Geeeez, this was the first time I saw it, tonight on AMC. After all the big buildup for it...what a huge letdown. And 3 hours of it. It would have been better
to edit it down to about an hour. There is so much stuff in it that is not needed and just makes it drag out so long. All the background stuff on the people just seems wasted. And the landing....very little suspense there at all. No wonder Wayne had to be talked into doing it.
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5/10 is a very generous rating doc.
shareThe script is howlingly awful! Like it was its first time through the typewriter, at best.
shareVery true.
The characters are more childish than the actual child in the cast. (Who happened to be played by director Wellman's actual son).
Giggling and or crying full grown women over STUPID and nonsensical dialogue forced more than one out loud groan. Everyone, I mean EVERYONE of the secondary characters were embarrassing.
(Save for the ever professional Sterling and Trevor).
The honeymooning couple should have been slapped and the klutz wife and her loud mouth husband should have been thrown out just to spare us all.
I'm confident the film was sold by Wayne and one of the best scores written.
I don't think it's that bad. It's interesting just as a window into mid-century air travel. It's too slow and the suspense just kind of fizzles out, but I kinda liked it in spite of that. It could have been a lot better, but it was probably pretty cool to see on a big screen in 1954.
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