The great Ralph Richardson not only walks away with this film but makes Laurence Olivier look as wooden as Richard Todd, John Gregson, Laurence Harvey and Richard Pasco combined. Both primarily actors in the theatre they had appeared in something like ten or twelve movies apiece (including The Divorce Of Lady X in which they both played) but whilst Richardson is laid-back and thoroughly at home before the camera Olivier is self-conscious in the extreme and about as believable as a pilot as Stan Laurel would be as a thoracic surgeon. It's all very Boy's Own Paper with a fair quota of sloppiness in the writing - no explanation of why Richardson is sleeping in a building that is being raided by police and nothing more said of the raid, for example, plus George Merrit's character - supposedly a hard-headed businessman who has built up an airplane factory yet is portrayed as a buffoon. All this is forgiven whenever Richardson is on screen which, luckily for us - and tough for Olivier - is virtually throughout the running time.
Review of Q Planes
