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Aviation Films - N, O
Narcisse (France; Gray Film 1939, 95m) D: Ayres d'Aguiar. Gabriello = the staff sergeant, Georges Lannes = the commandant, Claude May = Josette, Rellys = Narcise Pigeon, Monique Rolland = Rosine,. Screenplay: Carl Lamac. To qualify for an inheritance from his deceased uncle, Narcisse is obliged to get a pilot's license, and through a misunderstanding he ends up an air force base, where he involuntarily becomes an ace pilot. This less than memorable comedy was a remake of the 1938 English film "It's In the Air." Aerial scenes with a Hawker Audax and ground views of Gladiators were taken from that movie, but other planes were all French; with nice ground views of the Groupe de Chasse II/7 SPAD 5.10, the last French biplane fighter still active at the beginning of WW2. (-- Christian Santoir 5/13/06)
AIRCRAFT: Morane-Saulnier 138, SPAD 5.10, Caudrons C.270 Luciole and C.400 Phalène, Gloster Gladiator, Hawker Audax [K8334], Salmson D-6.
Nasje Serdtse (USSR "Our Heart"; 1946) D: Aleksandr Stolper. Vladimir Druzhnikov.
Navy (Japan; 1941)
Nebesnyj Tichochod (USSR "Sky Flight"; 1945) D: Semyon Timoshenko. Tatyana Aloyshima, Nikolai Kryuchkov, Vasili Merkuryev. Screenplay: Timoshenko.
Nebezsti Jezdci (Czech Film Studios "Ghost Sky Riders"; 1969) D: Jindrich Polak. Story based on autobiography of Filip Jansky (aka Richard Husnik), aerial gunner on a RAF Wellington during the Battle of Britain, later in WW2 a B-24 with a Czech crew.
AIRCRAFT: USSR-built Douglas C-47, Lisunov Li-2.
Nebo Moskva (USSR "Moscow Skies"; Mosfilm-Artkino 1944) D: Yuli Raizman. Pyotr Alejnikov = Lt Ilya Streltsov, Nikolai Bogolyubov = LtCol Balashev, Ivan Kuznetsov = Lt Cherbina, Nina Masayeva = Zoya, Pyotr Sobolevsky = Capt Goncharov.
Night Bombers (Great Britain tv documentary; 1983, 60m) RAF Lancaster squadron life. Excellent flying footage.
Night Flight (MGM 1933) D: Clarence Brown. John Barrymore = Riviere, Lionel Barrymore = Robineau, Clark Gable = Fabian, William Gargan = pilot, Helen Hayes = Mme Fabian, Myrna Loy = pilot's wife, Robert Montgomery = Pellerin. Screenplay: Oliver Garrett, based on novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. South American air mail pilots working for ruthless martinet Robineau. Generous use of models and mock-ups. Aerials by Frank Tomick, Paul Mantz. Filmed at Culver City and around Rocky Mountains.
AIRCRAFT: Douglas M-2.
Nippon's Young Eagles (Japan; 1940) No data.
No Highway in the Sky (Great Britain; 1951, 98m) D: Henry Koster. Marlene Dietrich = Monica Teasdale, Jack Hawkins = Dennis Scott, Wilfrid Hyde-White = Fisher, Glynis Johns = Marjorie Corder, Kenneth More = Dobson, James Stewart = Ted Honey. Screenplay: Alec Coppel, Oscar Millard. Maltin review: "Offbeat, engrossing drama with Stewart as an engineer who desperately tries to convince others that aircraft can suffer from metal fatigue, and should be grounded after a given time."
Non-Stop Flight, The (Johnson Productions 1926, silent). Knute Erickson, Marcella Emory.
Non-Stop New York (Great Britain; Gaumont 1937, 70m) D: Robert Stevenson. Anna Lee = Jenny Carr, John Loder = Jim Grant, Francis L Sullivan = Hugo Brant. Screenplay: Ken Attiwill, J O C Orton. "Luxury airliner" serves as a backdrop for murder mystery. Maltin review: "Fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek, Hitchcock-like yarn about a woman who can provide an alibi for an innocent man accused of murder — but no one believes her. Love that luxury airplane!" Also as "Blood Oath" (1937).
No Place to Land (Republic 1958, 77m) D: Albert Gannaway. Jackie Coogan = Swede, John Ireland = Jonas Bailey, Gail Russell = Iris Lee LaVonne. Screenplay: Vance Skarstedt. Cropdusting soap opera filmed in Imperial County CA; limited air action.
Normandie-Niemen (France/USSR; 1960, 115m) D: Jean Dréville, Damir Viatitch-Berejnilkh. Gérard Darrieu = Le Guen, Giani Esposito = Lemaître, Roland Ménard = de Villemont, George Rivière = Benoît, Pierre Trabaud = Chardon. Screenplay: Constantin Simonov, Charles Spaak, Elsa Triolet. In 1942, pilots of the French Armée de l'Air in North Africa do not accept Petain's armistice and join a new squadron created in USSR on De Gaulle's initiative, the Escadrille Normandie, and earn the Soviets' respect. For its bravery in the Niemen battle, the squadron is renamed Normandie-Niemen. Yak-3/9 actually used by the group is replaced in the movie by a modified Yak-11, a training aircraft. (-- Christian Santoir 5/24/04)
AIRCRAFT: DC-3, Lisunov Li-2, Morane-Saulnier Alcyon, SNAC NC-701 Martinet, Yak-11, Yak-18.
Northrop Flying Wing (tv documentary, PBS 19?? 60m)
Nothing By Chance (Raylin 1975) D: William H Barnett. Richard Bach, Jack Brown, Chris Cagle, Glenn Norman, Steve Young, et al as themselves; Hugh Downs: narration. Barnstorming thru the Midwest, based on Bach's 1969 book of that title. Film never released commercially except for a few tv showings, so only a few personal copies exist somewhere unknown. Beautiful cinematography wasn't enough to captivate a general audience. 3/13/07: Word reaches us of a DVD release reputedly coming "soon."
AIRCRAFT: Parks P-1, Travel Air 4000.
Now We're in the Air (Paramount-Lasky 1927, silent) D: Frank R. Strayer. Wallace Beery = Wally, Louise Brooks = Grisette, Raymond Hatton = Ray, Russell Simpson = Lord Abercrombie McTavish. Screenplay: Monte Brice, Thomas J Geraghty. Comedy with leftover footage from "Wings." Aerials by Frank Tomick in added footage. Filmed at Griffith Park, LA.
One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (Great Britain, British National 1942, 106m) D: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. Eric Portman = Tom Earnshaw, Godfrey Tearle = Sir George Corbett, Hugh Williams = Frank Shelley, Peter Ustinov = the priest, Googie Withers = Jo de Vries. Screenplay: Michael Powell, Eric Pressburger. Crew of "B for Bertie" bail out over Holland and escape with help from partisans. Very polished story.
AIRCRAFT: Short Stirling, Vickers Wellington.
One Six Right (Terwilliger Productions 2005, 73m) - D: Brian J Terwilliger. DVD offering subtitled, "The Romance of Flying," which it unquestionably is. Outstanding creativity and visuals, a feast for the eyes, it is in essence an encomiun for the Van Nuys Airport (and its runway 16R), but it could easily be any hometown airport in the nation that has weathered the storms of time and progress. The history and glories of the field since 1926 are recorded in archival footage and spectacular new Panavision scenes, laced with personal narratives by notables like Clay Lacy, Barry Schiff, and others who called it home plate. My 1975 six-month Bicentennial tour of our 48 states in a radioless J-3 Cub began and ended on 16R, so this disc hit a personal note for me. (— K O Eckland)
Only Angels Have Wings (Columbia 1939, 121m) D: Howard Hawks. Jean Arthur = Bonnie Lee, Richard Barthelmess = Bat MacPherson, Noad Beery Jr = Joe Souther, John Carroll = Shelton, Cary Grant = Geoff Carter, Rita Hayworth (in her major film debut) = Judy MacPherson, Thomas Mitchell = The Kid, Sig Ruman = Dutchy. Screenplay: Jules Furthman. Paul Mantz credited as Chief Pilot and Technical Advisor. Pilots at a small South American airport deliver mail over a dangerous and mountain pass. Grant, the lead flyer, seems distant and cold as Arthur tries to get closer to him, and things heat up as Hayworth, Grant's old flame, shows up with her husband, who is an infamous and unpopular pilot. 'Oscar' nominations for Best Cinematography (Joseph Waller) and Best Effects (Roy Davidson, Edwin C Hahn) 1940.
AIRCRAFT: Hamilton Metalplane, Fokker F-10 as Ford Tri-motor; many models.
Trivia: Takes place in "Barranca, Port of Call for the South American Banana Boats." Although we never see much of the town, there are suggestions it is a fair-sized one with telephone service, police force, and hospital. Could that be Barranquilla, Columbia? The owner of the air service is German, and the Indian painted on the chief pilot's jacket suggests that he flew in the Great War. In 1919, SCADTA was founded as a German-sponsored airline in Barranquilla with German pilots, who flew over mountainous terrain to Girardot. Was "Geoff" inspired by German AF Col Herbert Boy, once SCADTA's chief pilot, who flew in WW1? (— anon 9/16/02)
On the Isle of Samoa (Columbia 1950) - Possible interest in showing the Capelis XC-12, full-size and the model, since it was reportedly scrapped c.1943 (email from William Villani 4/7/07).
On the Threshold of Space (Fox 1956, 98m) D: Robert D Webb. John Hodiak = Maj Ward Thomas, Dean Jagger = Dr Hugh Thornton, Virginia Leath = Pat Lange, Guy Madison = Capt Jim Hollenbeck. Screenplay: Francis M. Cockrell, Shimon Wincelberg. Filmed at Eglin AFB and Holoman AFB, Florida. CinemaScope. Maltin review: "Capable cast merely bridges the span between sequences of astronaut endurance tests and other space-flight maneuvers."
Out of the Air (Mutual 1915, silent) Airplane-to-train transfer by Charles Gaemon.
Out of the Clouds (Great Britain; 1955, 88m) D: Basil Dearden, Michael Relph. Robert Beatty = Nick Melbourne, James Robertson Justice = Brent, David Knight = Bill, Bernard Lee = customs officer, Anthony Steel = Gus Randall, Melissa Stribling = Jill. Screenplay: John & Michael Eldridge. A busy day at London Airport, with highlights of the lives and loves of a crew and passengers on a transport.
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