This British spy thriller concerns the theft of valuable aircraft secrets by enemy agents. Laurence Olivier plays a firebrand test pilot who falls under suspicion when several planes disappear. Costar Ralph Richardson steals the film as a seemingly befuddled secret service operative assigned to the case. Despite its topicality (the film was made in 1939, when Europe was bracing itself against the possibility of war), Q Planes is played with the tongue-in-cheek bravado of a "Boy's Own Paper" tale. Q Planes was released in the US as Clouds over Europe.