Gallant Journey

Gallant Journey (1946)

One Of The World's Most Exciting Adventures!

Director William A. Wellman adds another to his long line of salutes-to-aviation films in this bio of an aviation pioneer, John Montgomery (Glenn Ford.) In 1883 he built a practical glider despite the opposition of his friends, who thought he was crazy, and of his family, who were afraid that his dreams of flying would hurt his father's political ambitions. He pursues his education at Santa Clara University where the Jesuits lend a helping and understanding hand. An earthquake destroys what appears to be a working model for an airplane, but a gold-sorting machine Montgomery invented, and then neglected, promises to provide for his financial needs to keep working on his aircraft until he gets involved in costly lawsuits defending his invention.

Date of release
1946-09-24
TMDB
6.5 / 10 (11)
Runtime
1h 25m
Genres
History, Drama, Romance
Director
William A. Wellman

Casting

Interesting facts

Gallant Journey is a 1946 American historical film written, produced and directed by William A. Wellman and starring Glenn Ford, Janet Blair and Charles Ruggles. The film is a biopic of the early U.S. aviation pioneer John Joseph Montgomery. Gallant Journey depicts his efforts to build and fly gliders, from his childhood through to his death in 1911. The chief stunt pilot for the film was Paul Mantz. It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It is also known by the alternative title The Great Highway.

Production

Principal photography on Gallant Journey took place from March 4 to June 1, 1946. The locations in use were Malibu, Del Monte and the movie ranch at Lasky Mesa, California. Wellman had a passion for flying which was expressed in a number of his films including Wings (1927) which won the first Academy Award for Best Picture, Young Eagles (1930), Central Airport (1933), Men with Wings (1938) and Thunder Birds (1942).

Gallant Journey had its beginnings with the San Diego Junior Chamber of Commerce which had obtained the film rights to a biography on John Montgomery. A number of realistic gliders and balloons were built for the film. A total of 11 gliders that reproduced Montgomery's original three gliders were built.

The test pilots discovered that the original designs produced for the film that carefully followed the authentic Montgomery designs had to be redesigned in order to ensure safety and stability in flight. The redesigned gliders flew so well that they qualified for a Civil Aviation Authority license to fly. A series of model gliders were also created for use in Gallant Journey.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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