Fate Is the Hunter (1964) User Reviews

Investigation into plane crash told through flashback

[Pearsey · 7/10 · 23 October 1999]

A film whose story is told in flashback, during the investigation of an airline accident. Sam McBane (Glenn Ford) is an executive of Continental Airlines who is desperate to prove that his old Army-Air Corps buddy Capt. Jack Savage (Rod Taylor) had not been drinking before the fatal flight. His investigation brings him into contact with several close friends of Savage. Through them, McBane learns a lot he didn't know about the airline pilot.

The plot of the movie takes off during the last 10 minutes when McBane and the only survivor of the crash, Stewardess Martha Stewart (Suzanne Pleshette, excellent in limited screen time), recreate the original fatal flight in every detail. A friend of mine who wouldn't usually go in for this kind of fare, after viewing it with me, said "Fate of the Hunter" turned into a pretty good movie due to the last part.

Glenn Ford has some good scenes, particularly during the CAB hearing and Rod Taylor is likeable in his role.

This is one of my personal favorite movies and I recommend it.

Good, Intelligent 1960s Film

[mrb1980 · 7/10 · 26 July 2005]

This is a fine film about an airliner crash and its later repercussions. Glenn Ford brings his usual earnestness to his role as an airline executive determined to discover the cause of the crash, which killed its pilot and his good friend (Rod Taylor). Reports that Taylor had been drinking only make Ford more determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Top cast works well with an intelligent script, which unfortunately gets a little slow and talky near the middle of the movie. The flashback scenes with Ford, Taylor, Jane Russell and Wally Cox are extremely well done, and Dorothy Malone gives a fine, uncredited performance. Perfect TV fare, good for folks who like movies from the mid-1960s era.

PS--Isn't that Joe Patridge as the First Officer at the beginning of the movie?

The Black Box

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 3 January 2011]

Fate Is The Hunter casts Glenn Ford as an airline executive and former pilot who is investigating the crash of an airline at his airport where a former Korean war buddy Rod Taylor was the pilot. Most on the flight were killed, one of the survivors was stewardess Susanne Pleshette.

Ford has a vested interest both professional and personal, he hired Taylor as a pilot and his judgment is called in question as well. And Taylor was a roguish sort of guy who bent the rules considerably. But Ford knew Taylor as a man cool in combat and we see Taylor after the initial crash in all sides of his character in flashback.

The film is based on an Ernest K. Gann novel who also gave us Island In The Sky and The High And The Mighty. The film keeps the attention throughout with its documentary like approach. Ford is a man with a disagreeable task and he's praying his faith in Taylor will not be in vain.

The airline is more interested in covering itself in case of potential lawsuits than at getting at the truth. Pilot error is the easiest explanation all around and Taylor's past doesn't help any.

There are a couple of noteworthy supporting performances first being Dorothy Malone who was not billed oddly enough as a party girl who Taylor was involved with and dumped. It's a chip off the performance Malone gave as Marilee Hadley in Written On The Wind. Also noteworthy is Wally Cox who was a fellow crewman on Taylor and Ford's ship in Korea who provides an insight into an incident in Korea that Ford does not remember fondly.

What does cause the crash? It's something quite trivial, but Taylor's posthumous reputation owes a debt of gratitude to Susanne Pleshette surviving the crash and to the black box recording even then, standard on commercial flights. It was kind of quaint seeing the airline investigators playing the black box recording on those old fashioned reel to reel tapes.

For aviation fans and fans of the principal players and many others. A really good piece of work that all the cast could take pride in.

An Overlooked Classic

[rescob1005 · 1 October 2003]

If you have the chance to catch this movie, please do. In an age where cursing, nudity and violence seem to occupy most films, this is something special...a classic, counting on its storyline, acting and believable characters to hold our attention. The mystery that surrounds the tragedy in this movie cleverly ties together the people involved, the incident itself and is not resolved until the end. The characters are unique, introduced in brief anecdotes by which we come to learn about them. It makes one realize that we too have that same myriad of people we touch ourselves in our own lives. The music is beautifully orchestrated by Jerry Goldsmith. Glenn Ford's intense style is a sharp contrast to Rod Taylor's swashbuckling character. A very strong performance was given by Suzanne Pleshette as well. Her face of pure terror when she is on the second flight is fascinating and believable. My only regret is not being able to get a copy of the soundtrack, which has one of the most beautiful trumpet solos I have ever heard. A movie worth watching anytime, with anyone.

a man sets out to find the cause of a disastrous plane crash

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 4 January 2011]

Glenn Ford stars in "Fate is the Hunter," a 1964 film directed by Ralph Nelson. The film also stars Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, Nancy Kwan, Wally Cox, Nehemiah Persoff, Mark Stevens, Constance Towers, and Max Showalter.

Ford is Sam McBane, who is called in to determine the cause of a plane crash; a flight attendant, Martha Webster (Pleshette) is the sole survivor of the flight, piloted by Jack Savage (Rod Taylor). The airline is content to call the cause pilot error, but Ford refuses to accept that. He talks to Savage's friends, the women in his life, and finally actually reconstructs the flight in order to find the answer.

Ford shows more emotion than usual and gives a strong performance - he actually dominates the film. The other characters have smaller roles. Jane Russell plays herself, and is all glamor as she sings "No Love, No Nothing'"; Wally Cox has a nice role, as does Mark Stevens, who plays an alcoholic friend of Savage's. Pleshette is excellent as the survivor.

Good cast, good direction, and you, too, will wonder what actually caused this crash. Was it, as Nancy Kwan, who plays Savage's girlfriend says, fate? A perfect storm? Or something else? Engrossing.

The airline pilots

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 4 December 2009]

Sam McBane and Jack Savage have been associated for quite a long time. Their friendship started during the days both were pilots in the Army in WWII. Now, at the start of the story, they are working for the same commercial airline. As Jack is preparing for a flight to Seattle, Sam, the head of operations happens to pass by. Although friendly, they are probably not as close anymore.

As the flight prepares to take off, Savage, who seems to have a roving eye, spots a new stewardess. He asks for a cup of coffee, that Martha, the other attendant brings to him, but as he is about to grab it, the hot liquid spills into some of the panel. The flight takes off and soon after they are in the air, the right engine catches fire. They request to go back. They are finally cleared, but unfortunately, as they come for a crash landing, the plane strikes a pier and everyone dies, except Martha, the stewardess, who miraculously is spared.

As the investigation proceeds, we are taken in flashbacks to the days of WWII when Sam and Jack were serving together. They had a big scare when they were on a mission. Sam, and the rest of the crew bail out because the plane is on a dangerous course of probably crashing into a mountain. When Sam and the men are rescued and returned to base, they are aghast in finding Jack and his plane on the airfield.

"Fate Is the Hunter" is a 1964 Twenty Century Fox feature we recently caught on a cable channel. Not having seen it in a while, it took us by surprise the excellent condition of the print. Ralph Nelson, its director, worked extensively in television during most of his career. It is to his credit how he draws the viewer into the story, involving us in ways we didn't expect. The film is based on a book by Ernest Gann.

Glenn Ford, a man that usually underplayed in most of his films, makes an excellent Sam McBean. He is a decent man who wants to clear his buddy's name, and at the same time, spare his employer of bad publicity. Rod Taylor, who is made to look older as Jack in the first scenes, does also a good job of this fearless pilot. Susanne Pleshette appears as Martha, the surviving stewardesses. Nancy Kwan is a scientist with a theory about why things happened on the plane. Wally Cox, Mark Stevens, Harold St. John, Constance Towers, and the wonderful Mary Wickes are seen in supporting roles. An uncredited Dorothy Malone is fun to watch as Jack's girlfriend who decides to throw a party at an inappropriate time.

Milton Krasher's cinematography deserves a nod for what he was able to capture with the film, that was basically shot inside the studio. Jerry Goldsmith's musical score serves the film well. Ralph Nelson deserves the credit for the way he handled his large cast.

Not One To Miss....

[HKFAN · 10/10 · 28 November 1999]

If this happens to be on your cable channel it is a MUST SEE!! Ford plays Sam McBane, a VP with an airline which has just lost a plane in a crash. Taylor plays the pilot of the aircraft, who also happens to have been a war-buddy. The rest of the cast is top-notch and the story outstanding. However, it bears pointing out that YOU MUST WATCH THE FIRST 10-12 minutes and MOST DEFINITELY the finale as it brings all of the film to full circle. Watch it and enjoy!!

Before the NTSB

[blitzebill · 7/10 · 7 May 2019]

Having not read the book and stumbled upon this film on FXX Retro, I am writing this brief comment from the perspective of aviation safety and the Federal agency that investigates airline crashes.

This film is fascinating for those reasons. If you've watched "Air Disasters" on the Smithsonian channel. you are already aware of the methodology and painstaking detail required for crash resolutions. Of course news outlets provide detail and online resources are abundant.

I couldn't help but compare how different it was back then in 1964 than it is today, and yet, we have a long way to go explaining mysterious accidents and disappearances.

"Fate..." is worth watching if only to see these differences.

Can you guess I liked this film?

[douglas-24 · 10/10 · 28 August 2001]

A complicated little film showing that the obvious isn't always the truth. A passenger aircraft crashes while being flown by the stereotypical risk-taking, flamboyant pilot, leaving only one survivor. With him dying in the crash, it doesn't take the vultures long before they are clamouring for an excuse to point the finger of blame his way. His long time friend and airline boss sets out to prove that it wasn't so, and through a fascinating series of flashbacks and vignettes, the not-so-obvious plot unwinds into a wonderful vindication of his dead friend. Absolutely astounding actors and a solid script make this a must see. It takes time and effort to watch the subtleties unwind but it makes it worth the effort.

Poor visual effects and dialogue, but good performances in airline drama with relevant issues...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 17 July 2009]

On a routine flight from Los Angeles to Seattle, a crowded passenger jet loses its first engine--and then, apparently, its second--and crashes just after takeoff, leaving only one survivor (a remarkably uninjured stewardess). Adaptation of Ernest K. Gann's book is hampered by poor visual effects and dialogue, though this airline drama is still remarkably relevant, and nearly saved by some good performances. Glenn Ford is terrific as the investigator for the airline company pressured by board members into blaming the entire disaster on pilot Rod Taylor, an old military friend; Ford is uninterested in using the pilot as a scapegoat, instead putting his job on the line to seek out the actual reason the plane went down. Many issues the film brings up (pilot error, bird feathers jamming the engine, the possibility of a bomb) make it a notably undated effort, yet director Ralph Nelson stages the more dramatic sequences like cheapjack incidents from a TV serial. The cockpit action (including flashbacks to the war) is highly unconvincing, and the picture is further handicapped by an episodic structure and disappointing visuals. Ford's first-rate work is matched by Suzanne Pleshette, Nancy Kwan, and also by Nehemiah Persoff, excellent as an associate of Ford's who's eager to have his job. Taylor overdoes his naturally gregarious personality (he's too 'colorful' here), yet the film's finale is satisfying (if admittedly far-fetched) and the nasty politics of airline business are successfully brought off. One Oscar nomination: for Milton R. Krasner's black-and-white cinematography. **1/2 from ****

The times they are a changin in this film...

[AlsExGal · 5/10 · 14 April 2019]

... 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.

A how did it happen movie.

[Diver-9 · 10/10 · 1 June 1999]

Viewers must watch the first ten minutes (including credits) very carefully. The final ten minutes will reveal what happened and the story and movie did a very good job of camouflaging what did happen.

Not The Classic Book

[skallisjr · 7/10 · 31 August 2006]

Ernest K. Gann wrote the book, Fate Is The Hunter, which became a classic among pilots. However, as written, it wouldn't have made a good film, particularly in the 1960s. So, the idea of the film, that random factors might affect the success of any airplane flight, was used as a hook for the film plot.

The idea: an airliner crashes, and a vice president of an airline is convinced, against all evidence, that the crash was not due to pilot error. His quest to determine what actually happened is the bulk of the film.

There are several flashbacks that explain what on the surface seem to be less than sterling behavior of the pilot who was killed, but the only one who understands this is the vice president.

Finally, the fatal flight is duplicated, and the actual explanation (a tad contrived) is revealed.

It's better viewing if you're not a pilot, but it's still a good view.

Mainly for Glenn Ford Fans

[TanakaK · 5/10 · 2 January 2011]

I'm afraid that I am not as enthusiastic about this film as so many other reviewers seem, bewilderingly, to be. The writing is dreadful, painting comic-book characters with no depth or subtlety. Glenn Ford does his best to make his central character interesting but nearly all of the main characters in the film are middle-aged men who spend most of their screen time shouting and snarling at each other. This is especially true of Rod Taylor's character who is absolutely ridiculous and as likable as a sticky doorknob.

The basic premise of the story is silly, too. While commercial air crash investigations have certainly become more systematic and sophisticated since the 1960's, they were never such shallow, personal journeys as this story would depict. One man's journey to vindicate an old war buddy...who he really didn't even like. Oh please.

And what the heck is with that utterly irrelevant cameo by Jane Russell?! If you're on a mission to see every Glenn Ford film and you've missed this one, then by all means sit in front of it once. But I really doubt you'll want to sit through it a second time. It's just too painful.

Many times a book does not translate to a film well. BUT! (spoiler note, I use one line from the film, not critical to the story)

[flarepilot · 3 April 2014]

First off, I am one of the rare pilots who loves this movie. I'm a 737 captain for a major airline in the USA. Also a flight instructor, an instrument instructor and multi engine instructor.

I've read the book and am glad the book and movie are so different. IN this way I get two amazing stories, but with that special flavor expressed in the title.

I won't describe the movie, others have done that. But if you are a pilot and don't "GET" this movie, you better take some more flying lessons.

I mean it. If you don't like the fictional airliner, well that' s fine.

Get over that part of it.

Here is a movie that actually talks about a rudder power switch!

I can also say that the cinematography is wonderful and the opening 12 minutes and last 10 minutes is the most amazing stuff I've seen. (short of reality).

So, see this movie. And shut off the damn bell.

dramatic, believable characters. a great 'airliner' movie

[REDONDOFOUR · 7/10 · 14 July 2001]

This is a great airliner movie. Lots of suspense. Glen Ford is great. I remember watching this movie as a kid. There were always good movies on late at night. This is one of them. A little drawn out in the middle, but the flight sequences are very dramatic. Susanne plishette is a believable character as the stuardess.

The whole is less than the sum of its parts

[GMJames · 6/10 · 29 November 2003]

I was about 6 or 7 years old when I first saw "Fate Is the Hunter" on television. I was so terrified by the opening scene and saddened by one particular passenger's demise (an unidentified young girl) that I didn't see the rest of the movie.

Fast-forward to 35 years later. I've watched various movies that could be considered "disaster" movies and some that certainly could be considered "disastrous". "Fate Is the Hunter" is right in the middle. It's better than most movies but not enough to stand-out.

I think where the movie struggled was the crash investigation process. I wanted to care about the lead character (Glenn Ford) and, through flashbacks, the pilot of the ill-fated plane (Rod Taylor). Sadly, I was not at all impressed with the character study. I thought it was all surface and very little depth. Suzanne Pleshette fared best in a good (albeit minor) cast as the flight attendant who survived the crash and helps in the investigation.

I was even more disappointed that the relatives of the crash victims were silent unknown actors. There was no voice for them. It would've meant changing the entire storyline but I believe it would've made the movie more interesting on an emotional level.

I will say the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes are still very terrifying despite some dated trappings (e.g.: "cheap" special and matte effects) and I do admire how the plot was developed and how the story was resolved. I also thought Jerry Goldsmith's musical score was low-key but very effective. I just wished the center portion of "Fate Is the Hunter" was better.

One of the Best

[Julie Southwell · 10/10 · 20 December 2007]

This movie was one of the most thrilling movies that I've ever seen. It says something that I last saw it as a child in the 1960's and that I not only remember it (as do my family), but that I remember details. Very few movies held my attention like that back then.

Fate is the Hunter, as other users have said, is intelligent and well thought out. Only one other (older) disaster movie equals it for thrill and that is The Last Voyage (the final minutes in particular).

It should be released on DVD, fully remastered picture and sound. For that matter, it would probably attract viewers at the cinema if a remastered version was released.

I don't think that a modern remake would have the same atmosphere. They would probably focus on nothing but the graphic violence of the deaths in the crash and miss out on the values such as friendship and loyalty.

I give it 10/10.

It is what it is, and isn't.

[WarnersBrother · 6/10 · 5 March 2011]

To repeat what an earlier reviewer has said "It's better if you aren't a pilot". That sums up the matter quite succinctly. It also has nothing whatever to do with Gann's masterpiece auto-biographical novel of the same name.

FITH fairly quickly made it's way to TV in the mid-sixty's, panned and scanned to death. Still, as a kid in love with all things airplanes, I watched it many times and it became a favorite along with such great and small films dealing with aviation, pilots and airlines. Since then the kid read the book, learned to fly, served in the Air Force and then spent years in the Airlines.

Got to see this again and the first time in it's widescreen "glory" on TCM after 40 years, and while it is laughable in some ways technically ( I won't bore you...i try to be mindful that flyers are good at that), I still enjoyed it's somber tone and character study of the Captain of the doomed airliner. It's flashback based structure is no less distracting than "The Crowded Sky" of four years earlier, and the cast of mostly second string players does a workmanlike job of it. Kudos go to Mark Stevens as a dipso ex-pilot in a very nice turn, one I think may be his best performance. Thumbs down to Nancy Kwann, miscast, and only here because it was made during her 15 minutes. Dorothy Malone has a nice cameo.

Do I still like it? Well, yeah...I do. If you get the chance, see it.

An underrated gem

[tjshan1214 · 10/10 · 12 April 2006]

This has always been one of my favorite movies. Glenn Ford was a big star in his day, but he does not get the credit today that he deserves for making some terrific movies. FITH was well acted by everyone in the cast I think the chemistry between Glenn Ford and Rod Taylor was very interesting. I believe the scene at the beginning of the film, the only contact they had not seen in flashback, was very subtle, but you begin to understand what drives Ford to pursue his investigation. The late Jerry Goldsmith was one of Hollywood's great composers and his score here was brilliant. Several years ago, on a whim, I actually wrote to a famous director (who happened to have made a film with Glenn Ford when he was a child actor!) to suggest remaking FITH with an updated story. I never heard back, but I still believe this could be a terrific film set in the current time (perhaps using the first Gulf War instead of WWII?) with the right actors.

OK movie, but is NOT as good as the book!

[MikeLV · 6/10 · 4 December 2003]

After reading "Fate is the Hunter" by Gann this last week (not sure how I missed it all these years), I was completely absorbed into the subject matter. The book rings true and is a compelling and insightful story. At this point I had to see the movie, and found a VHS copy on Ebay.

Overall the movie was "OK", but certainly not compelling or likely to lead one into retrospection or contemplation. The acting was fine, the sets and props seemed a bit dated/ineffective, but the story is a good one and work watching the solid performances of Ford, Pleshette, Kwan, Cox and several others made a most enjoyable evening.

I was disappointed that the flavor of the book just did not come through in the movie. Yes - the overall message of Fate being the ultimate force in determining our course through life is made in the book AND the movie, but there is none of the awe and wonder and risk/reward from personal effort as portrayed in the book.

The truth is - I was not sure how "they" could translate such a complex book to the screen. I was not surprised when I found it was done in a marginal way. Several specific references in the book do appear in the movie - the Accordian, the icing of the cargo plane, and some banter back and forth between the characters, but the PLOT of the movie is simply NOT anywhere in the book!

I had to accept that the effort to present the sets and effects was believable (avoiding a chuckle here and there) and serious for the timeframe that the movie was made. The jet engines of the plane were poorly done, the engine going out on the plane not being noticed by the passengers was a real stretch, the haste to hold a hearing, the CAA admitting to acting in response to political/public pressure and the general portrayal of flight crews all seemed somewhat hasty, as if it was in the way of getting on with a few supporting elements for the PLOT, and to capitalize on the popularity of the book rather than making a serious movie.

Anyway - A great Book, and an OK movie, just do not get the two confused as having anything to do with each other.

BTW - I read Gann's "Hostage to Fortune" after watching the movie, and his comments about the movie explain and support my observations.

Perfect example of how Hollywood can distort reality

[EditorASC · 2/10 · 23 July 2006]

The only thing in common between Ernest Gann's excellent book and this movie, is the title. Clearly, the producers of this movie were gambling that Gann's reputation as a fine aviation writer, would provide the Teflon coattails to drag box office receipts into the plus column.

Hanging two jet engines on the empennage of a DC-4 fuselage and wings, is the height of aeronautical absurdity. It looked like a bad dream right out of Saturday Night Live.

But, the incompetence of the script writers doesn't end there. Airliner accident investigations are not conducted by an executive of the affected airline, much less by one who starts out with the polemic that his pilot friend could not have been drinking. And, true investigators of such accidents (officials of the CAA, at that time), don't start speculating about "fate" (it was ordained to happen by some higher power), as a possible cause of an accident. Airliner accident investigation is a form of science inquiry, and there is no room for such irrational ravings as that.

It is a gross distortion of Gann's theme, that "luck" is often involved in what happens to you in life. It may be bad luck, when some soldiers get hit by bullets, while others don't, but that is not evidence that the victim's names were pre-written on those bullets.

The main characters in the film, are phony to the core; nothing like real-life airline pilots and executives. It is obvious that there were no technical advisors on this film, or if there was, their advice was completely ignored by the script writers.

Sorry to be a plot spoiler, but the cause of the crash being a cup of coffee on the cockpit pedestal----which was pre-ordained by some higher power----is pure idiocy. Pilots have enough brains to not set liquids there (turbulence is a constant, in airline flying), because it could cause problems with the radios. But, to cause an engine to fail? No way. Electronic engine controls are not located there, even if a pilot was that stupid.

I do recommend that this movie be seen, just so the customers can learn to spot chinchy producers and incompetent script writers. This was a quickie and deliberately cheap production, relying on star names and the reputation of a fine book writer, to sell it. Total trash in plot line, character development and technical displays.

Ernest K. Gann was so disgusted with this film script, that he insisted his name be removed from it.

An immensely satisfying film.

[graduatedan · 8/10 · 1 August 2010]

Ernest K Gann, the author of Fate is the hunter,reportedly was unhappy with this interpretation of his 1961 memoir of the same name. Having read the book, I can understand why he might have felt that way. Gann's memoir is a rich tapestry of a flyer's life from biplane to four engine passenger airliner,while Harold Medford's screenplay is really just a pastiche of some of the story threads in the book.Having said that, Fate is the Hunter the film, stands on its own as an immensely satisfying story that takes an increasingly strong grip on the viewer and never lets go. Rod Taylor plays airline captain Jack Savage, who's killed along with his crew and passengers in the crash of the fictional Consolidated Airlines flight 22. Airline VP McBain, played by Glenn Ford, believes something other than pilot error was responsible for the disaster, but must battle his own colleagues and public perception of Savage in order to clear the dead pilot's name. The film, shot in cinemascope, uses the wide screen effectively, and the crisp editing advances the story without sacrificing the narrative flow. All of the actors acquit themselves well,and Jerry Goldsmith's haunting score hits just the right note of melancholy. This is a sad, yet ultimately uplifting film, and although Gann might not have liked the result, the finished movie does manage to retain the tone and philosophy of his fabulous book.

Fate is the Hunter

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 17 February 2024]

When an airline tragedy kills fifty-seven people, it falls to investigator "McBane" (Glenn Ford) to get to the bottom of things. He has precious little to go on save for a report from the pilot claiming an engine fire before silence then the plane hit the ground. One of the survivors, the stewardess "Sally" (Nancy Kwan) has slightly conflicting information about the crash so "McBane" assembles the wreckage and he can't make either story work - something's not right! The absence of any clear technical fault suggests to all the it's his wartime friend "Savage" (Rod Taylor) who was at fault - but he's not buying that. In an effort to clear the man and get to the truth, he puts his own reputation on the line and makes quite a few unsavoury discoveries along the way before he concludes another flight might be the only solution. Ford is quite good here - there's a decent one-two at the inquiry with Bert Freed's opposing counsel "Dillon" but for a movie about planes, we have remarkably little action going on. A bit of simulation now and again, but otherwise this is a rather dry story that unfolds in a pretty pedestrian fashion, with loads of chat and not so much substance to the plot. The pretty wooden Taylor doesn't really feature very often and by the conclusion, we were on a flightpath of inevitability that really underwhelmed.

A Wing And A Prayer.

[rmax304823 · 5/10 · 2 January 2011]

It certainly looks as if the whimsical, Byronic airline captain Rod Taylor is responsible for this accident, which left 52 people dead, himself included, sparing only Susanne Pleshette, the flight attendant. The airline traffic safety board convenes and, despite the strong reservations of executive Glenn Ford, an old friend of Taylor's, is headed towards the dreaded explanation of "pilot error." You see, Taylor was observed patronizing several bars the night before the flight, in the company of someone named Mickey who can't be located. Taylor had a history of cheerful abandon even during the war and he's a kind of convenient scapegoat alright.

Glenn Ford, however, is convinced that some other force was at work. He tracks down some old friends of Taylor's and they all vouch for his probity. At the last minute, the mysterious and alcoholic Mickey shows up and reveals that although Taylor bought a dozen drinks the night before the accident, they were all for him, Mickey, not for Taylor Not good enough for the Board of Inquisitors. If it wasn't booze, what was it? Taylor apparently lost one engine after another shortly after take off then, perhaps in a panic, plowed into a pier that no one knew was there.

Taking his cue from the gorgeous Nancy Kwan, an oceanographer who had a perfectly innocent meeting with Taylor, Ford advances the novel proposition before the board that if it wasn't mechanical failure and it wasn't pilot error, then it must have been -- "the supernatural." Yes, girls and boys, FATE is the hunter. What else could have brought all these conditions together -- the flight of birds, the engine failure, the unknown pier, the radio failure -- at exactly the right time and place to cause the accident except -- fate.

Actually, you don't have to dig into the supernatural (or reach skyward) for that. It can be explained by a simple and drab deterministic universe. Everything that happens at a given place and time is determined by a multitude of previous events. One thing causes another and every once in a while they come together in a wildly improbable manner to cause something more important than all of them put together. You will sometimes have a perfect accident just as you will sometimes have a "perfect storm." Ford may call it Fate but I'd call it statistical probability.

That's a little egg-headed, I know, but the explanation is never explored anyway. It all turns out to have to do with a paper cup of coffee that spilled on Taylor's pedestal when the first engine quit and the airplane jarred momentarily. The coffee dripped into an electrical unit and shorted out some other circuits and caused all sorts of false alarms, to which Taylor unwittingly responded. That was fate in a cup of coffee. Maxwell House, I hope.

Harold Medford wrote the screenplay which has practically nothing to do with Ernet K. Gann's superb memoirs with the same title. I imagine Medford being handed the assignment with directions something like this. "We've got the rights to Gann's book. Now make up a story that will fit the title. And we've got Glenn Ford, Nancy Kwan, Dorothy Malone, Susanne Pleshette, Mark Stevens, and some reliable supporting players, so squeeze all of them in. Try to make the story about airplanes." Not much from the book appears in the movie. Sometimes events show up but in altered form. It was Gann who played the concertina, not a friend. And it was Gann who got the garter of the famous lady on the USO tour during the war, only the famous lady wasn't Jane Russell but Marlene Dietrich.

Oh, hell. You want a bewitching story about fate and flying? Read the book.