High Flight (1957)

With documentary-like detail, this film traces the progress of three young peacetime recruits at the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire.

One of them, Tony Winchester (Kenneth Haigh) stands out immediately as a cocky individualist when he arrives at the college in his own plane and lands on the main airstrip without permission.

But the superior officer, Wing Commander Rudge (Ray Milland) – a Battle of Britain veteran – is reluctant to impose his usual iron discipline because the youth’s father – a wartime Wing Commander – was killed through Rudge’s own rebelliousness as a young man.

Two other newcomers, Roger Endicott (Anthony Newley) and John Fletcher (Kenneth Fortescue) team up with Tony and after completing their training they are posted to a fighter squadron in Scotland where Rudge is still their CO.

Winchester is still a rebel – until he is posted to Germany. During an operational flight, he sights an unidentified plane and gives chase. In his excitement, he crosses the Iron Curtain and is hit by anti-aircraft fire. And the person who risks his life to save him is Rudge, of course.

High Flight was filmed (with the cooperation of the Air Ministry) by Warwick Films and released in Technicolor in Britain but only released in black and white in the US.

Wing Commander Rudge
Ray Milland
Flight Sergeant Harris
Bernard Lee
Tony Winchester
Kenneth Haigh
Roger Endicott
Anthony Newley
John Fletcher
Kenneth Fortescue
Cadet Day
Sean Kelly
Louise
Helen Cherry
Squadron Leader Blake
Leslie Phillips
Minister for Air
Kynaston Reeves
Commandant
John Le Mesurier
Diana
Jan Brooks
Jackie
Jan Holden
Chauffeur
Richard Wattis
Colonel
Charles Clay
Parker
Frank Atkinson
Bishop
Ian Fleming
Bishop’s Wife
Nancy Nevinson
Commandant’s Wife
Grace Arnold
Susan
Anne Aubrey
Cadet Pringle
John Downing
Cadet Phillips
Richard Bennett
Cadet Wilcox
Barry Foster
Cadet Benson
Peter Dixon
Cadet Johnson
Robert Raikes
Cadet Seymour
Douglas Gibbon
Cadet Connor
Alan Penn

Director
John Gilling