Reach for the Sky **** (1956, Kenneth More, Muriel Pavlow, Lyndon Brook) – Classic Movie Review 5016

Writer-director Lewis Gilbert’s inspirational 1955 British drama Reach for the Sky stars Kenneth More, who enjoyed his biggest success when Richard Burton turned down the role of ace British pilot Douglas Bader.

Bader painfully learns to walk again and flies to distinction in World War Two after a disastrous 1931 flying accident costs him both of his legs. The doctors expect him to die, but Bader’s determination and courage overcome terrible odds.

However, just walking on artificial legs isn’t enough for Bader – life for him means flying. Then World War Two gives him the chance to fly again and prove those who doubt him wrong, becoming a fighter pilot and wing leader.

Mostly because of quintessential Englishman More’s sympathetic performance as a man of great integrity, humour and grit, director Gilbert’s biopic is something much better than a mere conventionally crafted patriotic flag-waving movie. If only Gilbert’s screenplay (based on the book by Paul Brickhill) had dug a little deeper and avoided sentimentality we might have learned even more about pain, despair and the mad drive to win against seemingly impossible odds.

However, it is a story and film that inspired many people in the dark days of Fifties, and its positive, warm-hearted spirit is still attractive and inspiring.

Reach for the Sky runs 135 minutes but it was cut by 12 minutes in the US, where it failed to repeat its popularity.

It is the winner of the 1957 Bafta Film Award for Best British Film.

It is Clive Revill’s debut, as the RAF batman Helping Bader with His New Legs.

Jess Conrad.

On 2 October 2020, Jess Conrad tweeted: ‘Catch me in one of my first film roles [as Cadet Pilot, uncredited] right now on BBC2’. On 30 December 2021, it was shown again on BBC2, and he added: ‘From that moment on I found my vocation. It all slotted into place. I was now in the film business and I was in my element. It was sensational.’ He made his debut the previous year as Sailor in Pub (uncredited) in The Cockleshell Heroes (1955).

Also in the true Brit cast are Muriel Pavlow as Thelma Bader, Lyndon Brook, Lee Patterson, Alexander Knox, Dorothy Alison as Nurse Brace, Michael Balfour, Michael Warre, Sydney Tafler, Howard Marion-Crawford, Jack Watling, Avice Landone, Ernest Clark, Michael Ripper, Eric Pohlmann, Eddie Byrnes, Nigel Green, Anne Leon, Charles Carson, Walter Hudd, Ronald Adam, Sam Kydd, Vincent Ball, Peter Burton, Paul Carpenter, Jess Conrad, Stringer Davis, Anton Diffring, Basil Dignam, Fred Griffiths, Barry Letts, Richard Marner, Jack May, Ronan O’Casey, Clive Revill, George Rose, and Russell Waters.

Reach for the Sky is directed by Lewis Gilbert, runs 135 minutes, is made by Pinnacle, is released by Rank (UK), is written by Lewis Gilbert, with additional scenes by Vernon Harris, based on the book by Paul Brickhill, is shot in Black and White by Jack Asher, is produced by Daniel M Angel, is scored by John Addison, and is designed by Bernard Robinson.

Muriel Pavlow.

Muriel Pavlow died on 19 January 2019, aged 97. Her last film was Glorious 39 (2009).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5016

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