NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 659, 22 February 1952, Page 16

NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY

(20th Century-Fox) F you were a scientist, like Theodore Honey (James Stewart), and had calculated that the tail of a big passenger aeroplane made from a new alloy would fall, off after 1440 flying ‘hours, you’d be upset to find you were on one of these planes for a _ transAtlantic crossing, with the flying time 1422 hours at the time of take off. Mr. Honey was upset, anyway. He stated his fears to one or two members of the aircrew, a hostess, and a film actress. This is the central situation in No Highway in the Sky, directed by Henry Koster, a film based on a Nevil Shute novel. Back at his research station Mr. Honey had been engaged on a !aboratory test to prove his theory when he

was sent off on this flight to try to find the tail of a similar plane which had crashed in Labrador. He is portrayed as a scientist in the old absent-minded tradition-the sort of man who ‘still puts his key in the wrong door after: goodness knows how many years, and suddenly says, while discussing something at home, that he must be going home. I thought this a bit overdone; and there is the same sort of fault in his exaggerated, shambling walk, especially when he comes back after the momentous flight. Now, I don’t propose to spoil a film in which the story is very important by revealing its details. It’s true the suspense isn’t of the kind found in, say, Fourteen Hours. In the scenes on. the plane I was more afraid of panic than of disaster, which I suppose helped to make the film’s climax, even with its tather unlikely timing of events, all the more effective. No Highway isn’t a drama. But it is, up to a point, a thriller -a comedy thriller, as the advertisements quite truthfully stated. I must say I got some good laughs from it. Marlene Dietrich makes a beautiful film star, who really doesn’t obtrude, since Mr. Honey’s feeling towards her is mainly one of gratitude for the pleasure her films have given his wife, who was killed in an air raid; Glynis Johns is a sympathetic air hostess; and Janette Scott (whose performance in No Place for Jennifer I commended on this page a few weeks ago) again deserves praise for her part as the daughter of a somewhat inhumanly scientific (though wellmeaning) father-a girl who is suddénly (continued on next page) LS