed to finish gymnasium (high school) in Berlin while working as short story writer and cartoonist.

Koster was introduced to cinema about 1910 when his uncle opened a very early movie theater in Berlin. Koster’s mother played the piano to accompany the films, leaving the young boy to occupy himself by watching the films. After working initially as a short story writer, Koster was subsequently hired by a Berlin movie company as scenarist, became assistant to director Curtis Bernhardt. Bernhardt became sick one day and asked Koster to take over as director. In about 1931 or 1932, Koster directed two or three films in Berlin for UFA.

Koster, who was in the midst of directing a film, had already been the subject of anti-Semitism, and knew he… read more

Henry Koster (May 1, 1905 – September 21, 1988) was born Hermann Kosterlitz in Berlin, Germany. He became a film director and later moved to Hollywood. Koster’s father, a salesman, left home when Henry was a young man. Koster still managed to finish gymnasium (high school) in Berlin while working as short story writer and cartoonist.

Koster was introduced to cinema about 1910 when his uncle opened a very early movie theater in Berlin. Koster’s mother played the piano to accompany the films, leaving the young boy to occupy himself by watching the films. After working initially as a short story writer, Koster was subsequently hired by a Berlin movie company as scenarist, became assistant to director Curtis Bernhardt. Bernhardt became sick one day and asked Koster to take over as director. In about 1931 or 1932, Koster directed two or three films in Berlin for UFA.

Koster, who was in the midst of directing a film, had already been the subject of anti-Semitism, and knew he had to leave. He lost his temper at an SA officer at his bank during lunch hour, and knocked the officer out. He went directly to the railroad station and left Germany for France, where he was rehired by Bernhardt (who had left earlier). Eventually Koster went to Budapest and met and married Kato Kiraly in 1934. In Budapest he met Joe Pasternak, who represented Universal in Europe, and directed three films for him.

In 1936 Koster got a contract to work with Universal Pictures in Hollywood, and he travelled to the United States to work with Pasternak, other refugees and his wife. Although Koster did not speak English, he convinced the studio to let him make Three Smart Girls, for which he personally coached 14-year-old star Deanna Durbin. This picture, a big success, pulled Universal out of bankruptcy. Koster’s second Universal film, One Hundred Men and a Girl, with Durbin and Leopold Stokowski put the studio, Durbin, Pasternak, and Koster on top.

Koster discovered Abbott and Costello working at a nightclub in New York. He returned to Hollywood and convinced Universal to hire them. Their first picture, which featured the Who’s On First? routine, was One Night in the Tropics. The female lead, Peggy Moran, would become Koster’s second wife in 1942. When he married Moran, Koster promised her he would put her in every movie he made from then on. He did, but it was her statue. Usually it is a sculptured head on a mantelpiece or a piano or desk. In The Robe he commissioned a Grecian bust which appears prominently in a Roman villa.

Henry Koster went on to do numerous musicals and family comedies during the late 1930s and early 1940s, with Durbin, Betty Grable, and other musical stars of the era. He and Joe Pasternak filmed a successful screen test for Universal’s newest singing star, Gloria Jean, but Koster would never direct one of her features; when Pasternak left Universal for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in June 1941, Koster went with him. Ironically, despite Koster’s escape from Nazi Germany, when the United States entered World War II Koster was considered an enemy alien and had to stay in his house in the evening. Actor Charles Laughton would visit Koster and play chess with him.

Koster’s postwar career was equally successful. He was nominated for an Academy Award for The Bishop’s Wife (1947). In 1950 he directed what was his biggest success to date, the James Stewart comedy Harvey. He directed Richard Burton’s first U.S. film, My Cousin Rachel, and then was given the first CinemaScope film to direct, The Robe in 1952. He directed some more costume dramas, including Désirée (1954) with Marlon Brando, The Virgin Queen (1955) with Bette Davis and The Naked Maja (1958) with Ava Gardner then went back to family comedies and musicals, including Flower Drum Song for Universal in 1961. His last picture was The Singing Nun in 1965. Koster retired to Leisure Village, Camarillo, California, to indulge in his lifelong interest in painting. He did a series of portraits of the movie stars with whom he worked.

Although Koster never won an Oscar himself, he directed six different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Cecil Kellaway, Loretta Young, Celeste Holm, Elsa Lanchester, Josephine Hull, James Stewart and Richard Burton. Hull won the Oscar for Harvey. —wikipedia

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