Editor Reviews:

Description:
This extraordinary comic version of the historic 1910 London-to-Paris air race features the greatest aviators from around the world. They all come together when a stuffy, but very rich, newspaper publisher decides to sponsor an airplane race across the English Channel. Convinced it will give his newspaper worldwide publicity, the publisher offers 10,000 pounds to the winner. The escapades between the American, British, French, German, Italian and Japanese teams result in the most darling and hilarious in-flight acrobatic stunts ever caught on film. But the film's greatest triumph is the amazing re-creation of the vintage airplanes which did the actual flying.

Amazon.com:
An air race from London to Paris provides the premise for this marvelous comedy, which features thrilling aerial photography and some stupefying stunt flying. It's set in 1910, when the (lovingly re-created) airplanes of the period were likelier to sputter and crash than they were to go in a straight line. The international contest requires an international cast, including Stuart Whitman as a cowboy American interested in the ladylove (Sarah Miles) of an English ace (James Fox). Alberto Sordi and Gert Frobe represent the Italian and German nations; Terry-Thomas plans frightful sabotage for race day. From the jaunty opening song and the great opening-credits drawings by Gerald Searle onward, the movie has a pleasingly breezy tone that sits well with the meticulous flying sequences. This is a delightful example of a certain kind of internationally flavored film of the period, somewhat similar to The Great Race, released the same year (1965). --Robert Horton

Rating : - Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines is the British version of The Magnificent Race but it's more like a ripoff. The film uses the real life 1910 event as the basis for the movie but there aren't any similarities beyond that. It's directed & co-written by Ken Annakin, I have yet to find a reason to recommend anything in his name.

The film has a large pool of stars but almost all of them are B-list entities. The story centers on Orvil Newton (Stuart Whitman),an American from the wild West, who enters the contest. Patricia Rawnsley (Sarah Miles) is the female lead & is the daughter of Lord Rawnsley (Robert Morley) who is the publisher of a newspaper & the one who offers 10,000 pounds to the winner of the London to Paris air race. Richard Mays (James Fox), a British competitor, sort of loves Patricia & is expected to marry her but Orvil changes this when he begins to court her, thus, we have the love triangle.

Sir Percival Ware-Armitage (Terry-Thomas) is the main antagonist, equivalent to the Lemmon role in The Great Race. Thomas is okay in the role but it isn't written nearly as well; he also has a sidekick, Courtney (Eric Sykes), that's inept but not nearly as funny as Falk in the equivalent role of The Great Race. Benny Hill has a small role as Fire Chief Perkins. The cast includes Gert Frobe as Manfred von Holstein, the German contestant who's never flown before; Alberto Sordi as Count Emilio Ponticelli, the Italian contestan who's unhappy with every flying machine offered to him; Jean-Pierre Cassel as Pierre Dubois, the French contestant who's amorous with every female; & Yujiro Ishihara as Yamamoto, the Japanese contestant. There are other contestants that don't figure in prominently. Irina Demick plays several roles that the French aviator keeps hitting on in different locations. Red Skelton has what amounts to a cameo role but is really more, his appearances are limited to the opening & closing scenes.

The movie goes on for an intolerable 137 minutes, way too long for the lack of quality presented here. Many of the characters are merely caricatures that are not interesting. By the time you get to the end of the film you really won't care who wins. There are bonus features that include an audio commentary track by Ken Annakin, a "Making of..." featurette & a still photo gallery.