Cone of Silence

I haven't seen this film for years, which is a pity because all i remember are a few powerful scenes thanks to the very impressive cast. Based on true events, but subtly changed to avoid law-suits, its actually a compelling little drama, a shame it hasn't been shown more often. The story on which it is based, the KNOWN Design Flaws in the Comet which were Covered up by the De Havilland company, and the subsequent "sacrifice" of an entire airline and its passengers in Italy, is actually screaming out to be remade! In this case, the truth is far worse than fiction...in the film, decent noble people save the day, in the reality alas...less noble and darker motives won...and people died needlessly. The performances in this little melodrama were so good, i actually remembered this film for at least 25 years...thats when i last saw it i think..well worth catching.

Top pilot Bernard Lee is being investigated after his plane crashed killing his co-pilot. Flight trainer Michael Craig, falling for Lee's daughter, starts to question what really happened.

Very stiff upper lip British fare maybe a little stilted, but is nonetheless quite exciting with plenty of twists and turns and is well played by a strong cast - pretty much every face is familiar. Definitely good afternoon matinee viewing.

1960's "Trouble in the Sky" (British title "Cone of Silence") is an excellent airplane drama featuring as fine a cast as could be found in British films that year. At the center of it all is future 'M' in the James Bond series, Bernard Lee as Captain George Gort, who is found guilty of pilot error after a recent crash of the new Phoenix resulted in the death of his co-pilot. Captain Edward Manningham (Andre Morell) leaves Gort's fate in the judgment of examiner Hugh Dallas (Michael Craig), whose subsequent test is passed with flying colors, enabling Gort to continue his career, having logged more miles in the air than all the other pilots combined. One such pilot is Captain Clive Judd (Peter Cushing), who believes in Gort's guilt, conspiring to undermine him and have him reassigned to a ground position. Gort's rock solid convictions are so trustworthy that we too believe him to be innocent of any negligence, so it's quite a shock when similar circumstances result in an identical crash, this time killing the dedicated pilot. By now, Dallas too is convinced that the fault lies elsewhere, with the comeuppance of the arrogant Judd a key factor in finding the truth. Based on the actual 1953 case of the DeHavilland Comet, Britain's first passenger jet airliner, the remainder of the cast comes off like a Who's Who of vintage 60s cinema: Gordon Jackson, Charles Tingwell, Noel Willman, Marne Maitland, Jack Hedley, Charles Lloyd Pack, Anthony Newlands, Gerald Sim, and Geoffrey Bayldon. Of special mention is the supporting presence of George Sanders, coming off the heroic "Village of the Damned" and the villainous "Bluebeards Ten Honeymoons," here in more typical form as smarmy attorney Sir Arnold Hobbes, his damning courtroom highjinks convicting the innocent Gort. As for second-billed Peter Cushing, he makes just one appearance before the film's second half, beginning a string of nine consecutive non genre features in a failed effort to avoid the horror typecasting that Christopher Lee also feared.

Just as jet engine-powered aircraft were starting to take to the skies, veteran "Capt. Gort" (Bernard Lee) is involved in a near miss trying to take off in his new, state-of-the-art "Phoenix" aircraft. At the subsequent inquiry, he faces thinly veiled criticism from "Sir Arnold" (George Sanders) but is nonetheless cleared to keep flying by his senior colleague "Dallas" (Michael Craig). This earns both of them the chagrin of fellow pilot "Judd" (Peter Cushing) who's convinced of operator error and makes no bones about expressing his suspicions about "Gort" - especially when a landing at Calcutta reveals some foliage in the undercarriage. Thing is, both "Gort" and "Dallas" are convinced they are following the rules, to the letter, so what's wrong? When a tragedy ensues, the most convenient solution would seem to be to simply blame the pilot, but perhaps the foliage might reveal more clues as to what actually went wrong? There's a rather unnecessary romantic sub-plot with Craig and Elizabeth Seal's "Charlotte", but otherwise this is quite tautly directed thriller that uses some decent photography to illustrate the perils of the pilots and the claustrophobia of their tiny cockpits. The setting in India also presents us with an almost palpably hot and humid scenario for these airborne shenanigans. Cushing delivers best, I thought, as the man who comes across as jealous, or concerned, or ambitious or maybe all three? It's a simple story well acted and told and maybe isn't a film to watch if you have the slightest fear of flying (or, indeed, want one!).

Airline pilot Bernard Lee is downgraded for 'pilot error', and eventually reinstated at full rating. His daughter, Elizabeth Seal, knows him for a by-the-book sort of man and puts a bug in the ear of pilot tester Michael Craig. He begins to suspect that the problem lies not in the pilot, but in the new jet plane; the company that manufactures it prefers to blame the man, rather than lose out in a hotly contested, lucrative market.

The movie is suggested by some issues in the De Havilland comet, the first commercial jet liner, in the early 1950s. Jet aviation was a hot topic for the movies, and NO HIGHWAYS IN THE SKY was on the film makers' minds as a likely model. All of the pilots start out being by-the-book, but their individual characters, both as men and pilots, come gradually to the fore, with Gordon Jackson (whose character is called, ineviltably, 'Jock') speaking offhandedly of instinct. In the meantime, we are confronted by everyone except Craif and Miss Seal, being walking avatars of professional probity, from George Sanders, who asks the correct questions at hearings, to Peter Cushing , who demands a retest of Lee .... and who is shocked to learn that he may have been guilty of a near-accident .... missed, like many, it is suggested, by sheer luck.

It's interesting to see in the cast so many actors who spent their careers playing villains. Instead they are tightly repressed. It's an interesting, coolly intellectualized movie that pits man and experience against the sleek, mechanized world we were moving into in the 1950s. The only strike against it is its lack of overt excitement around a now outmoded tecnology. Perhaps the modern audience would find it as relevant as a movie about steam automobiles that keep exploding. On the other hand, recent news about the Boeing 737 may make it telling.