Retrospective: Clouds Over Europe (1939)

[Mark R. Leeper]

Q-PLANES (1939, US Title: CLOUDS OVER EUROPE)
(a film retrospective/review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: In a plot similar to YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, new
British planes being tested are being plucked out of
the sky and are disappearing without a trace. A British
intelligence officer rejects the leading theory that the
plane disappearances are coincidence. He goes off
looking for the truth. Meanwhile a test pilot also
thinks that there is more to the losses than meets the
eye. And does his own investigation.

1939 is considered the high point of the golden age of filmmaking.
Films made that year include GONE WITH THE WIND, THE WIZARD OF OZ,
STAGECOACH, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, NINOTCHKA, WUTHERING
HEIGHTS, GOODBYE MR. CHIPS, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, and OF
MICE AND MEN. One British film of that year that has nearly been
forgotten was called Q-PLANES in Britain and called CLOUDS OVER
EUROPE in the US. Though rarely recognized as such, Q-PLANES has a
plot too similar to that of later James Bond films to be attributed
to coincidence. I ideas of the film are very similar to the early
James Bond films in general and to YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE in
particular.

British planes with new secret embellishments seem to be
disappearing all over the map. The planes go up in test flights
and are seemingly being plucked out of the air never to be heard of
again. British Intelligence is mystified and attributing the dozen
or so disappearances to coincidence. One agent who is not
convinced is the debonair, umbrella-brandishing Major Hammond,
played by Ralph Richardson. Hammond is convinced everyone else is
wrong about the disappearances and that he is right that there is
some villain who is behind the vanishings. Actually there is one
other person who has drawn the same conclusion. It is star test
pilot Tony McVane (Laurence Olivier). Much (too much) of the film
centers on McVane who in a comic subplot has a love-hate
relationship with Hammond's attractive sister Kay (Valerie Hobson).
Meanwhile McVane is anxious to take up a new and valuable test
plane to see for himself what has happened to the other missing
aircraft. I will not say what was discovered about the missing
planes, but the conclusion of the film was very much the 1939
equivalent of just so many spectacular battles at the end of James
Bond films.

Actually Hammond is not so much a James Bond type. He much more
seems of the mold of John Steed of the British TV series "The
Avengers." Like Steed the earlier Hammond does not wear a bowler
as Steed did. But his hat is very similar to Steed's. This film
is more of a comedy than an Avengers story and certainly more than
a James Bond film, but one would have to be blind to miss the ideas
of Q-PLANES that were recycled into early Bond films and Avengers
episodes.

If the name Valerie Hobson is familiar it may be because she plays
Lisa, the wife of THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON. Also she had the title
role in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (assuming that Frankenstein was
the scientist and not the monster). In 1963 she was married to
Government Minister John Profumo when his sexual relationship with
a 19-year-old model shook all of Britain.

This film was made in 1939. Most of it was shot before war was
declared, so with a German market in mind the characters carefully
avoid suggesting what country is behind the evil deeds. However,
by the time the film was nearly complete war had broken out between
Britain and Germany. There was time to get in only one reference
that it was Germany who was behind the nasty bit of espionage.

CLOUDS OVER EUROPE (seemingly a more popular title than the
original title, Q-PLANES) shows up every few years on Turner
Classic Movies. As of this writing it can also be found on
YouTube.

Film Credits:
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031831/combined>


Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 2016 Mark R. Leeper