Plot
Patricia (Sarah Miles) is the daughter of Lord Rawnsley (Robert Morley), a newspaper magnate. Richard Mays (James Fox), is an Army officer who flies an Antoinette monoplane and seeks to win Patricia's hand. Mays conceives the idea of an air race from London to Paris to advance the cause of aviation (and his career), and persuades Lord Rawnsley to sponsor the race. An international cast plays the array of contestants, most of whom live up to national stereotypes, including the by-the-book, monocle-wearing Prussian officer (Gert Fröbe) flying an Eardley-Billing biplane, impetuous Count Emilio Ponticelli (Alberto Sordi), an amorous Frenchman Pierre Dubois (Jean-Pierre Cassel) in a Santos-Dumont Demoiselle, the rugged American cowboy Orvil Newton (Stuart Whitman) flying a Bristol Boxkite (impersonating a Curtiss), who falls for Patricia, causing a love triangle between them and Mays. Yujiro Ishihara is the late-arriving Japanese Naval officer Yamamoto, whose perfect Etonian accent makes him more British than the British. Rawnsley sums up: "The trouble with these international affairs is they attract a lot of foreigners."
Sir Percy Ware-Armitage (Terry-Thomas) is the unscrupulous rogue flying an Avro Triplane who "never leaves anything to chance". With his bullied servant Courtney (Eric Sykes), he sabotages other aircraft or drugs their pilots, and cheats by shipping his aeroplane across the channel by boat. The race sets out with 14 competitors but one by one they drop out or (like Ware-Armitage) crash, until only a few land in Paris. Orvil Newton loses his chance to win when he pauses to rescue Emilio Ponticelli from his burning aircraft. Richard Mays wins for Britain, but insists on a tie with Orvill Newton and sharing the prize with the now-bankrupt Newton. Orvil and Patricia finally are seen kissing, then being interrupted by a strange noise. Those at the flying field look up to see a flypast by six English Electric Lightnings overhead. The story resumes in a fogbound London airport as a cancellation of flights to Paris is announced.
Read more about this topic: Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines
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