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.
Any picture that boasts 50s rocker Marty Wilde helping to save an aeroplane from mad bomber Richard Attenborough has to be worth watching!
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
