RAF Squadron Leader Peter Carter's (David Niven) aircraft is shot down by enemy fire over fog during the Second World War. As it falls, and after his crew has bailed out, Carter tries to radio the information to base. Believing this to be his final conversation, he speaks to an American, June (Kim Hunter), and falls in love with her voice.

But as he leaps to certain death, something goes wrong - the angels miss him in the fog and he lands on the ground, alive and in front of June. Can he argue with heaven that he should be allowed to stay? And is everything after his jump really a fantasy, brought on by the operation he's got to have in order to survive?

From poor beginnings - this film was meant to be a straight propaganda movie designed to ease the relationship between Britain and America - the movie becomes a glorious romance that is as poignant and exciting today as it was over fifty years ago.

Part of that is down to the taut writing and the excellent performances from David Niven and Kim Hunter. But perhaps most of it is because the film is replete with sheer and successful audacity. The most famous of which is the stairway to heaven, more an escalator really, in which Niven is unknowingly ascending. Just as effectively, the scenes in heaven are shot in an arty black and white while those on Earth are in an overwhelming colour.

The film does betray its origins: you won't find too many German officers in this particular vision of heaven. But that dating aside, it's a marvel.