No Highway in the Sky (1951)

Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart team up again, after the crazy and rather terrific "Destry Rides Again," for a very different kind of movie. It has cornball humor, sentimental romance, rosy idealism, and weirdly enough, a criticism of aeronautics that was not far off the mark.

Stewart plays an odd duck scientist--the type made popular earlier by Gary Cooper in "Ball of Fire" (1941) and Cary Grant in "Bringing Up Baby" (1938) and which Grant furthers (much more amazingly) in "Monkey Business" the next year. Stewart, in this movie, makes it fun and then makes it wholly life or death.

Dietrich gets to play herself, basically--a famous movie star, and one who feels weary of the world. Utterly charming is a third lead, of sorts, Glynis Johns, who is a stewardess made of gold. As the plane they are on faces trouble, they each deal with Stewart in their own ways. And then, later, they continue their involvement with him back on earth. It's touching and funny. Yes it's improbable, but in such a charming and well done way, all is well.

I really enjoyed this film, partly because of the cast, and partly because it has so many surprises and twists to it. It has elements of screwball to it, but it's something of its own, as well. Recommended.

NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY is a sterling adaptation of a popular Nevil Shute novel of the day. In it, a pitch-perfect Jimmy Stewart plays an absent-minded engineer who becomes convinced that a prototype passenger aircraft has a deadly fault. The problem for him is that his calculations are based on mathematics alone; his physical tests will take weeks to conclude and in the meantime the aircraft is in use around the world. What follows is part human drama, part character study, part man-against-the-system journey, and part suspense thriller. The plane set-piece is a real highlight, but the whole film stands out. The casting is also very good, with Marlene Dietrich essentially playing herself, Jack Hawkins as the sole ally, and Glynis Johns as a sympathetic stewardess.

Jimmy Stewart plays your prototypical engineering nerd (although the term had not yet been coined at this time). He has expertise in aeronautical matters and has, through mathematical calculations, determined that a particular plan has structural defects that will cause it to pretty much come apart in the sky after a certain number of miles have been flown. He dramatically finds himself on one of these planes and must take an incredible risk. He must get the crew to land the plane and get the passengers reassigned. Of course, despite his accomplishments, he is seen as a nut. An effort is made to force him out of his career and to even be prosecuted. His family life is disrupted badly and he is ridiculed by the manufacturer of the plane and the industry itself. I found Stewart's portrayal quite good. At no time is he a zealot--he is a man of science and he believes in his skill. For most of the movie, we don't see him all that concerned about the human element (at least not in any serious personal way),but rather than the idea that he is right about the whole thing. This movie is a little sleeper and part of the Stewart canon worth watching. If you can find a copy. It is shown occasional on AMC so look for it.