"The Great Air Race" - a short TV miniseries I'd been searching for for years. Even at the moment of writing only two are available via Amazon. Thanks to "rpdevo2" I have one in good condition. IMDb list it as "Fictional story about the 1934 London - Melbourne MacPherson Robertson Air race ..." I consider it was close enough to convince. I don't know if the aircraft left in historically accurate order, but they were shown in right order at the end where it counts. The story is told well.
This movie is what an aviation buff needs in their collection. It was filmed in Australia, so get used to gum trees. England looks like Australia. France looks like Australia. Karachi looks like Australia.
This was made before the computer graphics which so benefitted "The Aviator" and "Amelia", everything was in-camera. Two replica DH88's were used, but other than that, available real aircraft stood in for the originals. The famous DC-2 entered by KLM, the "Uiver", was played by its successor, a DC-3; Turner's Boeing was a nicely repainted Avro Anson from a museum. Too many Stearman biplanes for my taste, but generally the standins, classics themselves, did good service, and the liveries were spot on. Airfield anoraks, drool your hearts out!
The pace builds at a 1930s rate, through the politicking to the gala start, during which time we meet the main players, from the squeaky-clean South Australian Jimmy Melrose, who set a record just arriving at the start line, to the brash, self-aggrandising American Roscoe Turner, and Amy Johnson and Jim Mollison with their troubled marriage. After that, it's what can go wrong in a long flight 1934, and a visual love affair with all the old aircraft, leading up to the final run for the prize in Melbourne.
The Great Air Race
