Decent plodding British drama from a novel by Nevil Shute, who surely had a film sale in mind when he wrote the charcter of a glamorous film star on the plane whose tail might fall off. She is played here by Marlene Dietrich who has a sort of relationship with boffin James Stewart, the scientist who’s convinced they’re All Going to Die. That’s act two – act three is him trying to prove he’s not crazy for sabotaging the flight, but the thing is that happens off screen due to the actions of others. So in that sense this is more a British film than Hollywood one.
Glynis Johns is the airline hostie who falls for Stewart, seemingly out of pity and loneliness more than anything else. There’s a terrific support cast including Jack Hawkins (just before stardom, as Stewart’s boss) and Kenneth More (a few years before his own stardom).
The best thing about it is the touching relationship between widower Stewart and his nerdy daughter. The most interesting is this weird, unrealistic quasi love triangle involving Johns, Stewart and Dietrich. Two of the writers credited with the screenplay are RC Sherriff and Alec Coppel – it feels more like a Sherriff work than Coppel, although I may be mistaken.
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