Forced Landing

On a flight from Los Angeles bound east, passenger Arthur Aylesworth is shot and the plane is forced down by a storm. The survivors take shelter in an isolated, closed hotel with the only link to the outside world a telegraph. As Onslow Stevens tries to figure out what's going on -- every passenger has a gun -- their stories come out.

I had trouble watching this talky movie due to a muffled sound track. Nonetheless, it seemed like a tightly knit little mystery, with an ambitious cast, including Esther Ralston, Sidney Blackmer, Toby Wing, Edward Nugent, Barbara Pepper, and Kane Richmond. All are competent performers, some of them fallen from stardom, some not having achieved it. I'd like to rate it higher, but that sound track.....

Not a bad little cast was assembled for this mid 30s Republic aviation programmer, but the far fetched plot setup of how these motley characters, stranded after their plane is forced to land, had previously been involved with each other, fails to sustain interest even through a short, barely over an hour, running time. But fans of old films will enjoy seeing: lovely silent star Esther Ralston as a cabaret singer, Sidney Blackmer as a gang leader, Toby Wing as a young fiancee, Eddie Nugent as the pilot, Barbara Pepper as the stewardess, Willard Robertson as the singer's lover and a number of others in smaller roles.