MovieChat Forums > Out of the Clouds (1955) Discussion > THE ROMANCE OF AIR TRAVEL IN THE 1950S

THE ROMANCE OF AIR TRAVEL IN THE 1950S


In dramatic terms this film is poor,stiff characters ,stiff upper lips but the film is a history lesson for those of us who imagine that in the past there was a golden age of civil aviation.

This film is a semi documentary film about a day at London's Heathrow Airport.
It features beautiful old aircraft such as Constellations and Stratocruisers and groovy old jeeps and fire engines.

If you were studying the history of London you could look at this and POOL OF LONDON,SAPPHIRE and other films directed by Dearden.

Channel 4 UK are showing this today 18/9/2008 and tomorrow they are showing THE GOOD DIE YOUNG another British film partly et at Heathrow.

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Well worth seeing for the *historical aspect* as already pointed out by ib011f9545i. My, oh my, how air travel has changed, and not necessarily for the better.

With us nowadays having to be so security conscious, it is interesting to note that there was virtually no security when this film was shot. For one thing, and incredibly so, people and cars would just "mingle" amongst parked planes some of which even had their propellors turning.

And then there was the personal service whereby airline staff would take passengers personally on a one to one basis to their (because of flight delays caused by fog) allocated hotels. All very quaint.

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This and the much better 1954 American film, The High and the Mighty, both remind us of the completely different world of air travel half a century ago. Personalized service, good food, planes filled with no more than 20 or 30 passengers who dress for their trip, no worries about security, people not herded about like cattle, the trip itself a part of one's vacation, something to be enjoyed rather than endured.

The old planes -- and the old airlines -- are also fun to note, as is the level of technology available in the mid-50s. The comparatively slow speed of travel via propeller-driven planes (four hours Rome to London, 12 hours Honolulu to San Francisco) is interesting, if not a tad quaint, in an era just on the cusp of regular jet travel.

Today we move much faster, but much less well.

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Today we move much faster, but much less well.
For sure

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Of course, in 1954 people no doubt made the same complaint compared to the travel standards of, say, ocean liners of the 30s. One shudders to think how people will react to the transportation situation of 2050. "O! For the good old days of full-body scans, no shoes, nail clippers or hair gels, interminable delays and absolutely no information whatsoever."

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