Cy Endfield’s proto-typical airborne disaster movie revolves around a threat to blow up a London to New York-bound flight from one of the passengers aboard, Ernest Tilley (Richard Attenborough).
Attenborough’s performance as this man-on-the-edge is every bit as memorable as his more celebrated roles.
Mentally shattered by the death of his young daughter at the hands of an uncharged drunk driver (who Tilley knows is on the flight), Attenborough’s character is fuelled by a grief-stricken desire for revenge.
The late actor’s essaying of Tilley’s descent into and return from emotional hell is the high point of Endfield’s enjoyable, if contrived, thriller.
The excellent cast also features Stanley Baker, Diane Cilento, Hermione Baddeley, David Kossoff, Dame Sybil Thorndike, Harry Secombe and Mai Zetterling.
Ernest Tilley
Richard Attenborough
Captain Bardow
Stanley Baker
Mrs Satterly
Hermione Baddeley
Otis Randolf
Bernard Braden
Angelica Como
Diane Cilento
Edwina Randolf
Barbara Kelly
Dr Bergstein
David Kossoff
Pam Leyton
Virginia Maskell
Binky Meadows
Harry Secombe
Inez Barrington
Elizabeth Sellars
Emma Morgan
Dame Sybil Thorndike
Carol Tilley
Mai Zetterling
Billy Forrester
Marty Wilde
Mulliner
Patrick Allen
George Towers
Paul Carpenter
Director
Cy Endfield
