SOS Pacific

I saw this when I was about seven years old from the back of our car at a drive in movie. I thought it was a very exciting movie at the time but that was the only time I saw it, and would like to find a copy of it. I have not been able to find it in DVD or VHS yet, if anyone knows where it is available, please let me know. This movie has an Alfred Hitchcock feel to it, the suspense slowly builds to a climactic ending. I am surprised that it is not more well known as I have found few references to it on the internet. Most of the actors are not familiar to me except for Richard Attenborough whom I also enjoyed in "The Great Escape".

I most certainly agree with the reviewer who awarded the film a "10". It does, indeed, well deserve it.

It is one of the most underrated pictures around with good, strong performances, very taut direction by Guy Green, excellent photography by Wilkie Cooper and interesting locations in the Canary Islands. Also worthy of note is the music score which was by the great French composer, Georges Auric.

Just as good, of course, is the story. I wont, of course, give away its great plot but just simply advise people to see it whenever it turns up. I envy the person who bought it on ebay! I, too, hope he enjoys it. It's a must-see thriller of the first order.

A plane full of people encounters trouble in flight and is forced down in the Pacific. Thankfully they are near an island or not, since the island is due to have an atom bomb test go off in a very short time and they have no way of letting anyone know that they are there.

It may sound corny and contrived but this film just works from start to finish. Once the film is underway you just are happy to have a film this involving to drag you along for the 90 minutes that this film takes to get to the conclusion.Why this film isn't better known is mystery since it has everything that a mystery should in spades and then some.

The cast is great, including Richard Attenborough who plays one of the screens great slime balls.Eddie Constantine makes great hero and makes you wonder why he never became a bigger star here in the United States.

Search this film out, you will enjoy it.

SOS PACIFIC is a relatively low budget adventure film that takes place in the Pacific but was actually filmed in the Canary Islands. After a rather lengthy and complex set up, the viewer is introduced to a disparate group of characters whose light aircraft ditches in the sea leaving them in a battle for survival against the odds.

This is a film that's enlivened by a decent cast and an anything-goes plot which keeps twisting and turning all over the place. At first it feels like your usual crime thriller with smugglers, cops, and traitors thrown into the mix, and then it becomes your typical disaster film with survivors of a plane crash coming together. The final plot I won't spoil, but I wasn't expecting it and it's handled very well with a maximum of tension.

The film's protagonist is none other than the likable Eddie Constantine (The Long Good Friday), immensely charismatic throughout. Richard Attenborough has a really delicious part as a small-time crook and low life and he runs away with the mannerisms of his character. Pier Angeli and Eva Bartok supply the glamour, John Gregson is the pilot, and Hammer actor Clifford Evans the detective. None of them put a foot wrong. Director Guy Green had an interesting run of films ranging from the Hammer thriller THE SNORKEL to the Attenborough classic THE ANGRY SILENCE, and this is certainly a feather in his cap. The copy I saw on the Talking Pictures TV channel was badly colourised, and I think the black and white version would have been more effective.

Richard Attenborough is the big-name star of "SOS Pacific," and got the top billing for the film. And, which his character is particularly important for the plot, his role is about fourth or fifth in screen time. The main character and "hero" of this film is Mark Reisner, played by Eddie Constantine. And the female lead is Pier Angeli as Teresa.

This is an interesting film set somewhere in the Pacific Ocean but away from the Southern vacation and tourism islands. It's an interesting plot, and the only film I can think of that was made that had an aspect of the nuclear tests in the ocean. That's the best part of the film that take a considerable time to get to that point. But the buildup is necessary to give the audience the background on the characters. Unfortunately, that also seems quite slow after a while, and the early part doesn't have the better acting.

To say more about the plot would be to dampen the effect and enjoyment of this movie. It's worth seeing.