Gallant Journey (1946)

If ever there was a drive in movie, this would have to be it. It centres around an the dreams of American aviation pioneer John J. Montgomery (Glenn Ford) who was indeed a visionary individual determined to build a glider in the early 1880s. He studies hard at university where his ambitions are largely supported by the Jesuit order (Arthur Shields) even if they are somewhat frustrated by his own politically ambitious father Zachary (Willard Robertson). Along the way, he falls in love with "Ginny" (Janet Blair) and that's where the film loses it's scientific impetus and surrenders to a series of melodically scored romantic scenes - violins squeaking away merrily as the pace drops as surely as one of his earlier inventions. The thrust of the story still surfaces now and again. He has to fight a costly battle to protect his increasingly successful inventions and there is some nice aerial photography that illustrates the joys (and dangers) of his labours, but for the most part this is a rather unremarkable effort from just about everyone involved that seems to drag just once too often before the historically accurate conclusion. If this were a book, it'd be a very short pamphlet on early aerodynamics, balsa wood and willpower.