Movie magic as city went on a flier

There will be some older Wolverhampton folk who still remember the time when the city took centre stage as the moviemakers descended along with some big stars.

The Man In The Sky, filmed on location in Wolverhampton, was a stirring tale of a test pilot putting a new aircraft through its paces and heroically averting disaster when an engine catches fire.

It was filmed at and around Pendeford Aerodrome – now a housing estate – by Ealing Studios in 1956 with Jack Hawkins playing pilot John Mitchell and Elizabeth Sellars playing his wife Mary.

Their home in the film was 3 Derwent Road with many scenes filmed there.

At the heart of the film was the fictional Conway Aero-Manufacturing Company of Wolverhampton, and Mitchell was tasked with taking the company's new transport plane up for tests.

Among other big names among the cast were Lionel Jeffries and Donald Pleasence.

Wolverhampton aviation historian Stephen King said: "It also featured dozens of local people recruited as extras. Drawn by a glimpse of fame and two quid a day, the extras took part in crowd scenes or as emergency workers."

He has been puzzling over something after showing his cuttings about the film to Graham Hughes, the Wolves club historian.

"Graham said 'I have the posters for that film – originals.' I was surprised to see the first one he looked out had a different title. Was Decision Against Time a pre-release test title? Was it the title used for overseas release – the USA and so on?"

A bit of delving on the internet shows that Decision Against Time was indeed the name given to the movie in America.

Stephen added: "My dad Henry King had just moved to Wilson Lovatt's in Stafford Road, Fordhouses, in 1956, near to the airfield. His work was repair and maintenance of heavy construction plant.

"He recalls one day the police arriving at the site and asking him and the staff to lower the cranes on the site, as there would be filming for some time of a low flying aircraft in the area. This was for the Jack Hawkins film The Man In The Sky.

"The film, which is now on DVD, is a nice record of that lost airfield and surrounds, the chimney stacks at Courtaulds, the shops, the bridge in Bushbury, and so on."

A cast list for the film appears on the IMDb movies database, so let's name check some of those in the lower regions of the list just in case they were local extras having a moment of cinematic glory.

Here we go... Esme Easterbrook, launderette assistant; Ann Johnson, cyclist; Anne Dobson, cyclist; Janet Davis, cyclist; Jennifer Cuff, cyclist; John Baddeley, cyclist; Tom Elwell, cyclist; S.K. Andrews, cyclist; Derek Butler, Station Fire Officer; Gerry Cuff as Hollingsworth; Reginald Slater, ambulance man; Glynn Davies, uncredited cyclist; and Mary Mackenzie as Betty Harris (uncredited).