Wings of Danger

For the most part drab and talky, it shows evidence, however, of Hammer upgrading their product. This particularly shows in the female contingent with Diane Cilento receiving an 'Introducing' credit and the funniest line going to Kay Kendall: "It's your own fault. You shouldn't go around murdering people!"

"Dead on Course" is sort of like an American film noir movie but made in the UK. And, like many European films from the 1950s, they lured an American actor (Zachary Scott) to star in the film-- presumably to give the film greater international marketability. Unfortunately, it's still a relatively bland film.

Richard (Zachary Scott) is a pilot working for his small air transport company. His friend, Nick, knows Richard's secret--that he occasionally blacks out due to some old injury! So using this as leverage, Nick takes off in a plane during crappy weather---and the plane crashes. What follows is a dark story involving smugglers and Richard trying to sort out who his real friends are.

The best thing about this film is Zachary Scott and his dialog. It's pure noir--and works very well. But the rest of the cast all seem very dreary--with limp dialog and an almost complete lack of menace. Not terrible...just not all that interesting.

Maybe it could be a contradiction, but none Noir picture walks under 7 out 10, because this genre is quite unique, enough to be on high level taking account their greatness, in this American-British co-production they took the notable Zachary Scott to leading role, in my opinion Zachary is to Noir as Lee Van Cleef is to Western pictures, such similarity between them, the plot circles around a counterfeit money made somewhere at United Kingdom and smuggling through a small Air Cargo Line, which Van Ness ( Zachary Scott ) was in charge on the ground, after his closest friend a Company's pilot insist to fly under bad weather condition end up disappearing on storm, the police attachs him, track down his footsteps to finds a hint to links him with the his mastermind Boss, low bugde?? Quite sure!! Second class casting?? Perhaps!!! The plot has some flaws?? Very possible!!! Uninteresting ??? Absolutely not!!! even having a poor copy without restoration yet a great pleasure to watch!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

Zachary Scott stars with Robert Beatty and Kay Kendall in a 1952 British quota film, "Dead on Course."

During the '50s, many American actors went to Britain and made these films: Cesar Romero, Dane Clark, Dennis O'Keefe, and others. Some are better than others, but mostly, like this one, are fairly routine.

Scott plays Richard Van Ness, part of an airline service. His girlfriend's brother, Nick (Beatty) insists on flying in bad weather in order to deliver unimportant cargo.

Van Ness tries to ground him, but Nick threatens to tell their boss that Van Ness has intermittent blackouts, which will ground him.

Nick's plane crashes near the Channel Islands under odd circumstances. The police ask Van Ness for help, telling him of a smuggling operation that they've connected with the airline. Van Ness pays a visit to his boss' girlfriend (Kay Kendall) and acts interested in order to find out what he can.

One of the plot points seemed obvious from the beginning; it was just a feeling I had but somehow, it was telegraphed in the script.

The acting is so-so, with Robert Beatty quite charming and Kay Kendall a good femme fatale. Kendall was a rising star who married Rex Harrison after they did a play together in 1955; when he realized she was dying of leukemia, Harrison divorced his current wife, Lili Palmer, and married Kendall.

Kendall did not realize she was terminally ill. Their story was the basic plot for a Terence Rattigan play, "In Praise of Love," which Harrison did on Broadway with Julie Harris.

Zachary Scott said all of his lines in a very aggressive manner, absolutely no shading. I always liked him -- he was good as a sleaze, a weak man, a Henry Fonda-ish role in The Southerner - here he just seems hostile all the way through.

Just okay.

Another early Hammer studio film watched for context on the "House of Hammer" podcast. "Wings of Danger" was actually on a classic movies channel in the UK, so I didn't have to use YouTube this time. Unfortunately, it didn't help much with a film that I struggled to follow.

Richard Van Ness (Zachary Scott) loses his friend Nick Talbot (Robert Beatty) to a plane crash, when Talbot insisted on leaving and ignoring a weather warning. Confused as to why Talbot was so keen to leave, Van Ness begins to investigate his friend and discovers his part in smuggling organisation. With the customs officers involved, Van Ness tries to investigate the company he works for and convince them that he's not involved.

So, as I said above, I struggled with this film. Previously I may have struggled because of an issue with the audio recording, or film stock but here both those are decent. The performances are OK too, though I didn't ever feel I got a handle on the actual personality of the lead character Van Ness and that did mean I never really understood the motivations behind the character. For example, Talbot was supposed to be his friend but in their only scene together at the start of the movie, they're very antagonistic towards each other.

But it's the plot that I never actually got to grips with, perhaps on multiple viewings I would do but ultimately, I feel it's a film that suffers with a "show, don't tell" problem. I did get the basics of the plot; I don't put spoilers in my reviews, but I understand the twist and the reasons for it. I understood that the gay coded heavy, Snell, played by Harold Lang was not the brains of the operation but I honestly couldn't tell you how any of the other characters fit into it, or what the smuggling/counter fitting scam actually was.

If it was more interesting, I might be inspired to give it a few more watches to nail down that plot, but it isn't, so I'm not.