Post by Doghouse6 on Apr 19, 2017 23:02:52 GMT
The main reason I visit this board (apart from the joy of trolling) is to be recommended films of which I am unaware. I then follow them up on IMDb, and if still interested, see if I can locate an affordable copy.
On looking up Five Came Back I saw a note that the plane involved was a Capelis XC-12. Now it is over sixty years since I was a keen plane-spotter, but I know I had never heard of that type or that company. Following up on Wikipedia I found it had an interesting history.
It was the designer's only project and its construction was funded by Greek restaurateurs (and all my life I have been spelling that word with an "n"). Only one prototype was built and it was found to be unsafe. It never saw service but was sold as a prop to RKO. It appeared in around a dozen movies, and a model built for flying sequences in a further eight. You could say that having failed in its primary mission it found redemption helping to entertain folks.
It never occurred to me to wonder about its authenticity, but it was rather a distinctive-looking craft, wasn't it? Perhaps not quite as distinctive as the ungainly "Reindeer" in 1951's No Highway, the authenticity of which I did doubt.
Nice tie-in to the topic, too; well done.