Come Fly with Me is a 1963 British comedy film about three beautiful international air hostesses looking for romance and excitement. The film has dramatic or soap opera elements to it, and was a vehicle for glamorizing the jet age and the prestige, adventure and romance that came with being an air hostess. It is based on Bernard Glemser's 1960 chick-lit novel Girl on a Wing, which was published again in 1969 under the title, The Fly Girls.
Directed by Henry Levin, the film stars Dolores Hart, Hugh O'Brian, Karlheinz Böhm, Pamela Tiffin, Karl Malden, and Lois Nettleton.
Plot
Three air hostesses, based in New York City, are working for the fictional airline Polar Atlantic Airways. The three serve on a Boeing 707 making regular flights between New York, Paris and Vienna. Along the way, air hostess Donna Stuart (Dolores Hart), meets Baron Franz Von Elzingen (Karlheinz Böhm), an impoverished Austrian baron who turns out to be a diamond smuggler. "Southern belle" Carol Brewster (Pamela Tiffin) develops a crush on the plane's First Officer, Ray Winsley (Hugh O'Brian), who himself is having an affair with a married woman (Dawn Addams). The third air hostess, Hilda "Bergie" Bergstrom, (Lois Nettleton) gets noticed by a multi-millionaire widower from Texas named Walter Lucas (Karl Malden).
Cast
- Dolores Hart as Donna Stuart
- Hugh O'Brian as First Officer Ray Winsley
- Karlheinz Böhm as Baron Franz Von Elzingen (credited as Karl Boehm)
- Pamela Tiffin as Carol Brewster
- Karl Malden as Walter Lucas
- Lois Nettleton as Hilda "Bergie" Bergstrom
- Dawn Addams as Katie Rinard
- Victor Rietti as Passenger (cameo)
- John Crawford as Co-pilot
- Andrew Cruickshank as Cardwell
- James Dobson as Flight Engineer Teddy Shepard
- Robert Easton as Navigator
- Maurice Marsac as Monsieur Rinard
- Lois Maxwell as Gwen Sandley
- Richard Wattis as Oliver Garson
- Guido Wieland as Vienna Policeman
Production notes
Henry Levin was signed to direct in April 1962.
The movie was also known in production as The Friendliest Girls in the World.
The film was shot in Panavision and Metrocolor, during 1962, in New York, Paris and Versailles, Vienna and the Woerther See with studio interiors shot at MGM British Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England. The shoot took 12 weeks.
It filmed at the same time as Follow the Boys.
It premiered in the United States on 27 March 1963.
Glemsser wrote a follow-up novel in 1972, The Super-Jet Girls. It was not made into a film however.
Critical reception
Variety wrote upon the film's release, "Sometimes one performance can save a picture and in Come Fly with Me it's an engaging and infectious one by Pamela Tiffin. The production has other things going for it like an attractive cast, slick pictorial values and smart, stylish direction by Henry Levin, but at the base of all this sheer sheen lies a frail, frivolous and featherweight storyline that, in trying to take itself too seriously, flies into dramatic air pockets and crosscurrents that threaten to send the entire aircraft into a tailspin."
See also
- Boeing-Boeing, 1962 play
- Boeing Boeing, 1965 film version of the play
- Coffee, Tea or Me?, 1967 novel
- The Stewardesses, 1969 film
- Pan Am, 2011 TV series
References
- ^ a b "Come Fly With Me". variety.com. December 31, 1962.Â
- ^ 'Pawnbroker' Will Be Steiger Vehicle: McGiver Back at Funmaking; Curious Case of Lotte Lenya Scheuer, Philip K. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 03 Apr 1962: C9.
- ^ The Tea Break Notwithstanding, London Studios Humming Scheuer, Philip K. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 12 Aug 1962: A7.
- ^ 'Rome Adventure' Begins Multiple Engagement Soon Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 27 Apr 1962: C13.
- ^ The Tea Break Notwithstanding, London Studios Humming Scheuer, Philip K. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 12 Aug 1962: A7.
External links
- Come Fly with Me at the Internet Movie Database
- Come Fly with Me at the TCM Movie Database