Q Planes released in the United States by Columbia Pictures as Clouds Over Europe, is a British spy film directed by Tim Whelan and Arthur B. Woods, starring Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier and Valerie Hobson. The film was produced by Irving Asher with Alexander Korda as executive producer. The name Q Planes may have been derived from the British "Q-ships" that were used as spy and armed merchant vessels in the First World War. The film was helmed by American director Tim Whelan and later, in 1940, co-director of The Thief of Bagdad who was then in Britain working for Korda at Denham... Studios. Q Planes mixes the genres of spy thriller and comedy romance, and was intended to be a star vehicle for Olivier, but Richardson dominates much of the screen with a sardonic take on a spy, either working for Scotland Yard or British Military Intelligence. Released just months before the United Kingdom declared war on Germany in 1939, the film is a precursor to the "strongly nationalistic, anti-German films that would reach their zenith in Britain during the war years".
more
| Release date: | 1939 |
| Directed by: | Tim Whelan, Arthur B. Woods |
| Runtime: | 82 Minutes |
| Producer: | Irving Asher, Alexander Korda |