The Sound Barrier (1952)

After my review of Dive Bomber, I had the desire to watch another film about pilots only tangentially related to on-screen aerial combat: The Sound Barrier (also released as “Breaking the Sound Barrier”, as on the dramatic, and misleading, poster to the left), directed by David Lean. Except for Ryan’s Daughter (1970), I have seen all of Lean’s late-career super-length epics, but only a few of his earlier British films; this one is sort of in-between the two phases and seems like a bit of a departure: neither wholly epic nor wholly intimate, with no proper action scenes, no war-time backdrop, somewhat understated drama and not much of an emphasis on wide and wonderful vistas. At times, it seems like it wants to be a thorough psychological examination of one character in particular, but shirks away from that, opting for looking at the issue of obsession in a more generalised fashion.

The film stars no one particularly famous except Denholm Elliott in a supporting role. He plays the son of John Ridgefield (Ralph Richardson), stern patriarch of the Ridgefield family, once a pioneer of aviation and now owner of an important aeroplane design and manufacturing operation. Towards the end of World War 2, when the story sets in, he pressures Elliott’s character into becoming a pilot as well, despite him having no desire or aptitude for the job whatsoever. During his first solo flight, he promptly crashes and dies, leading to further estrangement of his sister from Ridgefield senior.
Said sister, Susan (Ann Todd), marries a Royal Air Force pilot, Tony (Nigel Patrick). After the war, his father-in-law employs him as a test pilot at the Ridgefield plant. Ridgefield’s aim: to build the first plane that can break the sound barrier, and Tony is supposed to be the man to do it. Tony is later joined in this quest by a military acquaintance of his, Philip Peel (John Justin, who played the prince in The Thief of Bagdad).