Above and Beyond

The tremendous secrecy and security around the Manhattan District Project and the very precise requirements involved in flying the mission substantially tear away Col. Tibbets and his wife for the duration.

Bosley Crowther of the New York Times saw a commonplace of Air Force life and proposed an easy way out but missed the point and described a “meretricious sham of painful domestic tensions.”

Frank & Panama have the script with a noted author of works on the stress of command, taken from declassified files.

The Court Jester

“How the destiny of a nation was changed by a birthmark, a royal birthmark, on the royal posterior” also figures in Frank’s last film, Walk Like a Man.

Murder of the royal family, legendary survivor, the Black Fox in opposition to the tyrant, “rabble today but an army tomorrow!”

Outrageously game actors profiting from Panama & Frank’s easy mastery and a very merry screenplay.

“The... purple pimpernel?”

“The purple pimpernel!”

The royal infant bears a certain resemblance to Maurice Evans, who taught Carl Reiner, who played straight man to Mel Brooks, who profits all along the line.

“Gwendolyn dear, do stop picking that thing.”

The title character is an assassin. An “uncouth” alliance means a loathsome marriage.

“All I heard was that the duchess had a siege of rheumatism.”

Sort of an inside story, with monks and little people, obviously derived from the war.

“It’s good fun,” said Bosley Crowther of the New York Times.

“Happy spoofing” (Variety).

“Nothing special” (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader).

“Spasmodically effective” (Geoff Andrew, Time Out Film Guide).

In Halliwell’s Film Guide, “most delightful... medieval romp”.