Zero Hour! (1957)

An Exercise In Nonsense

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It seems impossible now to review or comment on this suspense favourite without mentioning the comedy classic "Airplane!", which came along 23 years later and quite effectively spoofed this film. In fact, if you're like this viewer and have seen "Airplane!" multiple times, you'll be amazed at how faithful Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker were to the story here, and how many lines are lifted verbatim from this script. Of course, you'll also be conditioned to expect the zingers to happen as well.Still, regardless of whether or not this story *had* ever been spoofed, it really is a tense, effective, and sweat inducing thriller, highly quotable, and appropriately atmospheric. Hall Bartlett - who also wrote the screenplay with producer John Champion and story author Arthur Hailey - does a masterful job with the direction, getting lots of mileage out of a minimum of sets.The acting is sincere all the way down the line as Dana Andrews stars in the film as Ted Stryker, war veteran and former pilot who can't get over his wartime trauma. Teds' fed-up wife Ellen (Linda Darnell) takes off with their young son (Ray Ferrell), and he follows them onto a plane where the flight crew (among them, football great Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch as the pilot) and several of the passengers fall victim to food poisoning. It's up to the neurotic Ted to pilot the plane through a heavy storm to make it to an airport in time to save the afflicted people.One particular element that should be of delight to any Canadian viewer is the fact that this tale takes place in Canada and the air above it. My own hometown is mentioned repeatedly.The solid cast also includes Sterling Hayden as Captain Treleaven, the cranky guy (and old wartime comrade of Teds') who must talk our hero through the situation, Geoffrey Toone as the dedicated doctor, Jerry Paris as passenger Tony Decker, Peggy King as his stewardess girlfriend Janet Turner, Charles Quinlivan as ground controller Harry Burdick, and Steve London as co-pilot Walt Stewart.Highly entertaining all the way through, and at just over 81 minutes, it doesn't go on any longer than it really should, or waste any time.Eight out of 10.

OK, I didn't get to watch this movie until after I'd already seen 'Airplane!' and that means that the whole way through the film, I kept hearing Robert Hays' Stryker in my head. Some of the lines are lifted word-for-word. Once you manage to get over that, this is an entertaining movie. An average rating of 6.6 (at the time of writing this review) is a tad harsh, IMO. Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell both turn in solid performances in the cockpit as the mid-air disaster unfolds. Sterling Hayden, the guy who has to talk Stryker down through the landing procedure, also does a good job, but I just can't help seeing and hearing Lloyd Bridges the whole way through.It's a shame that 'Airplane!' has become such an iconic movie because anybody who watches 'Zero Hour' now will end up laughing because they've seen 'Airplane!'. In it's day, this was regarded as a tense, gripping movie. I think it's an all-round good movie, so just try to see it in it's own context and you'll enjoy it.

OK, I know this is a minority report, but this film deserves to be taken seriously and enjoyed on its own merits. I hate that the makers of the spoof "Airplane!" have apparently ruined this film for most viewers. If you like the more famous parody, which I do not by the way, I suppose it is hard to keep from comparing this film to its spoof--and that is a pity since this film is actually pretty good for a tense little B-picture. And no, it is not full of clichés because although it seems clichéd now, it was actually pretty fresh at the time it was made. While it's not the first of the airplane disaster genre--actually that honour might go to "Five Came Back" (1939)--and it very well could have been trying to cash-in on the A-list "The High and the Mighty" (1954), it certainly predates all the big "Airport" movies of the 1970s which at some point did become clichéd. Any way, this film is not inherently funny--neither intentionally nor non-intentionally. True, it doesn't even come close to being the greatest film ever made, but it is a nice little suspense film and deserves to be taken seriously in that respect.

If, and it's a big if, you can watch this analytically as a separate viewing experience from the re-imagining of it as Airplane! than this is a competently made drama perfect for the lower half of the bill at a Saturday matinée. Dana Andrews moves through the picture with grim determination and that ultimate block of wood actor Sterling Hayden is even more constricted than usual. Lloyd Bridges didn't have to change much in his performance to parody him! Linda Darnell, in her second to last film, really doesn't have much too work with in her part but she is fine offering a quiet show of strength and support when needed. However as you watch even if you are trying to be detached and see it apart from the spoof a line will pop up like "Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit smoking." and it takes you right out of the movie. Still a good view.