Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

CinemaDude1 Soooo many people seem to have such a fond, albeit clouded, memory of this trashy, badly acted and worse directed early attempt at the Hollywood "disaster" genre. I too saw this as a youngster at a time when CinemaScope and really good magnetic stereophonic sound was all the rage (to give you an idea, the word CinemaScope is placed BEFORE the main title and in a bigger point size!) and for years I enjoyed this skewed memory of it, always thinking that it was a great film. Over the years we were able to hear the very popular Dimitri Tiomkin theme song in a variety of instrumental and vocal arrangements play on the radio and records and cassettes continuously over the years. This kept a memory of the film in our collective consciousness, but without ACTUALLY having access to the film itself as it never played again in theatres. Decades later when the age of video was upon us, that title was not available for decades. I posit that this attributed to keeping a very romanticized memory of it alive in our collective psyche. Alas, not having it available for decades seems to have seriously distorted and fogged that memory as we recall it thru the distance of time and rose-colored classes. Now that it IS available again and we can actually watch it from start to finish with a critical eye not distorted by questionable memory of our youth or the John Wayne mystique, upon watching it again, I was really shocked; it was quite obvious to me that my memory was way, WAY off! By any standard, this is one sappy, overblown, wholly unbelievable piece of trash -- badly acted, terribly directed and edited and with dialog that at times is downright laughable. Except for a great music score which only attests to how talented Tiomkin is and that he was able to save an otherwise awful, incoherent story-line, a painfully overacted script, characters who not only were uninteresting, but who, by midway through this overly long drudge of a movie, had become so annoying that I was secretly wishing the plane would indeed plunge into "the brink," as they called the Pacific Ocean, and drown the whole lot of them. About the only saving grace for me was I could see all the great iconic bits which, decades later, were so brilliantly incorporated into AIRPLANE! -- I didn't realize so many actually came from this clunker with Robert Stack hilariously caricaturing his incredibly stiff performance, which only pointed to the genius of the AIRPLANE! writers and to the utter silliness of this dog. Here we have a text-book example a vanity project (producer and actor rolled into one) and what happens when a good cast is put the hands of an what can only be described as untalented director who doesn't know when to yell cut, letting shots run on much longer than they should and who cannot rein in his cast so they don't make fools of themselves, all over-acting to the point where the thing starts to look like a third- rate, really bad soap-opera or a silent film melodrama. It's a shame Warners let this one out of "the vault;" it would have been much smarter for the Wayne estate to just keep it off the market indefinitely -- that would have allowed it to retained that mystique that we all shared about it, i.e., that it actually was a really decent, even great movie from our youth that we wish we could see again. Now that we can see it, I must say that sadly, the bloom has gone way, WAY off that rose. Seriously. My recommendation -- if you think you remember this as one of the great films you saw when you were a kid, watching it will only waste 2 hours and 24 minutes of your life (it feels much MUCH longer) and serve only to teach you the hard lesson that the memories of our youth are not always what they seem. For anyone under, say, 40, or who's never seen it before, it won't even be comprehensible why anyone would think the awful acting style and amateur direction could have ever been thought of as some great film work of a past generation. They might even mistake it as just an early attempt at an AIRPLANE! wannabe comedy. And of course they would be wrong. Keep it in the vault.

ma-cortes This is a predecessor in the "Airport" series that achieved splendor in the 70s and 80s . It's exciting and entertaining but overlong , full clichés and stereotypes with passable acting by all star cast . The 2-year best seller written by Ernest K Gann blasts to the screen with every kind of love , thrills , and intrigue . During the initial scenes in Hawaii, characters are shown showing passports prior to boarding the airplane (this is because at the time the movie was filmed, Hawaii was not yet an actual state) . As when a commercial airliner develops engine problems on a trans-Pacific voyage , then a pilot called captain Sullivan (Robert Stack ; producer John Wayne chose Robert Cummings as his co-star for the role ; Director William A. Wellman, however, overrode his producer and chose Stack for the part) loses his nerve but co-pilot named Dan Roman (John Wayne) gets to bring the plane in safely . Meanwhile , the passengers are helped by a flight attendant named Lydia Rice (Laraine Day) but suffer every range of problems and remember by means of flashbacks , such as May Holst (Claire Trevor) , Clara Joseph (Ann Doran) , Jose Locota (John Qualen) , Frank Briscoe (Paul Fix) , Gustave Pardee (Robert Newton), Ed Joseph (Phil Harris) and Sally McKee (Jan Sterling, reportedly shaved her eyebrows for her role in the film and they never grew back) , among others . The airplane heading to San Francisco from Hawaii has a dangerous journey . The picture contains drama , suspense , moderate tension and is quite entertaining although with some flaws and gaps . Plastic acting and stock characters detailing a hectic flight . The film is detailing hectic flighty piloted by a nervous pilot and the relationship among passengers . All clichéd and stock roles with regurgitation of all usual stereotypical situations from disaster films . John Wayne's role was first offered to Spencer Tracy. However, Tracy, a liberal Democrat who fiercely opposed the blacklisting of alleged "subversives" in Hollywood that was rampant at the time, wanted nothing to do with Wayne, an arch-conservative Republican who strongly supported blacklisting and whose Batjac company was producing the film, and turned the part down. Filmmaker Wellman was an expert pilot , as during his World War I service as an aviator and shooting various pictures about aviation theme such as ¨Wings¨, ¨The young eagles¨, ¨Central airport¨ , ¨Island in the Sky¨ and ¨Lafayette Escadrille¨ . In the 1950s Wellman's best later films starred John Wayne, including this influential aviation picture for which he achieved his third and last best director Oscar nomination . Colourful cinematography ,and final film of veteran cinematographer Archie Stout ; furthermore cameraman helper William Clothier , being John Wayne's first film in CinemaScope. Emotive as well as unforgettable musical score by Dimitri Tiomkin , the lyrics to the famed title song are only heard at the very end, are sung by a large choral group. This old-fashioned motion picture was professionally directed by William A Wellman . He was called "Wild Bill" during his World War I service as a pilot , a nickname that persisted in Hollywood due to his larger-than-life personality and lifestyle . Wellman was an expert in all kind of genres as Gangster, drama , Film Noir , Western and adept at comedy as he was at macho material , helming the original ¨ A star is born ¨(1937) (for which he won his only Oscar, for best original story) and the biting satire ¨Nothing sacred¨ (1937) , both of which starred Fredric March for producer David O. Selznick . Both movies were dissections of the fame game, as was his satire ¨Roxie Hart¨ (1942), which reportedly was one of Stanley Kubrick's favorite films. During World War Two Wellman continued to make outstanding films, including ¨Ox-Bow incident¨ (1943) and ¨Story of G.I.Joe¨(1945), and after the war he turned out another war classic, ¨Battleground¨ (1949). His final film hearkened back to his World War One service, ¨The Lafayette squadron¨ (1958), which featured the unit in which Wellman had flown . He retired as a director after making the film, reportedly enraged at Warner Bros.' post-production tampering with a movie that meant so much to him .

AaronCapenBanner William Wellman again directs John Wayne in another airplane-in-crisis thriller. Wayne plays Dan Roman, a copilot on a trans-pacific commercial airline flight from Honolulu to San Francisco. Robert Stack plays the pilot John Sullivan, who loses his nerve after the plane develops engine problems, and he is unable to handle the pressure, forcing Roman to take over. Can he successfully land the plane to safety, saving the lives of the passengers and crew? Reasonably exciting and engrossing film came before the disaster craze of the 1970's, so clichés are noticeable only on reflection. Story does have too many elements, and goes on too long, but can still be enjoyed for the escapist fare that it is. Was unavailable for many years, but can now be seen on DVD.

PWNYCNY This is a great movie. A passenger plane embarks on a routine flight from Hawaii to San Francisco, and then suddenly one of the engines blows up and the plane is leaking fuel. Soon it becomes apparent to the crew that they may not have enough fuel to reach land and that they may have to ditch the plane in the ocean which would mean certain death for all aboard because they are flying at night and the ocean waters are rough. Soon the passengers are frankly informed of the situation and of the possibility that the plane may have to ditch in the ocean, and now realizing that they all may die, they begin to openly discuss their own mortality. As a result, the passengers learn about their co-passengers and more about themselves. The ones who at first seem the strongest are soon shown to be the most fragile. The pilot loses his nerve and starts panicking and it is only because of the co-pilot, who is able to control his fear, that the plane continues flying and is not ditched in the ocean. Finally, the plane lands safely in San Francisco where the crew is met by the owner of the airline who tells the pilot and co-pilot that later they'll talk. End of movie. The movie contains an all-star cast including John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Robert Stack, Lorraine Day, Jan Sterling, Sidney Blackmer, John Howard and Carl Switzer (that's right, the same actor who played Alfalfa in the Our Gang series). Jan Sterling's performance was particularly powerful. This movie is wonderful.