''The Sound Barrier'' is a 1952 British aviation

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

David Lean Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Widely considered one of the most important figures in British cinema, Lean directed the large-scale epics ''The Bridge on the River ...

. It is a fictional story about attempts by aircraft designers and

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testing ...

s to break the

sound barrier The sound barrier or sonic barrier is the large increase in aerodynamic drag and other undesirable effects experienced by an aircraft or other object when it approaches the speed of sound. When aircraft first approached the speed of sound, th ...

. It was David Lean's third and final film with his wife

Ann Todd Dorothy Ann Todd (24 January 1907 – 6 May 1993) was an English film, television and stage actress who achieved international fame when she starred in 1945's ''The Seventh Veil''. From 1949 to 1957 she was married to David Lean who directed he ...

, but it was his first for

Alexander Korda Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)London Films London Films Productions is a British film and television production company founded in 1932 by Alexander Korda and from 1936 based at Denham Film Studios in Buckinghamshire, near London. The company's productions included ''The Private Life o ...

, following the break-up of

Cineguild Cineguild Productions was a production company formed by director David Lean, cinematographer Ronald Neame and producer Anthony Havelock-Allan in 1944. The company produced some of the major British films of the 1940s. History of Cineguild Hav ...

. ''The Sound Barrier'' stars

Ralph Richardson Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983) was an English actor who, with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, was one of the trinity of male actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. He wo ...

John Justin John Justin (24 November 1917 – 29 November 2002) was a British stage and film actor. Early life John Justinian de Ledesma was born in Knightsbridge, London, England, the son of a well-off Argentine rancher. Though he grew up on his father' ...

and

Nigel Patrick Nigel Patrick (born Nigel Dennis Patrick Wemyss-Gorman; 2 May 1912 – 21 September 1981) was an English actor and stage director born into a theatrical family. During the late 1940s and 1950s, he became known as a debonair leading man in Brit ...

. It was known in the United States as ''Breaking Through the Sound Barrier'' and ''Breaking the Sound Barrier''. ''The Sound Barrier'' was a box-office success on first release, but it has become one of the least-known of Lean's films. Following on ''

In Which We Serve ''In Which We Serve'' is a 1942 British patriotic war film directed by Noël Coward and David Lean. It was made during the Second World War with the assistance of the Ministry of Information (United Kingdom), Ministry of Information. The scree ...

'' (1942), the film is another of Lean's ventures into a genre of filmmaking where impressions of

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

are created.

Plot

After his aircraft company's groundbreaking work on jet engine technology in 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 opposin ...

, John Ridgefield, its wealthy owner, employs

Tony Garthwaite, a successful wartime fighter pilot, to fly new jet-powered aircraft. Garthwaite is hired by Ridgefield after marrying Ridgefield's daughter, Susan. Tensions between father and daughter are accentuated by Garthwaite's dangerous job of test flying. In a noteworthy illustration of the new technology, Susan accompanies Garthwaite on a ferrying assignment of a two-seater

de Havilland Vampire The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the Royal Air Force, RAF, after the Gloster Meteor, and ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

, Egypt, returning later the same day as passengers on a

de Havilland Comet The de Havilland DH.106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It featured an aerodynamically clean design with four d ...

. Ridgefield's plan for his new jet fighter, "Prometheus", has placed the company in jeopardy. The problems faced by the new

jet aircraft A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by jet engines. Whereas the engines in propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower speeds and altitudes, je ...

in exceeding the

speed of sound The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elastic medium. At , the speed of sound in air is about , or one kilometre in or one mile in . It depends strongly on temperature as w ...

, the so-called "sound barrier", are ever present. In an attempt to break the sound barrier, Garthwaite crashes and is killed. Shocked at both the death of her husband and at her father's apparently single-minded and heartless approach to the dangers his test pilots face, Susan walks out on her father and goes to live with friends Jess and Philip Peel, another company test pilot. Ridgefield later engages Peel to take on the challenge of piloting "Prometheus" at speeds approaching the speed of sound. In a crucial flight and at the critical moment, Peel performs a

counterintuitive A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...

action (foreshadowed in the opening scene of the film) which enables him to maintain control of the aircraft and to break the sound barrier. Eventually accepting that her father did care about those who died in tests, Susan changes her plan of moving to London and takes her young son with her back to live with Sir John.

Cast

as John Ridgefield *

as Susan Garthwaite *

as Tony Garthwaite *

as Philip Peel *

Dinah Sheridan Dinah Sheridan (born Dinah Nadyejda Ginsburg; 17 September 1920 – 25 November 2012) was an English actress with a career spanning seven decades. She was best known for the films ''Genevieve'' (1953) and ''The Railway Children'' (1970); the lon ...

as Jess Peel *

Joseph Tomelty Joseph Tomelty (5 March 1911 – 7 June 1995) was an Irish actor, playwright, novelist, short-story writer and theatre manager. He worked in film, television, radio and on the stage. starring in Sam Thompson's 1960 play ''Over the Bridge''. ...

as Will Sparks *

Denholm Elliott Denholm Mitchell Elliott, (31 May 1922 – 6 October 1992) was an English actor, with more than 125 film and television credits. His well-known roles include the abortionist in ''Alfie'' (1966), Marcus Brody in ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981 ...

as Christopher Ridgefield * Jack Allen as 'Windy' Williams *

Ralph Michael Ralph Michael (26 September 1907 – 9 November 1994) was an English actor. He was born as Ralph Champion Shotter in London. His film appearances included ''Dead of Night'', ''A Night to Remember (1958 film), A Night to Remember'', ''Children ...

as Fletcher * Rodney Goodall as Little Boy (uncredited) *

Donald Harron Donald Hugh Harron, (September 19, 1924 – January 17, 2015) was a Canadian comedian, actor, director, journalist, author, playwright, and composer. Harron is best remembered by American audiences as a member of the cast of the long-running co ...

as ATA officer (uncredited) *

Vincent Holman Vincent Holman (22 September 1886 – 7 April 1962) was a British stage, film and television actor. On stage, he was in the original cast of Arnold Ridley's ''The Ghost Train (play), The Ghost Train'' at Brighton's Theatre Royal, Brighton, Th ...

as Factor (uncredited) * Jolyon Jackley as Baby (uncredited) * Douglas Muir as Controller (uncredited) *

Leslie Phillips Leslie Samuel Phillips (20 April 1924 – 7 November 2022) was an English actor, director, producer and author. He achieved prominence in the 1950s, playing smooth, upper-class comic roles utilising his "Ding dong" and "Hello" catchphrases. ...

as Controller (uncredited) * Anthony Snell as Peter Makepeace (uncredited) * Robert Brooks Turner as Test Bed Operator (uncredited)

Production

The strong relationship to aviation history in ''The Sound Barrier'' has led to its being characterised as a "semi-documentary". The film pays tribute to the British effort in the historic advance in aviation of the development and final perfecting of the

jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition can include rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and hybrid propulsion, the term ...

Frank Whittle Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, (1 June 1907 – 8 August 1996) was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with inventing the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 for ...

and Power Jets Ltd and others following. David Lean had begun to gather research based on media reports of jet aircraft approaching supersonic speeds, interviewing British aeronautic designers. He even managed to fly with test pilots as he produced a 300-page notebook that he turned over to dramatist

Terence Rattigan Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan (10 June 191130 November 1977) was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background.Geoffrey Wan ...

. The subsequent screenplay concentrated on the newly discovered problems of flying at supersonic speeds and is also loosely based on the real-life story of aircraft designer

Geoffrey de Havilland Captain Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, (27 July 1882 – 21 May 1965) was an English aviation pioneer and aerospace engineer. The aircraft company he founded produced the Mosquito, which has been considered the most versatile warplane ever built,D ...

and the loss of his son.

Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr. Geoffrey Raoul de Havilland Jr., OBE (18 February 1910 – 27 September 1946) was a British test pilot. He was the son of Geoffrey de Havilland, the English aviation pioneer and aircraft designer. Early life Geoffrey Raoul de Havilland was b ...

was the

de Havilland The de Havilland Aircraft Company Limited () was a British aviation manufacturer established in late 1920 by Geoffrey de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome Edgware on the outskirts of north London. Operations were later moved to Hatfield in H ...

company test pilot who died on 27 September 1946 attempting to fly faster than the speed of sound in the DH 108.

John Derry Squadron leader John Douglas Derry DFC (5 December 1921 – 6 September 1952) was a British test pilot who is believed to be the first Briton to have exceeded the speed of sound in flight. Early life and education Derry was born in Cairo, ...

, another de Havilland test pilot, has been called "Britain's first supersonic pilot," because of a dive he made on 6 September 1948 in a DH 108. Contrary to what is depicted in the film, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier was the

rocket-powered A rocket-powered aircraft or rocket plane is an aircraft that uses a rocket engine for propulsion, sometimes in addition to airbreathing jet engines. Rocket planes can achieve much higher speeds than similarly sized jet aircraft, but typicall ...

Bell X-1 The Bell X-1 (Bell Model 44) is a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS-1, and was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics– U.S. Army Air Forces–U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by Be ...

flown by

Chuck Yeager Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager ( , February 13, 1923December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the ...

of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

in 1947. His feat was portrayed in the 1983 film '' The Right Stuff''. As Yeager, who was present at the US premiere, described in his first biography, ''The Sound Barrier'' was entertaining, but not that realistic – and any pilot who attempted to break the sound barrier in the manner portrayed in the film (forcing the

centre stick A centre stick (or center stick in the United States), or simply control stick is an aircraft cockpit arrangement where the control column (or joystick) is located in the center of the cockpit between the pilots or between the pilot's legs. Since ...

forward to pull out of a dive) would have been killed. Because the 1947 Bell X-1 flight had not been widely publicised, many who saw ''The Sound Barrier'' thought it was a true story, and that the first supersonic flight was made by a British pilot.Yeager and Janos 1986, pp. 206–207. Studio filming was completed at

Shepperton Studios Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England, with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence, the studio was branded as Sound City (not to be confused w ...

, but the flying sequences were filmed at Chilbolton Aerodrome, Nether Wallop, Hampshire, under the direction of

Anthony Squire Jack Francis Anthony Squire (5 May 1914 – 15 May 2000) was an English film and television screenwriter and director. He was married for a time to the actress Shelagh Fraser. Born in London, he is best known for his work on ITC television ...

. A

Vickers Valetta The Vickers Valetta is a twin-engine military transport aircraft developed and produced by the British manufacturing company Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd. Developed from the Vickers VC.1 Viking compact civil airliner, it was an all-metal mid-wing m ...

and

Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirlin ...

bomber served as camera platforms for the aerial sequences. With the assistance of the British Aircraft Constructors Association, aircraft featured in ''The Sound Barrier'' were loaned by

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...

and other British aerospace companies.Pendo 1985, p. 135. In addition, footage of early 1950s British jet technology used in the film includes scenes of the

, the world's first jet passenger airliner, the

Supermarine Attacker The Supermarine Attacker is a British single-seat naval jet fighter designed and produced by aircraft manufacturer Supermarine for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). The type has the distinction of being the first jet fighter to enter oper ...

and the

. A Supermarine 535 prototype for the later Swift (''VV119'') featured as the experimental ''Prometheus'' jet fighter. Not unlike its screen persona, the Swift was an aircraft design that underwent particularly difficult teething problems during development.

Malcolm Arnold Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold (21 October 1921 – 23 September 2006) was an English composer. His works feature music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music ...

(later knighted) composed the music score, for this, the first of his three films for David Lean. The others were ''

Hobson's Choice A Hobson's choice is a free choice in which only one thing is actually offered. The term is often used to describe an illusion that multiple choices are available. The most well known Hobson's choice is "I'll give you a choice: take it or leave ...

'' (1954) and ''

The Bridge on the River Kwai ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' is a 1957 epic war film directed by David Lean and based on the 1952 novel written by Pierre Boulle. Although the film uses the historical setting of the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–1943, the pl ...

'' (1957).

Reception

Critical

''The Sound Barrier'', in its American title as ''Breaking the Sound Barrier,'' 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 ...

in ''

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 ...

''. According to Crowther, "this picture, which was directed and produced in England by David Lean from an uncommonly literate and sensitive original script by Terence Rattigan, is a wonderfully beautiful and thrilling comprehension of the power of jet airplanes and of the minds and emotions of the people who are involved with these miraculous machines. And it is played with consummate revelation of subtle and profound characters by a cast headed by Ralph Richardson, Nigel Patrick, and Ann Todd". Film historian Stephen Pendo further described the "brilliant aerial photography. ... Along with the conventional shot of the aircraft there is some unusual creative camera work. To illustrate the passage of a plane, Lean shows only the wheat in a field being bent by air currents produced by the unseen jet. ... Even the cockpit shots are very good, with the test pilots in G-suits and goggles framed by the plexiglass and sky backgrounds."

Box office

''The Sound Barrier'' was the 12th most popular movie at the British box office in 1952, and also did well in the United States, making a comfortable profit.

Awards

Academy Awards

* Winner: Best Sound Recording –

London Films London Films Productions is a British film and television production company founded in 1932 by Alexander Korda and from 1936 based at Denham Film Studios in Buckinghamshire, near London. The company's productions included ''The Private Life o ...

"The 25th Academy Awards (1953) Nominees and Winners."
''oscars.org''. Retrieved: 20 August 2011. * Nominee Best story written directly for the screen (

) With this film, Ralph Richardson became the first actor to win the New York Film Critics Award for Best Actor who did not receive an Oscar nomination.

BAFTA Awards

* Winner Best Film from any Source * Winner Best British Film * Winner Best British Actor (

) * Nominee Best British Actor (

) * Nominee Best British Actress (

)

US National Board of Review

* Winner Best Actor (Ralph Richardson) * Winner Best Director (David Lean) * Winner Best Foreign Film * Listed in Top Foreign Films

New York Critics Circle

* Winner Best Actor (Ralph Richardson)

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Brown, Eric. ''The Miles M.52: Gateway to Supersonic Flight''. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2012. . * Brown, Eric. ''Wings on my Sleeve''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006. . * Carlson, Mark. ''Flying on Film: A Century of Aviation in the Movies, 1912–2012''. Duncan, Oklahoma: BearManor Media, 2012. . * Davies, R.E.G. and Philip J. Birtles. ''Comet: The World's First Jet Airliner''. McLean, Virginia: Paladwr Press, 1999. . * de Havilland, Geoffrey. ''Sky Fever: The Autobiography of Sir Geoffrey De Havilland''. Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire, UK: Crowood Press Ltd., 1999. . * Hamilton-Paterson, James. ''Empire of the Clouds: When Britain's Aircraft Ruled the World''. London: Faber & Faber, 2010. . * Hardwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies." ''The Making of the Great Aviation Films''. General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989. * Kulik, Karol. ''Alexander Korda: The Man Who Could Work Miracles''. London: Virgin, 1990. . * Paris, Michael. ''From the Wright Brothers to Top gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema''. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995. . * Pendo, Stephen. ''Aviation in the Cinema''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. . * Porter, Vincent. "The Robert Clark Account." ''Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television'', Vol. 20 No. 4, 2000. * Pratley, Gerald. ''The Cinema of David Lean''. Aurora, Colorado: Oak Tree Publications, !974. . * Winchester, Jim. ''The World's Worst Aircraft: From Pioneering Failures to Multimillion Dollar Disasters''. London: Amber Books Ltd., 2005. . * Wood, Derek. ''Project Cancelled''. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc., 1975. . * Yeager, Chuck, Bob Cardenas, Bob Hoover, Jack Russell and James Young. ''The Quest for Mach One: A First-Person Account of Breaking the Sound Barrier''. New York: Penguin Studio, 1997. . * Yeager, Chuck and Leo Janos. ''Yeager: An Autobiography''. New York: Bantam Books, 1986. .

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sound Barrier, The 1952 films British aviation films British black-and-white films British Lion Films films Films about test pilots Films directed by David Lean Films shot at Shepperton Studios Films that won the Best Sound Mixing Academy Award Films with screenplays by Terence Rattigan Best Film BAFTA Award winners Best British Film BAFTA Award winners Films scored by Malcolm Arnold London Films films 1950s English-language films 1950s British films