... and speaking of time, this film is entirely too long. It starts out with promise. A passenger plane takes off, and you see everything from the crew's standpoint. First one engine fails, then communication with the ground fails, then the other engine fails, and so the pilot (Rod Taylor) tries an emergency landing on the beach. That looks like it is going to work when the plane hits a pier, bursts into flames, and only one of the flight attendants (Suzanne Pleshette) survives. That is how anyone even knows what happened in the cockpit.
The backstory is that the pilot, Jack Savage, is an old war buddy of Sam McBane (Glenn Ford), now an executive at the same airline and up for a big promotion. Upon investigation it is found that the second engine was completely OK, and so that it seems that the fatal landing was unneeded. Everybody wants to chalk it up to pilot error - especially when a bartender calls in and says Savage was in his bar just two hours before flight time - but McBane objects and wants to launch an investigation into Savage's life to show he was not a reckless drunk, risking his promotion in the process. This is the first question mark, why is this going to prove anything? Either he was drunk during the flight or he wasn't. All of this other stuff is immaterial.
So this is where the film loses its way. It muddles through the story of Savage's life to show what a great guy he was and gets way off track as to WHY the plane crashed in the first place. The script even manages to wedge in a musical number by Jane Russell!
How are the times a changing in this film? The film tries to be very modern as far as social issues go. In the beginning, an African American child is shown being ushered on to the plane by her mother. The little girl says hello to all of the passengers, and they are very friendly back to her. Also, Savage has an Asian girlfriend played by Nancy Kwan. This seems like nothing today, but this was all quite progressive for 1964.
The end is quite satisfying, even if the premise is a bit silly, and the acting is excellent due to the first class caliber of the players. I wish I could split the difference and give this one a 5.5 rather than have to decide between a 5 or 6. Ultimately its problem is that it is too long and cannot decide if it wants to be a character study, a mystery, a drama, or a police procedural. If you are a fan of Glenn Ford it is probably worth your time because his performance is excellent.
The backstory is that the pilot, Jack Savage, is an old war buddy of Sam McBane (Glenn Ford), now an executive at the same airline and up for a big promotion. Upon investigation it is found that the second engine was completely OK, and so that it seems that the fatal landing was unneeded. Everybody wants to chalk it up to pilot error - especially when a bartender calls in and says Savage was in his bar just two hours before flight time - but McBane objects and wants to launch an investigation into Savage's life to show he was not a reckless drunk, risking his promotion in the process. This is the first question mark, why is this going to prove anything? Either he was drunk during the flight or he wasn't. All of this other stuff is immaterial.
So this is where the film loses its way. It muddles through the story of Savage's life to show what a great guy he was and gets way off track as to WHY the plane crashed in the first place. The script even manages to wedge in a musical number by Jane Russell!
How are the times a changing in this film? The film tries to be very modern as far as social issues go. In the beginning, an African American child is shown being ushered on to the plane by her mother. The little girl says hello to all of the passengers, and they are very friendly back to her. Also, Savage has an Asian girlfriend played by Nancy Kwan. This seems like nothing today, but this was all quite progressive for 1964.
The end is quite satisfying, even if the premise is a bit silly, and the acting is excellent due to the first class caliber of the players. I wish I could split the difference and give this one a 5.5 rather than have to decide between a 5 or 6. Ultimately its problem is that it is too long and cannot decide if it wants to be a character study, a mystery, a drama, or a police procedural. If you are a fan of Glenn Ford it is probably worth your time because his performance is excellent.