Original subtitles

(jets whooshing)

(water splashing)

(jets hissing)

(dramatic music)

(tense music)

- Hurry it up, can't you, Judd?

- Can't hurry a job like this, guv.

Take a pride in my work, | do.

Nothing sloppy from Ben Judd.

- All right, but get on with it.

- What's the matter with you anyway, guv?

You work here, don't ya?

What's the hurry to get to work this early (laughing)?

You forgot your key or something?

- Nevermind about that, you just get cracking.

- If you Say so.

(safe exploding)

Yeah, there.

That's cracking for you.

- (coughing) Do you think anybody heard?

- Nah, I'm a skilled hand at the muffled explosion.

What is it you're wanting anyway?

- These. (dramatic music)

- What?

Jigsaw puzzles?

- No, the printed circuits for a new secret control unit

we've been building here

for an American professor's invention called Supercar.

- Cor, you mean that bus outside in the shed?

Well, how do these things help?

- I've worked here a long time and never got anywhere.

No initiative, they said.

- Well, you won't be working here much longer.

Not after that (laughing).

- That's quite right, Judd,

and | shan't need to,

| know where | can get a good price for these.

See them complain about my lack of initiative then.

- But if that machine's what it's cracked up to be,

they'll be after us like a pack of hounds.

- Oh, no they won't.

Because we're going to fix this Supercar,

and when they try to take off,

they'll get a little surprise.

- Well, Dr. Beaker, lovely day for a trial run.

What you might call typical British weather.

Cloudy, cold, and windy,

and looks like rain anytime now, right?

- No, nonsense, Mike.

It's invigorating, most invigorating.

That dry Nevada air is all very well, but uh,

my dear Mike, what are you all buttoned up for?

- 'Cause it's as cold as the North Pole, that's why.

- Too used to central heating, that's what you are.

Getting soft, | shouldn't wonder.

In any case, we will be able to see shortly

how Supercar finds the English climate.

- Oh, Supercar'll be okay.

Nothing bothers her much.

It's a good thing we didn't bring Mitch, though.

He hates the cold.

- Yes, | don't think he'd have appreciated England much,

but he'd have had to go into quarantine anyway,

so that he would not have seen much of it in any case.

- True.

But | still don't see why you wanted

this new portable control system of yours

made over this side of the Atlantic.

- Well, since Supercar is becoming a little

too well known around Nevada,

| thought we could have done the work (stammering)

more quietly over here.

- And | guess you wanted to see

the old home country again, eh?

Now, come on, Doc, that's the real reason, isn't it?

- Well, yes, since you tax me so directly with it,

Mike, yes.

(phone ringing)

- That's the outside phone bell.

Could be the Professor wanting us in the office.

- In that case, | wonder why he doesn't just

shout through the window.

It would be a good deal quicker.

- Mike, Dr. Beaker!

You had better come to the office at once.

- Looks like something's up, Dr. Beaker.

Better get inside right away and find out what's going on.

- It was like this when you arrived this morning,

Mr. Prothero?

- Absolutely, my dear sir.

Just as you see it.

In point of fact,

| myself arrived only minutes before you did.

- [Professor] And our printed circuits are gone?

- Yes.

Of course, the whole thing is extremely distressing

and so on because we were rather keen

to get on with the preliminary tests this morning, but.

Well, here we are.

- Well, was there anything else in the safe last night?

- Well, actually, no.

Not that such a state denotes a slackening of business,

you understand.

JFP does small experimental work

of an intimate nature, of course, but uh,

in fact, your circuits were the only things of value.

- Then it must have been somebody

who knew about the circuits.

- Yeah, Professor, you're right.

It must've been.

(intercom buzzing)

- If you'll excuse me for the moment.

Prothero speaks.

- [Receptionist] Dr. Beaker and Mr. Mercury to see you,

Mr. Prothero.

- Oh, you might send them in then.

Look, | needn't tell you we are frightfully apologetic

about the whole thing, Professor.

Perhaps if we all get together and form, as it were,

some sort of ad hoc committee,

we can best see what action to take.

- Half past nine.

If the clock in this car's right, which it seldom is,

you know what's happening now, Judd?

- No, what?

- My respected senior, JFP,

either has or is just about to call

a sort of informal committee.

Pompous idiot.

- (laughing) Don't like him much, do ya?

- He's the sort of man, Judd,

who'd call a committee to decide

what he was going to have for lunch.

And for once, he's doing us a favour.

- Favour?

What do you mean?

- The longer they talk, the better for us.

Look out for a phone box, will you, Judd?

And stop me when you see one.

- What you want to make a phone call for, guv?

- Because I've got a good deal of respect

for the Professor and his Supercar,

from what I've seen of them in action,

and | want to make quite certain they're grounded.

- Can't you make it work without those circuit boards,

Dr. Beaker?

- | fear not, Jimmy.

They were, you might almost say, the brain of the device.

No, I'm afraid we shall just have to wait

until some more can be made.

Fortunately, | still have the um,

the design.

- What about Mr. Prothero?

You think Mike and the Professor can persuade him

not to call the police?

- limagine they can.

If they try.

- | must say | find it quite beyond me

why you won't agree to my calling in the police.

Inspector Lofthaus was a particular friend of mine

at the college, and simply first class type.

- Well, that may be so, Mr. Prothero,

but there's more at stake than you might think.

- One of our reasons in having this control system

designed and tested in England, Mr. Prothero,

was because we thought there would be

less chance of publicity.

Unless it's absolutely necessary,

we don't want the police called.

- Oh, quite.

Oh, quite, | see your point.

One wonders, though,

how you would want to proceed without them.

- Now, look, can you think of anyone in the firm

who might know the value of those circuits?

- Someone on your staff, perhaps,

who might have had a hand in the design stages.

- One is not suggesting, surely,

that a member of JFP Electronics is responsible.

Rather bad form, what.

- It sometimes happens, you know.

- But | hardly think-- (phone ringing)

- Phone, Dr. Beaker.

Perhaps they've found something out.

- Good morning?

No, no, as a matter of fact this is Dr. Beaker speaking.

- Oh, good morning, Dr. Beaker.

My name's Harper.

We've met several times already.

- Oh, yes, Mr. Harper, you're on the JFP design team,

if | recall the matter correctly.

Yes.

In which case,

you'll be most grieved to hear of the robbery.

- Your circuits?

Stolen?

You don't say!

From the safe?

(laughing) Now, that shows initiative.

You can tell Mr. Prothero not to exercise

his massive brain any further.

| stole them.

- My dear fellow, could you speak a little more clearly?

| must have misunderstood you, I'm afraid.

Who stole them?

- [Harper] | did.

- What?

You?

- One hour from now | shall be leaving the country

with your circuits

and | don't think you can stop me.

| imagine you'll think twice before calling the police

with the resulting publicity.

Yes, | thought so.

How?

By plane, Dr. Beaker,

from a small flying club at Monks Norton.

- Monks Norton?

But.

Hello?

Hello?

(receiver tapping)

Oh, curious.

Most curious.

He's rung off.

Now, why would he want to ring up and tell me all that?

- Never mind why, Dr. Beaker.

Come on, let's tell all the others.

- That's it, Jimmy.

The sooner we get Supercar in the air,

the sooner we can get after Harper.

- It's funny it should have been someone who worked here.

- Not really, when you come to think of it.

It had to be somebody really close to the work.

Close enough not only to know

about the new control panel,

but to know that those printed circuits

were the vital part of it.

- Well, then it's funny he should have phoned us

to tell us he'd stolen them.

- There's an awful lot of people

who just can't resist having a dig at other folks.

And many a crook gets caught that way.

Guess Harper thinks we can't get at him.

- Do you think we can, then?

- Well, sure i do.

If old Prothero will cooperate with Dr. Beaker

and the Professor and let us have an intercom of some sort.

- What do you mean, Mike?

- Well, | don't need any remote control

to fly Supercar by myself,

but | do need to be able to talk to the Professor.

(static buzzing)

You see what | mean?

They're fixing it up.

- Yes, that seems to be satisfactory.

Most satisfactory.

- What about the other end of it?

Won't we need another installation in the cockpit?

- No, as far as | can um, recall,

this set will cover the same range of frequencies

as Supercar's own radio set.

So there should be no difficulty there.

- It's most helpful of you, Mr. Prothero.

- Oh, no trouble, Professor.

We owe you all the assistance we can render you.

| always had the feeling that Harper was not the JFP type.

No team spirit.

- That is only too true, I'm afraid,

but | would like to know why he telephoned.

- It's a well-known psychological fact

of some sort of criminal makeup.

The urge to demonstrate the superiority to,

oh, what shall | say,

the urge to gloat.

- I'm in the cockpit.

Can you hear me on that set of yours?

I'm trying to find your frequency.

- We'd better stick to longwave.

Say 305 kilocycles.

I'll tell him.

Mike, try 305.

- Roger, 305 it is.

Jimmy.

Hey, Jimmy, where are you?

- Here, Mike.

What do you want?

- Oh, hi there.

Will you go and help Dr. Beaker and the Professor?

| want to get airborne as soon as possible.

- Sure, Mike.

Good luck.

- What did you want to go and phone 'em for, guv?

They'll only get onto us that quicker.

- They may try, but | doubt if they'll succeed.

You saw how we fixed that Supercar of theirs.

What do you think'll happen

when they try to take off in it, eh?

- Search me.

I'm a safecracker, not a mechanic (laughing).

- When a man's annoyed, Judd,

or in a hurry, he makes mistakes.

Right now they'll be both annoyed and in a hurry

and they'll make the mistake of their lives.

- [Professor] Are you ready, Mike?

- Ready, Professor, and every minute counts.

Let's get into the air as soon as possible, huh?

- | know that you're in a hurry, Mike,

but we must be extra careful now.

Remember, we've not got the usual console

to monitor your takeoff.

So if you get into difficulties, you're on your own.

- Right, Professor.

No sense taking risks.

I'll have to do a cockpit check,

since you haven't got duplicate instruments.

You ready? - Ready.

- Here goes, then.

Fuel remaining, 300 minutes.

- 300, check.

- Engine conditions, port, electrics.

(electronic buzzing)

Check.

- Check!

- [Mike] Lubricant pump, check.

- Check.

- Cooling system clear.

- [Professor] Clear.

- Fuel pressure pump check.

- Check, now starboard.

- Roger, starboard engine conditions.

- Ready.

- Electrics, check.

- Why do we have to do all this checking, Dr. Beaker?

We don't back home.

- Well, you see, Jimmy,

at the laboratory, we can read all these instruments

and perform all these checks ourselves by remote control.

The console permits us to do that.

But here, we have not the same facilities.

So the pilot must perform his own cockpit check

before he takes off.

- | get it.

But won't it take an awful long time?

We've got to get after those circuits quick, Dr. Beaker.

- Quite so.

Quite so.

Nevertheless, we would be most unwise

to omit any necessary precautions.

- All right, Mike, you can charge the engines now.

- Okay, charging port.

Seven,

nine,

11

13,000,

15,000.

No interlock to use this time, so I'll charge starboard.

(switch flipping)

Seven,

10,

12,

14,5,

15,000.

Both engines on the button, professor.

- Good, Mike.

You can go ahead and fire them.

- Fire one!

(engine firing)

Fire two!

- But guv, what's going to happen?

| don't get it.

- They will, when they try to take off.

- Ready for take off, Mike.

You have no laboratory roof to clear this time,

so you can extend the wings before VTO.

- Ready for horizontal flight, then.

Wings extended.

(mechanical whirring)

- You look fine from here, Mike.

- Boost for takeoff, then.

(Supercar rumbling)

There's something wrong, Professor!

(suspenseful music)

(Supercar crashing)

(dramatic music)

- It's a good thing you cut the engines when you did, Mike.

In this condition, Supercar is wholly unstable.

- It's a good things a lot of things happened.

It's a good thing | took off with the wings extended.

If I'd tried to change to horizontal flight

a couple of hundred feet up, boy.

- It hardly bears thinking of.

Still, Supercar does not seem to be too badly damaged.

- Oh, a couple of days work, that's all.

But flying's out for the moment.

Somebody fixed that wing.

You know that, don't you Professor?

- | suppose so.

A most dangerous thing to do.

- You can say that again.

Even if he wasn't trying to get anybody hurt,

and I'm not so sure he wasn't,

I'd still like to get my hands on him.

- | fear we are in no position to do that just now, Mike.

We had better join the others

and have what Mr. Prothero would call

some sort of committee to decide what to do.

- My estimation of the situation is this.

Harper phoned in order to goad us into a hasty takeoff

so that we might possibly be a little careless,

which we were, gentlemen,

and thus damaged Supercar.

- But somebody could have got hurt.

- Our young friend is right.

One's mind is appalled at what might have happened.

Now, if you will permit me, I'll phone the police.

- Now, hold on a minute.

We aren't licked yet.

We can still beat Harper to Monks Norton airstrip.

- But how, my dear chap?

- You can't possibly be considering flying in that state.

- And one would be pushed to make it

inside the 100 minute mark, even in my Rolls.

- Well, maybe not in your car, Mr. Prothero,

but we have a Supercar, remember?

So we take her by road.

- Road?

| uh, (Stammering),

| don't say it's impossible,

but a little unorthodox | would have thought.

- How far are we from that turnpike,

the Birmingham Motorway, Mr. Prothero?

- Oh, quite close.

Shall we say five miles?

- And Monks Norton isn't far from the other end.

- We've got about half an hour

if what Harper said over the telephone is true.

- And I'm willing to bet that Supercar

is the fastest things on wheels or off 'em.

What do you say?

- Lunatic!

Absolutely lunatic!

But uh, rather fun in a way.

- Now, look, my dear sirs, allow me to point out

that even with our limited acquaintance with American cars,

you are liable to cause a certain stir with that thing.

- Is nothing the matter with it?

They are tasteful, subdued.

- No licence plates.

- Well, loyally disposed as | am towards the police

of my native country,

we can be out of the country in a few hours,

if it works.

- Good for you, Doc.

Nobody's gonna catch us to give us a ticket, believe you me.

Can we borrow your radio, Mr. Prothero?

- By all means.

- Right, then don't let's waste anymore time.

Professor, if you and Jimmy will help Dr. Beaker

man the intercom,

I'll light up the motors again

and I'll guarantee Mr. Harper has no idea

of the surprise that'll be waiting for him.

- You don't reckon anyone's following us, then?

- | should be very much surprised.

In fact, if you reach in the front pocket,

you'll find a thermos flask of coffee.

| think we can afford the time.

- Well, whatever you say, guv.

But if it was me, I'd be putting as many miles as possible

between me and them.

- Look, Judd, you wanna know what they're doing back there?

- Yeah.

- Picking up the pieces, that's what.

They won't be going anywhere for a long, long time.

(bright music)

- Come in, Mike.

Come in, Mike, where are you?

- Hello, Professor, this is Mike calling console.

Hey, this is really something.

And | haven't even opened her up yet.

- Have you reached the Birmingham Motorway yet, Mike?

- Reached her?

I'm halfway along it.

And Supercar's really travelling.

You know, this is what you miss travelling

at 1000 feet or so, there's no feeling of speed.

- [Professor] What is your estimated speed, Mike?

- Can't say for sure.

| can look at the airspeed indicator,

but it'll be a bit turbulent

only a foot or so off the ground.

The instruments just don't like it at all.

Altimeter keeps telling me I'm gonna crash

if | don't put another 500 feet on the clock

and the airspeed's kicking like a mule.

As far as | can tell, I'm doing nearly 150.

- 150?

One boggles at the thought.

And on the Queen's Highway, too.

- Well, he'll have to do better than that, just the same.

- Sure, I'm only on quarter boost at the moment.

I'll take her up a bit.

Ooh, up!

She doesn't seem to like that very much.

Throttling back again.

That's better.

| guess it was too much to expect her

to behave properly at low levels,

especially after the beating she's taken.

Speed now kicking around 150,

and even at that the port engine's overheating.

- Mike, don't take any chances.

We know nothing about Supercar's control characteristics

at such a low altitude.

And you can only make one mistake, Mike.

- I'll keep her down to 100

and just trust to luck we beat Harper to Monks Norton.

- Well?

How far to the turn?

- Don't know, guv.

Must be soon.

But I'm not much of a one at map reading.

- Then look for a sign.

- Oh, oh yeah.

| never thought of that.

There, guv!

- Where? - You just passed it.

- You oaf!

- Well, you can turn round and go back, can't ya?

- On the motorway?

Be your age.

We're not even allowed to stop.

- But guv!

- If we get pulled in by a police patrol, we've had it.

All we can do is to go on till the next turning now.

- Well, that's all right, then.

- It certainly is not all right.

Probably cost us 10 miles.

Fortunately, they're not after us,

otherwise we'd be in it up to our necks.

(Supercar whooshing)

- Taking over just under the 100 mark, Professor.

There's a mighty sameness about this stretch of road.

Any idea where | am?

- Dr. Beaker has you pinpointed.

- Well, calculating the various minutes

and the various speeds, | imagine that,

have you a map, Jimmy?

- There on the table, Dr. Beaker.

- Huh, yes, satisfactory.

Most satisfactory.

A turn to the left is indicated in approximately two miles.

- Two miles?

Good heavens!

One will overshoot unless careful.

- You're there, Mike.

Throttle right back and watch out on the left.

- Roger, Professor, throttling back now.

And there it is.

Turning off now.

Let's hope Harper's not too far ahead.

- Coming back to the turn there, guv.

- Now you tell me, after wasting 10 valuable miles.

Still, let's hope our friends are waiting for us

with the plane.

- Our friends, guv?

- Our foreign friends.

(suspenseful music)

- Can't understand it, Professor.

No sight of 'em.

There's a plane waiting, so we can't be too late.

Well, what do you know?

Look who's here.

(brakes squealing)

- No, it can't be!

- Blimey!

Guv, it's that Supercar thing.

- | know that, you fool!

But how?

- Sorry, gentlemen, you can't use this airstrip.

| just cancelled your membership.

(bright music)

Sure glad to be back home, aren't you, Professor?

- Yes, and with Supercar in one piece again.

Mr. Prothero's mechanic certainly did a fast job

on the rewiring.

- Took a while to get him moving,

but that's England for you.

- Sorry you couldn't come, too, Mitch.

But you'd have found it awful chilly.

(Mitch grunting)

- Anyway, where's Dr. Beaker got to with those circuits?

- He's working on them in the lab.

Dr. Beaker?

- Yes?

- Are the circuits all right for your control system?

- Oh, yes.

Yes, satisfactory.

Most satisfactory.

But on reflection, | think | have a better

use for them.

- What do you mean, Doc?

- That radio controlled model boat | was talking about.

| could sail it in my brine.

Controlling it from here in the lab.

- Oh, no!

Fade him out.

(whimsical music)

(Supercar whooshing)

¢ Supercar f

¢ Supercar f

¢ With beauty and grace as swift as can be f

£ Watch it flying through the air S

f It travels in space or under the sea

f And it can journey anywhere J

¢ Supercar f

¢ Supercar f

~ It travels on land or roams the skies J

~ Through the heaven's stormy rage I

f It's Mercury man and everyone cries J

f It's the marvel of the age I

¢ Supercar f

¢ Supercar f

¢ Supercar f

(Supercar blasting)