Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Flight That Disappeared (1961)

this is a pretty effective and thoughtful little movie.  an old propeller airliner takes a flight across the country and has a little trouble.

as in it begins to inexplicably climb in altitude.  the crew lets the tower know, but they can't do anything to stop it.  on the plane are three highly educated people, a scientist with plans for an big bomb, one with a new idea for a rocket and a mathematician. 

the first half of the movie spends time letting us get to know the characters, and that's a good idea.  this plays like a "Twilight Zone" episode, so you know the plane is headed for something.  we just don't know what yet.

the acting is all well done, and there are some familiar faces here and there, like Paula Raymond as the cute scientist.  the music is very familiar to me, but I would have no idea who did it.  sounds like the familiar stock "eerie" music that populates these types of movies, but it's very well used here.

so once the plane "lands" we find out it's trapped in a moment of time.  people from the future are there to judge our "heroes" who have already had doubts about what they could do.  of course, the plane lands and only they know if it was a shared dream or if it really happened.

there is also the obligatory crackpot who wants to use the big bomb immediately- a first strike if you will.  he's really scary!

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