The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

"Clouds Over Europe" (also known as "Q Planes") is a film that has been mischaracterized by some as a 'wartime' picture, though it actually came out several months before WWII began. Additionally, although the baddies in the film COULD have been Germans, no mention of their nationality is given and most have very British accents.Several experimental planes have been lost around the world. In each case, no trace of the planes ever turned up and the Major (Ralph Richardson) is convinced someone is behind this. But, inexplicably, the latest company that is the victim of such a loss seems amazingly sure that there is no conspiracy and they do their best to thwart his investigation. Good thing that a hot-shot pilot (Laurence Olivier) is out to help the Major.In some ways, it's a very good film. I love some of the main characters-- particularly the Major . When it comes to the characters, this is the big strength of the movie. He is very quirky and enjoyable to watch. The story idea also is quite nice. What is NOT so nice is how easily the baddies are beaten at the end of the film. Why would they allow the planes' crews to live and have ANY opportunity to fight back?! And, when the pilots are fighting back, why do NONE of the bad guys yell out for help when they notice the pilots have escaped from their jail?! Weird and sloppy...yet everything up until that is enjoyable and well done. With a better handled ending, it easily could have scored an 8 or 9.

It's 1938 and Britain is gearing up for war by testing secret devices in their airplanes. Unfortunately, the airplanes are disappearing over the sea once airborne. Ralph Richardson, an intelligence officer, and Lawrence Olivier, a pilot, come independently to the same conclusion. -- namely that there's a spy in their midst and -- SURPRISE! -- there is a spy in their midst. Not to worry. The spy makes an error and is bumped off by his irate colleagues, just like all the other enemy spies who make mistakes in other movies.There are several familiar names in the cast, including Richardson and Olivier, who at first play rivals. (They were rivals in the real-life theater too.) This isn't their usual milieu. They're not deliberate or thoughtful. They rush through their lines the way they rush through the rooms, flipping off some neat wisecracks along the way.Valerie Hobson has the part of Richardson's nosy journalist sister, which means that Olivier gets the girl. She was something of a surprise. She's tall and slender, and I'm used to seeing her in roles in which she's aristocratic, delicate, and priggish. Here she poses as a counter waitress in order to get stories for her paper and she trades unchaste and speedy quips with the best of them. She's awfully attractive too.The story is nonsense. It has to do with some kind of ray invented by Marconi that disables airplanes in flight at a distance, bring them down into the hands of "those fellows." If the production values weren't as high as they are, if the performances weren't so professional, and if the wit were lower, it could be a Charlie Chan movies, or Mr. Wong, or Fu Manchu. As it is, it's rather fun.

You really can't go wrong with Ralph Richardson in a cast, and it holds true with "Clouds Over Europe," a 1939 film that also stars Laurence Olivier and Valerie Hobson. It's pre-WW II, and Richardson plays a secret service man in England who is convinced that a series of missing planes from diverse places is no accident. He's convinced the planes are being sabotaged, but by whom, and why? Olivier plays one of the pilots, and he's funny as well as handsome. Valerie Hobson is a reporter in an adversarial relationship with Olivier. She turns out to be related to someone else in the film.But it's Richardson who steals the show with his eccentric portrayal of Major Charles Hammond, a man who always forgets his umbrella and returns for it. He helps to give this affair a lightheartedness that makes it enjoyable.Recommended for its very good British cast.

Some 20 years before Ian Fleming started writing about these things, it's nice to know that the British Secret Service was on the job and apprehending spies and saboteurs even if they're a bit slow to catch on at times. With a little inside help from the air plant, some Teutonic looking gentleman have perfected a ray that immobilizes airships and brings them down real nice on the ocean. No trace of about four warships has been found at all or their crews. It's of concern to test pilot Laurence Olivier, to British agent Ralph Richardson, and to news reporter Valerie Hobson.Hobson and Richardson are brother and sister. As you can imagine his job involves secrecy and undercover work and Hobson's from the Lois Lane school of journalism. Family dinners must really be something in that family. She also falls for Olivier while she's undercover working as a waitress at a coffee shop near the plane factory.Q Planes must have been seen as wildly fantastic by the 1939 audience, but two generations who saw Sean Connery and Roger Moore engage in even wilder derring-do than is shown in this film, would regard Q Planes as all in a day's work. Olivier and Hobson are fine, but Richardson steals the film whenever he's on screen. Q Planes will never be ranked as in the top 10 of any of these players, but it's a nice breezy espionage comedy/drama made a lot better by some of the greatest thespian talent in the English speaking world of the last century.