User Reviews

This movie is not an Oscar winner, but what it does have going for it is its charm. It is the perfect romantic comedy to watch with your loved one! This, in fact, is the best kind of romantic comedy. It is corny, but in the kind of way that invokes whimsical smiles and nostalgic thoughts of the happy days of youth.

The locations in the movie are beautiful as the airline crew and passengers travel throughout Europe. The perspective is almost unique: nearly the entire movie is filmed aboard plane.

But the charm of the movie is by far the biggest reason to watch it. One can view and enjoy it with the same suspension of disbelief as was possible with many of the musicals of the 1940s and 50s. The movie is predictable and not a critical success. But in view of the fact that the movie's title tune was later covered by Frank Sinatra; also, considering that "Come Fly With Me" was Dolores Hart's last movie before religious life, it is a shame that this movie is not available on VHS, at least. How could it have been overlooked?! Come on, guys! You can do better than that!! Give us what we're asking for!!

Although some might dismiss this film as typical early sixties fluff, it is a good lightweight comedy with nice scenes and easy on the eye. I find such films often relaxing when stressed from work or other matters. But what makes this particular film special to me is one of the very last scenes showing Dolores Hart sitting by herself with tears in her eyes and a faraway look in her eyes. Of course, in her role as stewardess Donna Stuart in the film she does this scene to mark her separation from Baron von Elzingen (played by Karl Boehm), but it has far greater significance as far as the actress' own future was concerned. This was the very last shot that Dolores Hart did on the silver screen; soon after 'Come Fly With Me' was completed, she left Hollywood for good and took Holy Orders to become a nun. That's exactly what she is today, 40 years later.

Just a pleasant, solid film with a breezy theme song and some attractive young performers, (and Karl Malden, too), in a film that goes down easy. There are a lot of such films that were made in the 60's and I miss them. It's interesting that this has been described by some posters as a comedy. It really isn't, but it's such a "nice" movie it seems like one. There's nothing wrong with curling up on the couch and just enjoying something that's easy to take.

It's also a last look at Dolores Hart as an actress. She's very beautiful, even by movies star standards, has a very expressive face and has a strong intelligent presence. She might have accomplished great things in the cinema but I'll bet those qualities came in handy in her new profession, one which I'm sure meant a lot more to her.

While not as blatantly tacky and overdone as some of the other films of this type (which are actually good things for some people who seek out glossy, over-produced flicks like this!), it still has it's points of interest and moments of eye-rolling cheesiness. After Frankie Avalon croons the title song, flash-in-the-pan Tiffin comes jiggling on wearing an extremely sexy and snug flight attendant's uniform, spoiled only by the somewhat unflattering hat they all wear. It is utterly fascinating to see how stewardesses were perceived at this time. It's hard to say, at this point, how close to real life it was, but in this film they are treated as total sex objects with clothes that stress looks over functionality. Her hair is done in manner that makes one wonder if Catherine Zeta Jones and her stylists keep a loop of this film running in their salon. There is a definite occasional resemblance. Hart is quite a revelation. For someone who was about to become a nun in real life, she is surprisingly hard-edged and mouthy here. She may even swear once and she smokes incessantly. It's great to see a lesser beauty, but still a talented actress, like Nettleton get a featured role. She creates a sympathetic, if a bit overly difficult character. Poor Maxwell ("Miss Moneypenny" of 007 films) barely even got in a word edgewise. O'Brian is his usual suave and macho self as a voraciously skirt-chasing pilot. Cruelly, he keeps his shirt on at all times and never goes swimming. Malden does an okay job as a lonely businessman. German actor Boehm is a bit of an annoyance with his thin voice and heavy accent. There's a "love song" sung by a Parisian street chanteuse that will have many folks wretching and screaming for her to stop. All in all, a pretty, easy, soufflé of a film with just enough color and wit to hold interest up to a point. A mid-air trauma or an appearance by Joan Crawford.....something to punch it over the edge, may have been welcome, though. Nary a moment of it is believable, the same as it was for similar films like "Three Coins in a Fountain", "The Best of Everything" and "The Pleasure Seekers".

By the 21st century, air travel had become so common that it was almost passé. Flying somewhere for business or to visit relatives had become ho-hum. While vacation flights may still carry a little excitement, for the most part air travel is now so common that there's nothing special about it. And, considering the changes and difficulties with travel today, modern folk can be excused if they don't know about a time when air travel was fun, relaxing, exciting and even romantic. But there was such a time, indeed.

The glamor days of air travel were the late 1950s to the early 1980s. Air travel grew by leaps and bounds after World War II as jet airplanes cut flight time to a couple hours between airports in most countries. In America, cities large and small had multiple airlines serving them. People enjoyed travel for business, pleasure and family visits. Vacation packages frequently included air travel or were built around it by the airlines. And security measures were simple and quick to get through. Many airlines flourished during this time. I have flown on every major carrier in the U.S. since 1962, and on several foreign airlines. And, I've flown on most of the U.S. regional or trunk lines as well and smaller airlines in Europe and Asia.

The first three decades of jet air service were the halcyon days of air travel. Airlines then competed for passengers with service. The cream of the crop of the American-based airlines were Pan Am (Pan American World Airways), Braniff International and TWA (Trans World Airlines). Running close behind them in service were United, American, and Eastern airlines. Other national carriers were Delta, Northwestern, Continental and National. Travelers will recognize that all but three of those were gone within a decade into the 21st century, and that some new airlines have been added. The cream of the regional carriers back then was Alaska Airlines – today one of the major carriers in the U.S.

So, why do I bother giving this brief history of U.S. airline service? I think it may help younger movie fans especially to get in the mood of this film, "Come Fly with Me." This film shows a little of the meal and drink service on the airlines of the past (and that international flights still provide), and the hospitality of the airline employees. In those days, women were stewardesses and men were stewards. Today they have no gender distinction and are called flight attendants. But it also is an example of a type of film that was popular for that period when many people associated flying with romantic getaways or just plain romance. So, in the style of the day, three of the flight hostesses are friends who enjoy travel to foreign ports and hope to meet well-to-do men. And, the co-pilot has a role that was typical for films of this period genre – as a flyer with a girl in every port.

Enough said on that. "Come Fly with Me" puts a different twist on the usual fare for the women and the co-pilot. Dolores Hart, Pamela Tiffin, Lois Nettleton, Hugh O'Brian and the rest of the cast play their parts well. I especially enjoyed Karl Malden as Walter Lucas and Lois Maxwell as Gwen Sandley. Watch for the misadventure involving Hart's character and a traveling baron who catches her eye.

This is a light comedy romance that is worth watching besides just for its historical view of the travel culture of the time.

"Come Fly with Me" is a fun film from 1963 with some young stars, including Delores Hart, Lois Nettleton, and Pamela Tiffin, as well as Hugh O'Brian, Karl Bohm, and the more established Karl Malden.

I love old films that show how airlines used to be - nice seats, free food, people seeing you off at the gate, and the flight attendants walking into the cockpit.

The story concerns three flight attendants and their love problems - Tiffin with O'Brian, Hart with Bohm, and Nettleton with Malden.

Watching the caviar and lobster in first class was almost painful. Nevertheless, it's a fun trip.

Delores Hart entered the convent after this film, where she still is. Lois Nettleton, now deceased, was a highly underrated actress, and Pamela Tiffin today is a New York socialite. I saw Hugh O'Brian two years ago at an event - though he looked like a mountain man with his long gray hair, he still has all his marbles and a sense of humor at 91.

Some fifty (50) years later women and men are still becoming stewardesses/stewards for travel, fun, exploring, and yet there are many who dream of gaining seniority so that they can take care of the first class passengers, and the private planes in hopes of landing (no pun intended) a rich partner for life. These three (3) stewardesses are human after all and each has their own reasons for choosing their career path but truth be told they are all looking for love and they find it in different ways.

Hugh O'Brian is First Officer Ray Winsley, a pilot on one of these planes has no problem finding women fawn over him including stewardess Carol Brewster (Pamela Tiffin). Donna Stuart (Dolores Hart) has her eyes set on a stuck up and snobbish aristocrat named Baron Franz Von Elzingen (Karlheinz Böhm) who has a specific and criminal use for his smitten stewardess Donna. Last but not least is the senior stewardess Hilda 'Bergie' Bergstrom (Lois Nettleton) who seems to have given up on her dream of landing the perfect man so now she would prefer to use the men she meets to pay for her expensive dinners abroad. An older passenger Walter Lucas (Karl Malden) who shows Bergie his chivalry and good manners unexpectedly also shows Bergie a great time at the Paris fairgrounds until he blurts out that he is more than just a bit angry at the recent death of his beloved wife. Bergie takes Walter's expressed grief in stride and actually admires Walter's honesty as well as his sincere grief for his deceased wife but then Walter blurts out some additional information that puts the compassionate Bergie on her guard. If he was really honest with her why did he not tell Bergie earlier that he was a very wealthy man?

For the early 1960's this romantic/comedy fits the bill and I am sure the producers considered making it into a 1960's television series but the film stars such as Hugh O'Brian, Karl Malden and Lois Nettleton probably realized this was a fluff movie piece and would not hold an audiences attention on a weekly basis as a television series.. Instead Hugh O'Brian went on to star in the 1972 TV Adventure series "Search", Karl Malden went on to star in the 1972 Crime TV series "The Streets of San Francisco", and Lois Nettleton went on to dozens of guest appearances on dozens of TV series in the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's.

Come Fly With Me is stuck in that 1960's time zone when many women believed being a stewardess and flying all over the world would be a glamorous way to make a living and possibly fine a wealthy man of their dreams. Fast forward some sixty (60) years and the stewardess job is not so appealing with planes falling out of the sky almost every year and civil lawsuits becoming the norm.

I give Come Fly With Me a 6 out of 10 IMDB rating.

Featherweight diversion from MGM tries to fashion the airline-hostess business into a whirling, globe-trotting, romantic prospect for single young women who might gain from the experience the opportunity to land a man. It's a look back at a more naive, innocent age--or were we ever this innocent? Perhaps Hollywood was five or six years behind the times... In any event it's a terrible movie, adapted from Bernard Glemser's book "Girl on a Wind" yet with a screenplay so thin it might have been written on a notepad. Three stewardesses (Pamela Tiffin, Dolores Hart--not yet a nun--and Lois Nettleton) find love in the skies, but the results are tepid and brainless, another variation on "How to Marry A Millionaire". The men are still one step ahead of these spunky gals, but are willing to play along. Hard to imagine audiences of this generation looking at it with anything but disdain. *1/2 from ****

Three air hostesses and the flight crew travel from New York to Paris and then to Vienna. Innocent newbie Carol Brewster falls for First Officer Ray Winsley who is having an affair with a married woman. High maintenance Donna Stuart is taken with Baron Franz Von Elzingen who turns out to be a poor noble secretly smuggling diamonds. Common sense Hilda "Bergie" Bergstrom goes out with coach class passenger Walter Lucas (Karl Malden) who turns out to be a rich widower.

I like Bergie and Walter although the drama is relatively low intensity. I can't see anyway the movie would allow them to stay apart. Carol is fun for her first flight but the relationship is a little creepy. Donna is a problem. All in all, it's fun to see the old way of flying and see the European street scenes. The romances are hit and miss. Mostly, they don't have enough drama or fun. It reminds me of that Pan Am TV show a few years earlier. I have the same feeling as that show. It doesn't excite me but it is interesting to see this world for an episode or two.

Now I can clearly see why Dolores Hart left Hollywood! This movie is pretty much a stinker, and her role is embarrassing. For years, I had been curious to see this thing, hoping for some amusing early-60's period camp, of a type that these Hollywood big-budget-bombs can often deliver. Unfortunately its dull and witless, the actors are ill-used, and the story is totally forgettable. Pamela Tiffin's character becomes increasingly annoying and grating, and I kept having the urge to slap her and hope she'd shut up; at one point pilot Hugh O'Brian actually straps her into a seat and puts a gag in her mouth, but its an all-too-brief moment. Lois Nettleton isn't given much of anything to do, except act more virtuous and less glamorous than the other two.

This is a super frivolous fun fictional film epitomizing some of the spirit of the 1960's. The movie almost glorifies the likes of sexist behavior and smoking in public including on airlines. These were indeed the days of the friendly skies,when passengers and air crew could seemingly parade on and off airplanes at their leisure. Three charismatic air hostesses have various romantic adventures back and forth on international flights including when in Paris and Austria. I found this picture engaging, humorous and nostalgic with an excellent cast and very good direction:

8/10.

It is wonderful to make a tour around the world from Paris To Vienna in your home with beautiful faces and good spirits by the title song for Sinatra That come fly with me to the beauty , dream , magic and love by funny situations , love scenes and good acting.

It is nice to know new countries with new habits for us in Paris by their cultural and beautiful spirits upon a story for three girls works as hostess that everyone had her dream for dream boy that faces their fates under suspense and surprise upon their logics.

I like the french song in this movie that help me to feel soul and satisfy on myself by good lyrics and merry melody that i hope to visit France because i like this country and i hope to take the residence of it.

I stumbled upon this early '60s film on TCM while surfing late this evening. I agree with most of the previous posters' opinions, but I think one other element should be added: At the dawn of the passenger jet age, before hijackings that turned airports into minimum security prisons, and 9/11, which turned them into crowded LuftStalags, this was what air travel was like. Technologically and socially, one watches a film like this not simply to be entertained, but to be reminded of those last moments before JFK was killed, Vietnam, and the turning inside out of America. As for performances, Karl Malden waltzes effortlessly through this movie, threatening to steal every scene he's in--even from the gorgeous women. (Speaking of which, Pamela Tiffin is radioactive hot. )

If you enjoy tepid 'comedy' films where women are portrayed as hollow, gold-digging sex objects, and men are reduced to the level of leering, grabby, opportunistic womanizers, this lightweight movie should be right up your slimy alley.

That being said, Dolores Hart and Lois Nettleton are standouts in this trite film. Lois and Dolores are cleary much better than the material they've been handed here.

Same goes for Karl Malden!

I adore this 1963, bijou film so much. The opening song 'Come Fly With Me', sung by Frankie Avalon, takes us on the start of the energetic, whirlwind, globe-trotting highs-and-lows of three all-American gals looking for love.

Yes, the film is now dated, and one could say a little 'sugary', but it has some good comic moments and is actually quite a lot of fun. The film score isn't too bad either, and Lois Nettleton shines in her role as 'Bergie', with fun performances from Karl Malden, Carl Boehm and Dolores Hart, as snobby Donna Stewart.

I hope it comes out on DVD someday...if you see it on TV have a look - you just might enjoy it!

The bad news is, Frankie Avalon sings the title song. It is nice to see Lois Nettleon get a starring role, even if she only got it because Mariette Hartley caught hepatitis. Pamela Tiffin looks as though she was retaining water and this is the film that drove Dolores Hart to become a nun. Enjoy!

Some would like to place significance in the content of Hart's final screen shot, her last before she became a nun in the "real" world the next year. Unfortunately, as we all know, films are not shot chronologically, so her tearful "farewell" signifies no deeper meaning. That concept is a bit too "Entertainment Tonight" for my taste.

Anyway, the film is a nicely produced cliché of its genre(s) - the-young-women-in-Europe-for-love, crossed with the stewardesses-as-Mid-60s-sex-symbols. The acting ranges from good (Hart and Nettleton), to miscast (Malden), to just plain grating (Tiffin).

The plot is silly, although it is mainly Tiffin's scenes that nearly derail the movie.

The one pleasure derived from viewing this period piece, is to appreciate the experience of flying commercial jets in the Golden Age. What was once truly a joy, is now akin to riding a Greyhound Bus in the sky. And when was the last time a "flight attendant" actually smiled at you?

The movie is worth a viewing. However, once is enough for me.

I have been looking for this movie for a long time. Does anyone have a copy of it? I saw this movie years and years ago and I remember it being a good family movie. They are all good actors and actresses and I would like to have a copy of it. I have been looking everywhere for it, but so far I have not had any luck. I can find it playing quite often (about 2 times a year)in the UK, but I just can't find it playing in the United States. I have submitted the title for consideration to Time Warner to see if they will show it again, but I think my only luck will be is if someone had made a copy of it when it did play years ago. This should be a classic movie. It was a good, cute movie for 1963, and I think so many would enjoy seeing it again. Karl Malden is such a terrific actor and he is wonderful in this movie.

This is a very beautiful movie, a must-see for those who value history. This is a prelude to Dolores Hart's great leap forward that landed her in the nunnery where she is until now enjoying her life as Christ's bride. I was still in my teens when Dolores Hart entered the nunnery and disappeared, so to speak, from mundane Hollywood. I was heartbroken, for she was my favorite actress...will always be. She enthralled me, especially when she appeared in a movie about the life of St. Francis of Assisi--as St. Clare no less. But maybe it was the best decision she ever made. Come to think about it, she left the world to make it better.