Jet Storm (1961)

not horrible nor great

From my favorite movies..

A Disappointing Continuation

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Ernest Tilley (Attenborough) has discovered the identity of the man who drunkenly killed his baby daughter in a hit-and-run, and armed with a bomb boards the same flight as him. Tilley is deeply depressed and obsessed with killing this man at any cost, even if it means killing his own family and everyone on board. Attenborough plays Tilley very quietly, a man hollowed out by his depression and hatred, not only for the hit-and-run driver, but for the whole world. As the film progresses, it is very easy to feel real sorrow for him. The writer and the director keep the lid firmly on for most of the time, only allowing the anger and fear to burst out in small doses. The other seats on board are occupied by many faces of the time, including Dame Sybil Thorndyke and Harry Secombe, who sit together and do a grand job of lightening the mood with their witty and charming performances. Husband and wife Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly don't do much and neither does Marty Wilde. Very nice to see Stanley Baker playing against the usual 'thick ear' parts he normally gets, and he turns in a very good part. This film will not appeal to modern audiences who need an explosion or slanging match every five minutes. It's a character study, and a very British one at that. If you like your thrillers with a bit of humanity and depth, I can thoroughly recommend this impressive film. DVD from Simply.

You know you're in trouble right at the start when the credits roll up the screen and when the title appears Marty Wilde starts warbling "Jet Stream" rather than "Jet Storm". A breakdown in communication between songwriter and producer? Nope. The lyrics were written by Cy Endfield who is, of course, the same as C. Raker Endfield, the director. Presumably the title of the movie was changed at the last minute (maybe TWA objected, they were still flying their piston engined Lockheed Starliners across the Atlantic and hopefully promoting them as "Jetstreams" in competition with Pan Am's and BOAC's real jets). Others have described the cast as "all star" which is pushing the definition a bit. Many of them achieved some fame in future years, but not necessarily as film stars (as opposed to character actors). The economics of this airline are questionable as there are only 32 passengers on board and the seat pitch seems to be about 5 feet. The passengers are the usual stereotypes and none generate any sympathy with the audience so we don't particularly care what happens to them. Stanley Baker's turn as the Captain is so wooden that he might have been replaced with a plank. The decision to use stock footage of the Soviet Tupolev Tu-104 is bizarre, particularly as the feeble model bears only a cursory resemblance. Presumably they didn't use the Boeing 707 or DH Comet as at the time only two airlines were using them transatlantic and they did not want the association with potential disaster. To add to the confusion the scenes of the passengers boarding shows them embarking on a BEA Vickers Viscount, the registration of which is clearly visible on the fin. The most laughable aspect of the whole thing, of course, is the bomb attached to the underside of the wing by "suction pads". Wow, they must have been incredible to survive a 500mph jetstream......, which is where we came in.

It's not easy to catch up with this marvelous little film, but DO NOT pass up any chance you get. It's a real little gem, which manages to live up to some very high aspirations.A quick plot synopsis makes it sound very much like Airport, or The High and the Mighty, but Jet Storm is a very different type of film. It's not an adventure, or a soaper, or a suspenser. Although it does include a diverse group of passengers and a hidden bomb, it's not actually about whether the plane will be saved, or how. It's about how these people react to danger. And about how all of us SHOULD react to danger.The cast of familiar British actors does a superb job. Richard Attenborough shines in his portrayal of a weak, confused man, who's slipped over the brink of bitterness, depression and madness. Harry Secombe adds a contrastingly jovial note. And a young Paul Eddington (best known from the much later Yes, Minister series) is interesting as a not-very-admirable husband.We learn a lot about these various characters, but the real meat of the film is in how each of them reacts when faced with imminent danger and probable death. The film asks us not to worry so much about whether these people will die, but to consider how they choose to live. Do they meet fear and uncertainty with fortitude? Resourcefulness? Humor? Resignation? Or even indifference?The film shows us that some of these responses are clearly better than others. It demonstrates that the fear of disaster is far worse than the disaster itself. This message makes Jet Storm more relevant today than when it was made. We can see how much wiser things were in the 1950s. A psychopath would have been able to walk up and easily place a bomb on an airliner... but we didn't allow that remote possibility to dominate our lives.Jet Storm reminds us that risk is a part of life, but when we focus on that risk to the exclusion of everything else, we stop living. So while terrorism (of any sort) is sad, and crazy and reprehensible, giving in to terror is far more shameful.

Following the success of 'The League of Gentlemen', Dickie Attenborough began mobilising his own films and appeared in other films to raise the money to continue making his own (in the same way that Laurence Olivier was acting in films in order to finance his own stage productions at the National Theatre). This film is one of them.