Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes is a 1965 British epic period comedy film that satirises the early years of aviation.

Directed and co-written by Ken Annakin, the film stars an international ensemble cast, including Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, Robert Morley, Terry-Thomas, James Fox, Red Skelton, Benny Hill, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Gert Fröbe and Alberto Sordi.

During this time, a wildly mixed international assembly of aviators begins rubbing shoulders with each other, most of them conforming to national stereotypes: The by-the-book, Prussian officer Colonel Manfred von Holstein, who becomes the victim of Frenchman Pierre Dubois' various pranks; the impetuous Italian Count Emilio Ponticelli, who buys various aircraft from designer Harry Popperwell and wrecks them in test flights; the unscrupulous British baronet Sir Percy Ware-Armitage, aided by his bullied servant, Courtney; and the rugged American cowboy Orvil Newton.

As the teams test their aircraft in the days before the race, Newton gets caught in the rigging of Sir Percy's plane, which crashes in the nearby sewage farm.

At a celebration in Dover, Mays confronts Newton, sparking a fierce rivalry between them for Patricia's hand, just before Japan's official contestant, naval officer Yamamoto, arrives at the airfield.

After the competitors take off the next day, with Holstein standing in for Rumpelstrosse, Sir Percy's sabotage, fuel blockages, and other technical mishaps hamper the fliers until most of them safely arrive at Dover, their checkpoint before the final flight across the English Channel.

Outlined are the still-persisting hazards of modern flying despite today's advanced technology, as a night-time civilian flight across the English Channel is cancelled owing to heavy fog.

Zanuck financed an epic faithful to the era, with a £100,000 stake, deciding on the name, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines after Elmo Williams, managing director of 20th Century Fox in Europe, told him his wife Lorraine Williams had written an opening for a song that Annakin complained would "seal the fate of the movie":Those magnificent men in their flying machines,They go up, Tiddley up, up,They go down, Tiddley down, down.

[10] After being put to music by Ron Goodwin, the "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines" song was released as a single in 1965 on the Stateside label (SS 422), together with an accompanying soundtrack album (SL 10136).

[11] An international cast plays the array of contestants with the film opening with a brief, comic prologue on the history of flight, narrated by James Robertson Justice and featuring American comedian Red Skelton.

[12] In a series of silent blackout vignettes that incorporate stock footage of unsuccessful attempts at early aircraft, Skelton depicted a recurring character whose adventures span the centuries.

For its first audiences the film's depiction of an international flight competition taking place in an earlier, lower-tech era offered a fun-house mirror reflection of contemporary adventures by Space Age pioneers.

[7] All Brookley's associated trappings of structures, aircraft and vehicles (including a rare 1907 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, subsequently estimated to be worth 50 million dollars)[9] were part of the exterior set at Booker Airfield, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England.

Parker's rig allowed actors to sit inside full-scale models suspended 50 ft (15 m) above the ground, yet provide safety and realism for staged flying sequences, with the sky realistically in the background.

Flying conditions were monitored carefully, with aerial scenes filmed before 10 am or in early evening when the air was least turbulent, as the replicas, true to the originals, were flimsy, and control, especially in the lateral plane, tended to be marginal.

Wheeler eventually served not only as the technical adviser but also as the aerial supervisor throughout the production, and, later wrote a comprehensive background account of the film and the replicas that were constructed to portray period aircraft.

The Lee Richards Annular Biplane with circular wings (built by Denton Partners on Woodley Aerodrome, near Reading) was "flown on wires" during the filming.

When Doug Bianchi and the Personal Planes production staff who constructed the replica consulted with Allen Wheeler, he recalled that the Demoiselle's designer and first pilot, Alberto Santos-Dumont was a very short, slightly built man.

A suitably small pilot, Joan Hughes, a wartime member of the Air Transport Auxiliary who was the Airways Flying Club chief instructor, was hired.

20th Century Fox purchased the completed replica, although it required a new engine and modifications, including replacing the wooden fuselage structure with welded steel tubing as well as incorporating ailerons instead of wing-warping.

It is believed to have flown once, at Wellington Airport in the hands of Keith Trillo, a test pilot involved in a number of aircraft certification programmes, and is now at the Southward Car Museum, Otaihanga, New Zealand.

[33] Peter Hillwood of Hampshire Aero Club constructed an Avro Triplane Mk IV, using drawings provided by Geoffrey Verdon Roe, son of A.V.

[18] The Antoinette IV film model closely replicated the slim, graceful monoplane that was very nearly the first aircraft to fly the English Channel, in the hands of Hubert Latham, and won several prizes in early competitions.

Nonetheless, even in its final configuration the Antoinette was marginal in terms of stability and lateral control and great care had to be taken during its flying sequences, most flights being straight "hops".

When the filming was completed, the "1910 Bristol Boxkite" and the "1911 Roe IV Triplane" were retained in the Shuttleworth Collection,[36] Both replicas are still in flyable condition, albeit flying with different engines.

Stuntman Ken Buckle inadvertently turned the throttle to full on a runaway motorbike and sidecar, launching himself through the retaining wall on the sloped Brookley racing track and crashing into the adjoining cesspool, off-camera.

Thinking quickly, the special effects man on the other side of the wall saw the motorbike hurtling towards him and set off the accompanying explosion, creating a realistic waterspout.

[18] Those Magnificent Men In their Flying Machines ... had its Royal World Premiere on 3 June 1965 at the Astoria Theatre in the West End of London in the presence of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

[39] Variety felt similarly: "As fanciful and nostalgic a piece of clever picture-making as has hit the screen in recent years, this backward look into the pioneer days of aviation, when most planes were built with spit and bailing wire, is a warming entertainment experience.

"[41] At over two hours, Those Magnificent Men In their Flying Machines ... was treated as a major production, one of three full-length 70 mm Todd-AO Fox releases in 1965 with an intermission and musical interlude part of the original screenings.