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No Highway in the Sky
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Wikipedia article
'No Highway in the Sky' (also known as 'No Highway') is a 1951 British black-and-white aviation drama film from 20th Century Fox, produced by Louis D. Lighton, directed by Henry Koster, that stars James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns, Niall MacGinnis, Janette Scott and Jack Hawkins. The screenplay was written by Oscar Millard, with additional material provided by Alec Coppel.
The film is based on the 1948 novel 'No Highway' by Nevil Shute and was one of the first films that depicted a potential aviation disaster involving metal fatigue. Although the film follows the plot of Shute's novel in general, 'No Highway in the Sky' notably omits references to the supernatural contained in the original novel, including the use of automatic writing to resolve a key element in the original novel's story. Also, the role of Scott, the recently appointed administrator who narrates the novel, is curtailed in the film version; which means that the featured scientist, Mr Honey, comes across as more eccentric than in the novel, changing the relationship between them.
The film also introduces the term "boffin" for the under-appreciated and seemingly self-centred and eccentric scientist, as distinct from earlier usage to describe a scientist who is making vital (and appreciated) contributions.
Plot
Dennis Scott, a newly-arrived executive at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, is introduced to Theodore Honey, an eccentric American scientist who has theorized that the new Rutland Reindeer is susceptible to structural failure of the tailplane, caused by metal fatigue, which he calculates will happen after 1440 flight hours. To test the theory in his laboratory, Honey has been running a fatigue test on the fin and tailplane (empennage) of a Reindeer, by using a very high vibration rate dynamic shaker in daily eight-hour test cycles, hoping to cause it to fail. Although Honey is a knowledgeable and experienced scientist, there is a great deal of suspicion by management about his theory concerning stressed structures, and especially about his elaborate testing method (now routinely referred to as destructive testing).
Scott goes home with Honey and learns that he is a widower with a 12-year-old daughter, Elspeth. Scott then meets a pilot who is an old friend from WWII, who tells Scott of a recent crash of a Rutland Reindeer in Labrador. The tail of the downed plane in Labrador was never found among the wreckage, but Scott suspects Honey's theory is correct, that metal fatigue caused the crash, and informs the head of the RAE.
Honey is sent to Labrador to examine the wreckage, but finds himself flying across the Atlantic on a Reindeer airliner. He has been told that all Reindeer in service have only 500 hours, but is shocked to learn, while already over the Atlantic, that he is flying on an early production aircraft that is very close to the number of hours his theory projects for the tail's metal fatigue failure. Despite the fact that his theory is not yet proven, he decides to warn the aircrew and Hollywood actress Monica Teasdale, a fellow passenger aboard the flight. Teasdale believes Honey and grows close to him, as does stewardess Marjorie Corder.
After the Reindeer safely lands at Gander Airport in Newfoundland, an inspection clears the aircraft to continue on its route. Honey takes drastic action to stop the flight by activating the Reindeer's undercarriage lever, dropping the airliner on its belly and seriously damaging it. Shocked by the act, some of his colleagues demand that he be declared insane to discredit his unproved theory, and to save the reputation of British passenger aviation, now awash in a sea of bad press.
Teasdale and Corder have both taken a liking to Honey and Elspeth, who they discover is lonely and isolated from her schoolmates. Teasdale speaks to Honey's superiors on his behalf, claiming she believes in him. Corder, meanwhile, stays on with Honey and his daughter as a nurse. Honey returns to his laboratory, to prove that his metal fatigue theory is sound, but the time he predicted for the structural failure soon passes without anything happening.
During a hearing in which Honey's sanity is questioned, he angrily objects, refusing to be railroaded. He resigns and walks out, threatening to protest at the departure of every Rutland Reindeer and collapse them too, until all the aircraft are grounded. When Honey returns home, Corder tells him that, having now observed his many admirable qualities beyond his minor eccentricities, and after becoming very close to Elspeth, she wants to marry him.
Meanwhile the Reindeer airliner Honey disabled at Gander is repaired, but soon after it completes a test flight, the tail falls off while taxiing, proving Honey's theory. The tail of the crashed Reindeer plane is also found, with telltale signs that the tail fell off due to metal fatigue. Shortly thereafter, the same thing finally happens to the tail assembly in the laboratory. Honey realizes that he failed to include operating temperature as a variable factor in his fatigue calculations for the test being done at the lab, thus explaining why the test tail took longer to fracture.
Cast
* James Stewart as Theodore Honey
* Marlene Dietrich as Monica Teasdale
* Glynis Johns as Marjorie Corder, Stewardess
* Jack Hawkins as Dennis Scott
* Janette Scott as Elspeth Honey
* Elizabeth Allan as Shirley Scott
* Ronald Squire as Sir John, Director
* Jill Clifford as Peggy, Stewardess
;Uncredited
* Niall MacGinnis as Captain Samuelson, Pilot
* Kenneth More as Dobson, Co-pilot
* Dora Bryan as Rosie, Barmaid
* Felix Aylmer as Sir Philip
* Maurice Denham as Major Pearl (Tour guide)
* Wilfrid Hyde-White as Fisher, Inspector of Accidents
* John Lennox as Farnborough Director
* Bessie Love as Aircraft passenger
* Arthur Lucas as Farnborough Director
* Pete Murray the Radio Operator
Production
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The first writer who worked on the script was R. C. Sherriff. The story was then assigned to producer Buddy Lighton, who hired Oscar Millard to do the screenplay. Millard said he spent six months writing the script without ever looking at a Sheriff draft. In London, the producer Buddy Lighton hired Alec Coppel to rewrite some scenes that were based at the Farnborough Aircraft Establishment.
The actor Robert Donat was originally cast in the lead role, but when the deal fell through, James Stewart was cast. This would be the second pairing of Stewart with Marlene Dietrich, the first being 1939's 'Destry Rides Again'.
'No Highway in the Sky', the film's working title, became the theatrical release title for English-speaking countries apart from the UK, where it retained the novel title 'No Highway'. As noted in contemporary sources, filming took place in 1950 at Denham Studios, with location shooting at the Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire, England, although the scene with a Gloster E.1/44 prototype was possibly staged at Boscombe Down.
In November 1950, 'The Hollywood Reporter' claimed that Stewart underwent an emergency appendectomy in London while the film was in production.[http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/85095/No-Highway-in-the-Sky/notes.html "Notes: No Highway in the Sky."] 'Turner Classic Movies'. Retrieved: 17 October 2014.
Director Koster called it "one of my finest pictures. I thought it was a marvelous story and I had a marvelous script by very fine writers".
Reception
The film was popular at the British box office.
Reviews of 'No Highway in the Sky' were decidedly mixed. Bosley Crowther of 'The New York Times' wrote a favourable review, noting the film's "... sly construction of an unusual plot and wry suspense".
In a more recent appraisal, reviewer Dennis Schwartz opined:
American military war hero pilot James Stewart plays the eccentric Yank scientist working for a British airline [Stewart's character was not actually working for an airline but rather the government RAE Farnborough.], and it gives one of his better and more pleasing performances as someone kindhearted but a bit daffy. ... The one-dimensional characters add no emotional depth, especially when the awkward romance is tossed onto the airplane drama, but Stewart plays a likable character that translates into a rather genial pic with much appeal.
Three years after the film, and six years after the publication of Nevil Shute's original novel ('No Highway'), there were two fatal crashes of the world's first jet passenger airliner, the de Havilland Comet. Investigation found that metal fatigue was the cause of both accidents, albeit in the main fuselage and not the tail section.
Adaptations in other media
On 28 April 1952, before a live studio audience, Stewart and Dietrich, along with a full cast, reprised their roles in an adaptation of 'No Highway in the Sky' on the CBS 'Lux Radio Theatre'.
A 'BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial' was dramatised by Brian Gear in three episodes, broadcast weekly from 11 May 1986, starring John Clegg as Theodore Honey, Norman Bowler as Scott, and Margaret Robertson as Monica Teasdale.
'No Highway', a BBC radio adaptation dramatised by Mike Walker with Paul Ritter as Honey, William Beck as Scott, and Fenella Woolgar as Teasdale was directed by Toby Swift for BBC Radio 4's Classic Serial in August 2010.
The central element of 'No Highway in the Sky' (a concerned airline passenger having unique knowledge of an imminent danger, taking drastic action to eliminate it and being regarded as crazy) is comparable to that of 'The Twilight Zone' episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", starring William Shatner. A similar additional scene in the 1983 'Twilight Zone' anthology feature film is that of the character played by John Lithgow, who like that of James Stewart, is portrayed as an engineering expert.
See also
* 'Cone of Silence'
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
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* Shute, Nevil. 'Slide Rule: Autobiography of an Engineer'. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1954. .
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