Out of the Clouds *** (1954, Anthony Steel, Robert Beatty, David Knight, Margo Lorenz, James Robertson Justice, Eunice Gayson, Isabel Dean, Gordon Harker, Bernard Lee, Katie Johnson) – Classic Movie Review 13,363

Basil Dearden’s 1954 Ealing Studios British Eastmancolor film Out of the Clouds is a high-flying, old-fashioned Grand Hotel-style multi-story drama set in a fog-bound London Airport of the day.

Director Basil Dearden’s 1954 Ealing Studios British Eastmancolor drama film Out of the Clouds is loosely based on the novel The Springboard by John Fores, and stars Anthony Steel, Robert Beatty, David Knight, Margo Lorenz, James Robertson Justice, Eunice Gayson, Isabel Dean, Gordon Harker, Bernard Lee, Katie Johnson.

Out of the Clouds is a high-flying, old-fashioned Grand Hotel-style multi-story drama set in a fog-bound London Airport of the day. As it is 1954, fashions and attitudes have changed a bit, and it is amusing to see them in such sharp relief. Most of the characters and their stories take off nicely. The then fairly new London Airport (later called Heathrow) is clearly the star of the entertaining, episodic movie.

Making most impression among the human stars is Robert Beatty as the chief duty officer Nick Millbourne, convinced that he has lost his stewardess girlfriend Penny Henson (Eunice Gayson) to compulsive gambler pilot Gus Randall (Anthony Steel), who is mixed up in smuggling. Meanwhile, less interestingly, Jewish American Bill Steiner (David Knight) falls for German Jewish woman Leah Rosch (Margo Lorenz), who is bound for New York to find security in a marriage to a rich elderly American.

Sweet old Katie Johnson steals the show as a nervous passenger, and James Robertson Justice scores as a veteran pilot, Captain Brent.

John Fores’s novel The Springboard was adapted by Rex Reinits, with a screenplay by the film’s producer Michael Relph and John Eldridge.

It premiered on 14 February 1955 at the Odeon Leicester Square Theatre in London and finally opened in the US two years later, on 31 July 1957.

The Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation co-operated in the production and technical assistance was provided by BOAC, British European Airways and Pan-American World Airways.

Principal photography at London Airport started in early June 1954 with a production office set up at the airport. One of Ealing Studios’ largest ever sets re-created the interior of the terminal building, and the studio also built an exact replica set of the London Airport air traffic control room.

London Heathrow Airport, usually called just Heathrow, was named London Airport until 1966, and is the main international airport serving London. Heathrow was founded as a small airfield in 1929 but was developed into a much larger airport in 1944 during World War Two and continued to be developed as a civil airport after World War Two. The airport was opened on 25 March 1946 as London Airport.

Sid James, who stars as a gambler, was a gambler in real life.

The cast

The cast are Anthony Steel as Gus Randall, Robert Beatty as Nick Millbourne, David Knight as Bill Steiner, Margo Lorenz as Leah Rosch, James Robertson Justice as Captain Brent, Eunice Gayson as Penny Henson, Isabel Dean as Mrs Malcolm, Gordon Harker as taxi driver, Bernard Lee as customs officer, Michael Howard as Purvis, Marie Lohr as wealthy lady, Esma Cannon as lady’s companion, Abraham Sofaer as Indian man, Melissa Stribling as Jean Osmond, Sid James as gambler, Barbara Leake as the gambler’s wife, Megs Jenkins as the landlady, Harold Kasket as Hafadi Jack Lambert as Chief Engineer, Cyril Luckham as the doctor, Nicholas Phipps as Hilton-Davidson, Terence Alexander as Duty Room radio operator, Charles Farrell as Perce, Lloyd Lamble as Ben Saunders, William Franklyn as Control Tower radio operator,Katie Johnson as worried passenger, and Mary Germaine as BEA receptionist.

English film actress Mary Germaine was born on 28 March 1933

Mary Germaine’s film career lasted from 1951 till an uncredited role as BEA receptionist in her final film Out of the Clouds (1955),

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,363

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