''Spies of the Air'' (also known as ''Spies in the Air'' and ''The Fifth Column'') is a 1939 British adventure film directed by David MacDonald and based on the play ''Official Secret'' by

Jeffrey Dell John Edward Flowers "Jeffrey" Dell (7 May 1899 – 24 February 1985) was a British writer, screenwriter, and film director. He is also remembered for his 1939 novel '' Nobody Ordered Wolves'', a satire on the British film industry. His other nov ...

. The film stars Barry K. Barnes,

Roger Livesey Roger Livesey (25 June 1906 – 4 February 1976) was a British stage and film actor. He is most often remembered for the three Powell and Pressburger, Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'', '' ...

Basil Radford Arthur Basil RadfordAdam Greaves, "Radford, (Arthur) Basil (1897–1952)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, May 201available online Retrieved 3 August 2020. (25 June 189720 October 1952) was an English charac ...

, Edward Ashley and

Felix Aylmer Sir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones, OBE (21 February 1889 – 2 September 1979) was an English stage actor who also appeared in the cinema and on television. Aylmer made appearances in films with comedians such as Will Hay and George Formby. Earl ...

. ''Spies of the Air'' involves espionage in the period just before the outbreak of war in Europe that spawned a number of similar

propaganda films Propaganda Films was an American music video and film production company founded in 1986 by producers Steve Golin and Sigurjón Sighvatsson and directors David Fincher, Nigel Dick, Dominic Sena and Greg Gold. By 1990, the company was prod ...

linking aeronautics and spies. Films in both Great Britain and the United States centred on "... spies and fifth columnists (as) the staple diet of films made during the first year of the war."

Plot

Before the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, British test pilot Peter Thurloe ( Barry K. Barnes) is involved in an illicit love affair with his employer's wife, Dorothy Houghton ( Joan Marion). He is caught up in an elaborate scheme to steal secrets from Charles Houghton's (

) aviation company. Peter is suspected of betraying his country to a foreign power. Scotland Yard Inspector Colonel Cairns (

) is aware that the plans of a top-secret aircraft would be of great interest to an enemy.

Cast

* Barry K. Barnes as Peter Thurloe *

as Charles Houghton *

as Colonel Cairns *

as Madison * Edward Ashley as Stuart * Santos Casani as Foreigner *

Wallace Douglas Wallace Stuart Finlayson (15 August 1911 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada – 8 August 1990 Coldwaltham, West Sussex, England), known as Wallace Douglas, was a Canadian producer, director and actor. The son of Robert Barnett Finlayson and Emiline ...

as Hooper *

Everley Gregg Everley Gregg (26 October 1903, in Bishopstoke, Hampshire – 9 June 1959, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire) was an English actress. Early in her career, she became associated especially with plays of Noël Coward. She began making films in the ...

as Mrs. Madison * Joan Marion as Dorothy Houghton *

Henry Oscar Henry Wale (14 July 1891 – 28 December 1969), known professionally as Henry Oscar, was an English stage and film actor. He changed his name and began acting in 1911, having studied under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Dram ...

as Porter * John Turnbull as Sir Andrew Hamilton

Production

Filming took place at

Nettlefold Studios Walton Studios, previously named Hepworth Studios and Nettlefold Studios, was a film production studio in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, England.Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

was interested in the production and allowed the latest

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

aircraft to be filmed from a commercial aircraft. A Percival Vega Gull (G-AEYC) and Miles M.14A Magister I/Hawk Trainer III (L6908) were featured in the film, as well as a brief glimpse of a de Haviland Dragon Rapide. Made in 1939 and released in March 1939 in the United Kingdom, by the time ''Spies of the Air'' was in widespread release, war had already been declared. For its US release in a much abridged form, the film was originally going to be re-titled as ''The Fifth Column'', but

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

sued the production company, as he felt that the new title infringed on his ''

The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories ''The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories'' is an anthology of writings by Ernest Hemingway published by Scribner's on October 14, 1938. It contains Hemingway's only full-length play, ''The Fifth Column'', and 49 short stories. Many of ...

'' anthology released the previous year. Hemingway won the suit, and the film reverted to its original title, although it also appeared as ''Spies in the Air''.

Reception

''Spies of the Air'' was quickly relegated to "second feature" status, as the release of the similar themed '' Q Planes '' (1939), with a much better known cast, overshadowed the more modest production. Hal Erickson wrote, "The flight sequences blend stock footage and newly-shot aerial scenes with acceptable expertise." After the lawsuit by Hemingway had been settled, ''Spies in the Air'' had its US premiere in New York in 1940, and was reviewed by

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'': "David MacDonald has purloined a page from the book of Alfred Hitchcock, but without the latter's sense of timing or knack of pointing a climax."Crowther, Bosley
"At the Rialto: Spies of the Air".
''

'', 4 July 1940.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Brownlow, Kevin. ''David Lean: A Biography.'' New York: St. Martins Press, 1997. . * Mackenzie, S.P. ''British War Films, 1939–45.'' London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2003. . * Mavis, Paul. ''The Espionage Filmography: United States Releases, 1898 through 1999''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2001. . * Warren, Patricia. ''The British Film Collection 1896-1984''. London: Elm Tree Books, 1984. .

External links

* {{David MacDonald 1940 films 1940s adventure films 1940s spy films British spy films British aviation films Films directed by David MacDonald (director) British films based on plays Films set in Wiltshire Films set in London Films shot at Nettlefold Studios British adventure films British black-and-white films 1940s English-language films 1930s English-language films 1930s British films 1940s British films