The Night My Number Came Up (1955)

The greatest movie ever made..!

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

THE NIGHT MY NUMBER CAME UP is a disaster film with a difference; it opens with Michael Hordern having a frightening dream, or perhaps a premonition, of a plane crash-landing on the north coast of Japan. The film that goes back in time to recount the events of a fateful trip, in which a motley group of passengers find themselves on a seemingly disaster-bound flight. This is a neat thriller which feels much like the FINAL DESTINATION of its day, although better plotted and acted. Michael Redgrave headlines the cast in a typically refined and likable performance, but nobody here puts a foot wrong, really, and all of the assembled actors give strong performances. It's one of those quiet suspense thrillers that nonetheless grips you from beginning to end, so that you're absolutely riveted come the inevitable climax. Another winner from Ealing, in other words.

Spotting a thread on IMDbs Classic Film board about movies that people wanted to see come out on DVD,I noticed a fellow IMDber mention a chiller by British film studio Ealing.Looking round for info about the title,I was caught by surprise,when I stumbled upon the movie.With having been in the mood for a slice of "Ealing Class" I decided that it was the perfect time for my numbers to come up.The plot:After arranging an trip to Tokyo, Air Marshal Hardie talks to Commander Lindsay at a party being held in Hong Kong.As they catch up on old times,Lindsay tells Hardie that he had a strange dream last night,which involved 8 people on a plane crashing to their death on a rocky shore.Pushing Lindsay to remember more details,Hardie is relieved to find out that Lindsay's nightmare plane crash involves a different model of plane to the one he will be on.Getting ready to fly off with 7 other passengers,Hardie is horrified to find out that the original plane has broken,with the only replacement being the plane that Lindsay dreamt of.As thunder clouds start to cover the plane,Hardie begins to fear that he is on his final destination.View on the film:Inspired by the remarkable true story of Sir Victor Goddard, (who was one of eight crew members who survived a crash landing on Sado Island, Japan,with the plane getting fixed by the crew working with Japanese villagers!) R.C. Sheriff's (who thanks to studio head Michael Balcon replaced writer Leslie Norman)adaptation of Victor Goddard's article keeps the movie limited to a handful of characters,which allows the viewer to become gripped in a tightly- coiled tension,as each passenger starts to fear that they are on the plane ride from hell.Whilst the screenplay sadly does not deliver the killer twist that it appears to be building towards,Sheriff brilliantly casts a rich atmosphere of terror across the screen,with Sheriff drawing firm thumbnail sketches of each passenger,who go from paranoid Air Marshal Hardie to straight-talking businessman Bennett.Despite his screenplay failing to fly,director Leslie Norman delivers his directing debut with flying colours.Keeping outdoor shots limited to a dozen well-designed model shots,Norman & cinematographer Lionel Banes trap the plane in a bubbling Film Noir Horror mood,by making every thunderstorm and shot of lightning against the passengers doom-laden faces.Capturing every twist of terror to capture the passengers,Norman & cinematographer Lionel Banes scan every corner of the plane with swift tracking shots,which reveal the isolated location that the Film Noir nightmare is unfolding in.Sending Hardie into a never ending nightmare, Michael Hordern gives a wonderfully gruff performance as Lindsay,who Hordern shows is completely unaffected by the reign of fear that he has unleashed.Sent into the dark sky, Michael Redgrave gives a fantastic performance as Air Marshal Hardie,thanks to Redgrave making Hardie's stiff upper lip crumble,to show Hardie as a nerve wrecked Film Noir shadow,as Hardie starts to see his number come up.

Nicely done tale of an RAF officer, Redgrave, who hears of a dream that the airplane on which he and some others are flying will crash in snow and darkness -- then watches as the mosaic falls into place.The airplane on which there are eight passengers and five crewmen -- with characteristics specified in the dream -- is a two-engine Douglas Dakota, also known as a DC3 or R4D or C47. They're marvelously "forgiving" airplanes, as pilots say, meaning that you can make all kinds of mistakes without their falling out of the sky. They're not big, they're not fast, but they're functional and versatile. I flew in one from Edwards Air Force Base to Rome, New York, sharing an oxygen mask with a more than ordinarily attractive Navy nurse who was my seat mate. An entirely pleasant trip.These guys aren't so lucky. The dream is spelled out to the Air Marshall (Redgrave) but except for a few details, it's murky, like most dreams. When the airplane leaves Hong Kong for Tokyo, with a layover in Okinawa, some of the circumstances don't fit. There's a pretty woman, for instance, as in the dream, and at the last minute the number of passengers climbs to eight, but there's no brash, vulgar man who will blow his cork at the last moment.Gradually, the circumstances change until they are identical to those of the dream, as if a crossword puzzle had been filled in. The tension builds neatly as the Dakota flies through thunderstorms, its radio fails, ice builds up on the leading edges of the wings, fuel runs low, darkness closes in, snow begins to fall, the steward tries to calm everyone, and Alexander Knox, who has never flown before, grits his teeth and squirms with anxiety. I know how he feels, having spent five minutes in a silent airplane before its coincidental meeting with the Atlantic Ocean. Take the train.There is a good deal of chat about the dream and whether or not it has any relation to actual future events. Knox is convinced it does. Redgrave and his aid (Eliot), are uncertain but believe it's best not to think about it. These conversations slow the movie down. We know more about dreams now than we did in 1955. They don't mean anything except that some of the more primitive structures of the mid brain are trying to figure out what memories to store and they're working at it like nobody's business. Psychologists find that the vast majority of dreams -- more than 70 percent, if I remember -- are pretty lousy. If I get chased through that bog by a man-eating ogre one more time, I don't know what I'll do. The remaining 20 or 30 percent of dreams are kind of fun, especially the sex ones, except when they drag in that mechanical horse.Best performance in the most complex role: Michael Redgrave. And Denhold Elliott as the RAF officer ready to pop is pretty good too. His wild eyes seem to glisten with fear and a hint of insanity. Knox is confined to a gloomy role and doesn't do much with it. Redgrave had an even better part in an enthralling dream movie, "Dead of Night."

This has to be one of the few films to address the philosophical concept of predestination versus free will. Made by Ealing Studios (better known for their comedies) it follows a motley group of military officers, civil servants and others who are flying in a small passenger plane from Hong Kong to Tokyo. The night before the flight a naval officer relates a dream he had in which their plane was lost over the sea and eventually crashed on the coast. At first the travellers are amused and rather sceptical, but as the circumstances alter: planes are changed, passengers added - in line with the dream - they become more and more nervous. Then the storm clouds close in.This has to be one of the better British films of the fifties, as director Leslie Norman nicely builds up the tension notch by notch, allowing occasional respite as the main characters deliberate on superstition and rationality, fate and predestination, the power of dreams. Michael Redgrave is all cool rationality, Denholm Elliot repressed anxiety, and Alexander Knox the sceptic who becomes increasingly unhinged by fear, then philosophically resigned to the inevitable. It's a welcome addition to the list that will never make it as an in-flight movie. If you're nervous about flying, don't watch it.