High Flight ** (1957, Ray Milland, Bernard Lee, Kenneth Haigh, Anthony Newley, Helen Cherry, Leslie Phillips) – Classic Movie Review 13,882

The 1957 CinemaScope British Cold War flight training film High Flight stars Ray Milland, Bernard Lee, Kenneth Haigh, Anthony Newley, Helen Cherry and Leslie Phillips.

Director John Gilling’s 1957 skilled enough but not exciting enough British war drama film High Flight is based on a story by Jack Davies, and stars Ray Milland, Bernard Lee, Kenneth Haigh, Anthony Newley, Helen Cherry and Leslie Phillips.

Wing Commander Granite Rudge (Ray Milland) clashes with brash young flight cadet Tony Winchester (Kenneth Haig) in this low-flying programmer about air cadet training at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, England, where much of the film is shot. Haig’s father was killed in the war trying to rescue Milland, who reciprocates by saving Haig.

Acting, script (Joseph Landon, Ken Hughes), production (Irving Allen, Albert R Broccoli) and direction are all competent and professional but relatively ordinary in a movie with an over-familiar story that can’t transcend the clichés, though there is a fascinating cast of notables and the impressive flying scenes look good in colour and CinemaScope. Ray Milland is right for the role, but his uninspired performance lacks spark and fire, feeling rather weary, and Kenneth Haig is well cast too but overdoes his conceited, over-confident character and makes him unsympathetic.

Real-life double M E Clifton James plays Field Marshal Montgomery, as he does in I Was Monty’s Double (1958).

Gilling started filming plane footage in November 1956 and principal shooting began on 2 April 1957. It had its world premiere on 12 September 1957.

Two versions: 89 minutes colour (Europe) and 86 minutes black and white (US).

Irving Allen said that his and Albert R Broccoli’s Warwick Productions lost money on the film. Had these kinds of films finally gone out of fashion? Kenneth Haigh (25 March 1931 – 4 February 2018) had just made his name playing Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger in 1956 at the Royal Court Theatre in London. When it was filmed as Look Back in Anger (made in 1958 and released in 1959) Haigh was typically replaced by an established movie star, a too old-looking Richard Burton (he’s supposed to be an angry young man). But, by the end of the Fifties, Kenneth Haigh represented the new breed of actors and Look Back in Anger points the way to the kitchen sink films that would mostly put films like High Flight out of action.

Broccoli and Allen fell out, Broccoli went on to found Eon Productions with Harry Saltzman beginning the Bond films on a tiny budget. Later Allen responded with the Matt Helm spy film series, The Silencers (1966), Murderers’ Row (1966), The Ambushers (1967), and The Wrecking Crew (1969).

Cast: Ray Milland, Bernard Lee, Kenneth Haigh, Anthony Newley, Helen Cherry, Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Fortescue, Sean Kelly, Duncan Lamont, Kynaston Reeves, John le Mesurier, Jan Brooks, Jan Holden, Frank Atkinson, Ian Fleming, Hal Osmond, Leslie Weston, Noel Hood, Richard Wattis, John Downing, Richard Bennett, Barry Foster, Peter Dixon, William Lucas, Glyn Houston, Alfred Burke, Bill Shine, M E Clifton James, Nancy Nevinson, Grace Arnold, Bernard Horsfall.

High Flight is directed by John Gilling, runs 89 minutes, is made by Warwick Films, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Joseph Landon, based on a story by Jack Davies, Ken Hughes and John Gilling, is shot in CinemaScope by Ted Moore, is produced by Irving Allen, Albert R Broccoli and Phil C Samuel, is scored by Kenneth V Jones, Muir Mathieson and Douglas Gamley, and is designed by John Box.

 © Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,882

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