User Reviews

But it's more important to make sure that they're alive, because with just a corpse, you can't get any more information. The only information you need to know going into this film is that it was edited by David Lean long before he became one of the great directors of the silver screen, so there's early pedigree involved in the making of this quota quickie.

There's a lot of plot covered in the film's hour-long running time, so listening to the dialogue and concentrating on the transition of scenes is very important. The mixture of spy drama and some slapstick comedy makes for an interesting war film where the little bits of silliness gives this a charming mood. Performances by Barry K. Barnes, Joan Marion, Roger Livesay and Felix Aylmer (a memorable heavy) are enjoyable. Nothing groundbreaking here other than Lean's involvement, but interesting for the timeline of war history and the way espionage is dealt with.

Based upon a play by Jeffrey Dell (one wonders how it played on stage!) the story concerns the development of a new kind of aeroplane and the theft of the plans for said plane. Several people come under suspicion until the real culprit is revealed at the end. Mixed into the brew are adultery, blackmail, manslaughter, horse race touting and aerial sequences. Which sounds exciting but is in fact rather pedestrian and doesn't really take off.

There are good actors like Roger Livesey, Barry K. Barnes and Basil Radford who do try but their lines of dialogue are not really interesting. The great Felix Aylmer plays a spy chief, Colonel Cairns, and he is the most watchable character in the film but unfortunately is not in it enough. The director David McDonald had a long career in British film and television from 1937 to 1963 in a variety of genres. This is not one of his best but then again by no means one of his worst.

This film has a very good cast of first rate actors.However they do rather struggle because the plotting is predictable.The spy is revealed fairly early with a consequent lack of tension.It was totally predictable that he would try to escape in a plane and the end result forecast without aid of a barometer.So that by the end the actors are just going through their races.

SPIES OF THE AIR is a low rent British thriller, filmed just before war broke out in 1939. Thus the baddies remain unnamed although everybody knows who they are. The story is slightly similar to Hitchcock's must better SABOTEUR, as everybody's on the hunt for someone selling secrets to the enemy. As a thriller it's a dated affair that feels like it comes from a different world; it's chiefly of interest for featuring a pre-stardom David Lean as editor, but that's not much to recommend. A serviceable drama with a few good moments, but forgettable overall.

Despite the stagey "old farmhouse" where the cast all live together while developing a super plane in the shadow of coming war. They tend to dress for dinner and stand around having drinks - when they're not having illicit romantic dinners in Jacobethan hotels, or meeting blackmailers on lonely dark roads.

Someone mentioned the music - it's more than quite good. It is combined with good sound effects to chilling effect at moments.

All the cast are good - the good-looking test pilot who is given to cruel practical jokes on Basil Radford's usual apparently bumbling character, Roger Livesey, Felix Aylmer - who has the best wisecracks.

The banter is actually funny. Pilot to ground: Can I get down now?

Spoiler alert: Why didn't she give Porter her pearls and pretend she'd lost them?