Evening star., 1952-11-26

international premiere.
This Is Breaking the Scum
which recounts the story of 81
dramatic terms. This is man s
most spectacular modern explora-
ton and the film which captures
its wildly exciting facets is some
thing Super-Special.
Breaking the Sound Barrier"
accomplishes this brilliantly, one
modest reward for which will be
its simultaneous showing at both
the Playhouse and Dupont the
aters starting today.
The citizen who fails to see it
should be taking it up with his
conscience for long time. He
also will owe an apology to one
of the most talented groups,
headed by Ann Todd and Sir
Ralph Richardson, that ever
tackled a difficult cinema project.
Actually flying through the sound
barrier in a jet plane is obviously
harder than making a movie about
1t. but that both turn out so well
Is something to shout about.
X
Breaking the Sound Barrier,
O documentary film title if there
ever was one. is something of a
documentary with an enormous
plus. This plus includes a reveal
ing scrutiny of the human
natures involved in the enterprise.
a dazzling lesson in the principles
of jet flying, and pictorial beauty
which the black-and-white camera
rarely achieves.
Terence Rattigan and David
Lean are the basic geniuses behind
the film. The former, one of the
cleverest Of today'S drama writer's.
is author of the screenscript of
Breaking the Sound Barrier" II
Lean is the director who has
translated the script into perfect
cinema.
What the two of them, and their |
actors. have achieved is an in
credibly human account of an in
credible scientific achievement.
In this warm and simply rem
dered-tale there are three fasci-
natingly shaped human beings.
The one played by Richardson is
an obsessed airplane manufac-
turer, a man who counts no cost
too great to achieve supersonic
flight. Miss Todd's role is that of
his daughter. whose inability to
understand his inhuman dedica-
tion cannot keep her from marry
ing the plane makers chief test
pilot. The latter. played by Nigel
Patrick, completes a trio whose |
emotional contortions pale those
Of the standard triangle group.
Interesting as the relations of
this trio prove to be on the per-
sonal level, they are also SYMBOL
cally meaningful. On the latter
scale. Miss Todd represents-and
beautifully-the eternal bewilder-
ment of woman at the eternally /
adventurous spirit of men. Both
are treated in moving and illumi-
mating detail in the latest British
picture.
While it is on this level that |.
Breaking the Sound Barrier" may
be chiefly interesting to women,
its really spectacular areas are
those having to do with the super
sonic flight experiments.
Short of the atom bomb, which
every one hopes never to see, the
jet plane is mans most sensational
sight. It is the instrument through
which he can hope to conquer the
most exciting of all frontiers, that
Of outer space. It's appeal to the
imagination is incalculable and in
this film it is dealt with in its most
exciting maneuver.
Director Lean has beautifully
contrived his film sequences deal
ing with the actual efforts to crash
the sound barrier. In these jet
climbs to. and dives from, the
stratospnere to pass 750 miles per
hour. the screen achieves a maxi
mum of excitement. Fortifying the
fascination of it is that also in
these scenes Breaking the Sound
Barrier" becomes a visual epic !
poem.
y \
There are three of these daz-
Zling flight sequences in the Aim.
Between them, the cast acts out
a moving complex of human
emotions involving the story's key
characters. Each is a perfectly
made performance, the most i'm
pressive that of Richardson as the
mad space and speed explorer who
apparently is willing to sacrifice
his nearest and dearest as his