No Highway In The Sky made it's premiere on Turner Classic Movies on Sunday. The film reunited James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich, twelve years after they starred together in Destry Rides Again. If it was not for these two big named stars, No Highway In The Sky would be a small "B" movie made in England and produced by 20th Century Fox. But Stewart and Dietrich's star power elevated the film to "A" status.
The movie was one of the first to feature a commercial air disaster as a plot device. Stewart is Theodore Honey, a scientist who is experimenting with the effects of metal fatigue on aircraft. He theorizes that constant vibration will cause metal fatigue and cause a plane to fall apart at a certain point.
By chance he finds himself on just such a plane when it is nearing the point of failure. His attempt to warn the Captain is fruitless, but he is believed by passenger and film star Monica Teasdale (Dietrich) who share a tense night together.
When the plane lands safely in Gander, Honey is removed from the plane. After it passes inspection the Captain plans to fly on to Montreal so Honey sabotages the plane in order to prevent it from flying further.
Now his sanity is in question and he must find a way to prove his theory is correct before a plane falls apart in mid-air and hundreds are killed.
Based on a novel by Nevil Shute the story mirrored real life plane crashes that happened three years later, all attributed to metal fatigue.
At The Movie House rating *** stars.
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