The Flight That Disappeared

This independent film released by United Artists is a real sleeper It asks some thought provoking questions. The lack of name players in the cast makes it all the more real. That works many times in movies.

Flight That Disappeared starts out like a bargain basement The High And The Mighty. But among the passengers are scientists Craig Hill, Paula Raymond, and Dayton Lummis. Unexplainedly the propeller driven plane starts rising in altitude beyond what a jet rise to and in rocket ship territory and ground radar loses all communication.

When everyone loses consciousness the three scientists go before a celestial tribunal and are examined about a proposed super atomic bomb they are in the theoretical stage of development. It's quite intense.

The thought provocation comes here. Just what is the role of science and scientists in this world? Is making better weaponry its only purpose. What we do today has a bearing on the life our descendants. It's a representation of those descendants that is doing the examining of our three protagonists.

Production values Flight That Disappeared has not. But it has some great performances from the protagonists and the rest of the cast. This one should not be missed.

One question was there another tribunal called for some Soviet scientists?

A passenger plane runs into strange problems.

Sort of feels like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone (1959) or The Outer Limits (1963). And keep in mind this appeared long before the first Airport (1970) movie so back then in 1961 this probably seemed like a landmark flick!

Cast member Gregory Morton (The Examiner) would go on to voice two alien beings in TV's Lost in Space (see episodes Follow The Leader & The Prisoners Of Space).

I enjoyed the movie a lot but not everything about it totally clicks. But well worth a watch.

Little-known film about a cross-country flight that is transported to another dimension where time stands still. There are some scientists on board the flight that are responsible for building a new kind of nuclear weapon. They are put on trial in this other dimension by people from the future. It's a talky movie about ideas and Cold War fears that gets a little heavy-handed at times. The "logic" of the prosecutor is riddled with holes. The first half-hour is pretty dull before it slowly starts to pick up. Still, it's nearly an hour into the film before the trial starts. All of the characters are as exciting as cardboard. There are no big actors associated with this, though I did recognize a few faces. It's an interesting idea for a movie or even an episode of the Twilight Zone. I could see Rod Serling doing a lot with it. It's a slog to get through the buildup but the last 20-30 minutes is worth watching.

Remarkably talented unknowns present a potentially hokey story that, in fact, holds up.

In 1961 the threat of devastating nuclear war hung and/or was held over the heads of every resident of Earth. This script asked the question, How guilty are the scientists who help create the weaponry that can destroy the human race, and destroy the future of yet unborn humans?

Author Fredric Brown asked a similar question in his short-short story, "The Weapon," in a very small setting with only three people.

"Flight" has a large cast that presents what might seem to be another doomed airplane story, but that turns out to be the shell containing the setting for asking our question.

There is a science-fictiony feel to this story, but there is probably no other way to deal with the subject: WHO is guilty when the "ultimate weapon" is created? Bureaucrats who demand such a weapon? Military and political people who will be responsible for its use? Or the scientists who do the actual intellectual work of bringing it into existence?

The question is the same as that dealt with in the Brown short-short, and is still one, after 60 years, that needs answering. And needs dealing with even by us who are not in those three categories, but who supply the tax dollars and the cannon fodder for what might well be very short, but totally destructive, wars.

One complaint I have about this excellent motion picture: The cast members are so overwhelmingly capable and even talented, each and every one should be a household name -- but isn't.

A copy of "Flight" is at YouTube and I urge you to watch it.

This film will definitely remind you of a slightly longer Twilight Zone episode. It could be described as an interesting B movie, which would accompany a major film back in the old days. Nothing spectacular about this film, with its barely hidden moral message, but it was a pleasant enough viewing for the short time it was on.