Clouds Over Europe

Beneath the British B-picture exterior lies a hidden gem of an espionage thriller. Q PLANES is briskly paced and delightfully entertaining, balancing exciting spy intrigue with lighthearted character moments. The villains' dastardly scheme foreshadows James Bond villainy to come, and one can almost hear the John Barry music swell up during certain scenes.

The film is anchored by Ralph Richardson in a droll performance as a slightly Holmesian secret service man: undeniably brilliant, if a tad eccentric and prone to absent-mindedness. The triumvirate of stars is completed by Laurence Olivier as a pilot (and all-around good guy) and Valerie Hobson, who we learn is a newspaper reporter out looking for a scoop (in the grand tradition of such characters).

Top-secret experimental planes are disappearing under mysterious circumstances and Richardson is doing everything he can to get to the bottom of it. The main cast of Richardson, Olivier, and Hobson are great together and the movie manages to blend real comedy with real excitement. This little-known British thriller is a real winner. It's lots of fun and a wonderful surprise. Try to catch it on TCM sometime.

Policemen raid an apartment to find the place generally ransacked and a Devil-may-care man who claims to have no memory. He's actually wacky British Secret Agent Major Hammond (Ralph Richardson) who is investigating plane manufacturers and possible espionage. He is assisted by his sister Kay and ace pilot Tony McVane (Laurence Olivier).

This delivers some light fun with espionage. It's a little surprising considering the state of the world during that time. The whole place is about to explode into world war in a few months. It's not unforeseen at that time. The subject matter is hitting something real and yet the characters are cracking jokes. I do like the joking aspect but I also wonder if the audience of its day was in the mood.

Experimental craft are disappearing. Why? Because villain uses a ray to disable the craft, then captures craft and crew intact. There must be half a dozen Bond films with this plot. The villian's henchmen are also very much in the Bond mold - running all over the ship like so many ants in an ant colony. Only difference is that these henchmen are more realistic; they are harder to kill, and are better shots.

Everyone involved with this brisk comedy/thriller seems to be enjoying themselves immensely. It's a ripping yarn about spies, disappearing planes and a secret ray gun, lit up by Olivier and Richardson, with lots of cheerful gags along the way. It's dated, of course, but if you can leave that aside it's still good fun.

A secret British aviation project is being disrupted by a foreign power. Agent Charles Hammond (Ralph Richardson), is assigned the case. What follows is an espionage thriller that refuses to take itself seriously. Yet strangely, this odd mixture of screwball comedy and political potboiler actually works.

"Q Planes" (released in the U. S. as "Clouds Over Europe") was directed by an American, Tim Whelan. He establishes an anarchic tone throughout. He satirizes what his contemporaries considered too serious to examine lightly. In the story, British experimental aircraft are being "electronically" hijacked right out of the sky. The culprits' nationality is never identified, but you can guess their origin as soon as they speak their lines in that thick Teutonic accent.

The dialogue, much of it written and improvised by Richardson and his co-star Laurence Olivier, is crackling and smart. The action, though wildly improbable, is as unreal and stylized as the characters. The joker in the deck is Hammond himself. He boasts of his own considerable skills as a solver of crimes, crossword puzzles, and lovers' squabbles. Despite such brashness, Hammond is never tedious. Richardson plays him as an eccentric of many shades - horse-racing addict, amateur master chef, verbal wit extraordinaire, constant belittler of his valet (Gus McNaughton), and a man whose obsession with his case causes him to repeatedly ignore his beloved Daphne (Sandra Storme), the single character who bests Hammond in the film's fittingly ironic conclusion.

Hammond is aided on the case by his intrepid sister-reporter, Kay (Valerie Hobson), and a temperamental test-pilot, Tony McVane (Laurence Olivier), whom Kay picks up while snooping around an aircraft factory. Kay's character, a caricature of the working English suffragette, holds her own when competing with her two male cohorts - McVane, who hates reporters no matter their gender and Hammond, the egoist-as-detective ("I'm right - and the whole world is wrong!"). As if any enemy country could measure up against single representatives of MI-5, Fleet Street, and the RAF.