Easy going Ealing film, professionally done (Basil Dearden directed). It doesn't go for big excitement - it's reminiscent of Airport but doesn't pile on the action like that film. The subplots include some gossipy old ladies, a romance between two Jewish passengers (he's going to Israel she's going to America to marry a rich man), a pilot (Anthony Steel) may be tempted into smuggling, another pilot (Robert Beatty) is grounded and wants to fly again.
The film pulls its punches - there's no crashing, Steel decides not to smuggle in the end (would've been a better film had he gone bad).
Steel is top billed but is off screen a lot of the time; Beatty has a bigger role. Later Bond girl Eunice Grayson is an air hostess - her part isn't big (there should have been more or at least bigger female roles). There's a racist "foreign baddy" who tries to get Steel to smuggle. James Robertson Justice is a pilot.
There's a sequence where the Jewish couple go off to some colourful East End club which was kind of fun (I enjoyed the locals talking about cricket) but it pulls the action away from the airport. Didn't the filmmakers have faith in the concept?
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