Pas d'escale pour le vol 06

Rod Serling, famous for "Twilight Zone," was one of the most gifted screenwriters in Hollywood. In addition to his two television series (the other the vastly underrated "Night Gallery"), he wrote the screenplays for classics such as "Seven Days in May" and "Planet of the Apes." His talent is undeniable and Serling deservedly is a legend.

"The Doomsday Flight" has the trademark Serling creepiness. Edmond O'Brien, another tremendously underrated Hollywood talent, carries the film with an eccentric but oddly winning performance of a man living on the edge. The cast is loaded with familiar faces such as Edward Asner, John Saxon, and Jack Lord, but O'Brien provides the tension this kind of film badly needs.

Serling was something of an authority on airplanes. His older brother, Robert, was an esteemed aviation writer, and Serling himself was a paratrooper during World War II. So, he knew a lot about the aviation industry and the gaps in its security.

The plot here is simple. A man places a bomb on a passenger plane (a fictional Boeing 797). It is set to activate when the plane ascends to a certain height, then detonate when it descends below that altitude. The plot is thus somewhat similar to that of Sandra Bullock's "Speed."

The performances are gripping, especially for a television movie. Van Johnson as the pilot and Lord as a troubled FBI agent. The direction by William Graham is outstanding for a film of this type, and overall it is a quality production.

There's a fatal problem with the script, however. Serling obviously knew all about pressure-sensitive detonators. They were developed during World War II for military applications. Such detonators do, as the script points out, detonate on air pressure changes at specific altitudes. So, when a plane reaches a certain altitude, they do intend blow up. The "arm after reaching the altitude and then detonate on the way down" is a minor complication.

The problem with the script is that the pressure doesn't change in modern passenger aircraft. The cabins are pressurized. In fact, the cargo holds are pressurized, too. Pressure-activated detonators may work on World War II aircraft that weren't pressurized, but they wouldn't work on a "Boring 797" because the pressure inside the aircraft doesn't reflect the outside air pressure. Even if the cargo hold were not pressurized, there would be no way for the airplane crew to disarm the bomb because access to the cargo hold from the main cabin is impossible - so a ransom threat wouldn't work. Serling undoubtedly knew all that, but figured the audience wouldn't - and, undoubtedly, he was correct.

Anyway, a well-made production that undoubtedly influenced the later "Airport" which began the entire "disaster film" craze of the 1970s (and there are some nice explosions in this film). Worth a watch, just try not to think too much about it.

I can only imagine how ticked off every cast and crew member of The Doomsday Flight was when Airport came out on the big screen four years later. It's practically the same! There's a middle-aged desperate man (sorry fellas) who plants a bomb on a passenger aircraft, special agents working with the pilot of the plane to try and bring about a safe landing, and a little old lady who acts silly. Writer Rod Serling must have been very frustrated.

Yes, this is a tv movie and you can tell. The production values aren't that great, and the script is more than a little melodramatic; but wasn't Airport melodramatic too? I was pretty impressed with Edmund O'Brien's paranoid performance as the psychotic bomber. Normally I never thought he added anything to his character roles, but he was energetic, confident (in his acting abilities, not as his character), and ate up every scene he was given. Van Johnson was believable as a flyboy captain who didn't want to alarm the passengers, but he might have cringed off-camera at some of the corny lines he had to say.

Most modern audiences probably won't like this movie. It's too dated, and there have been so many far superior disaster movies made throughout the decades. But if you're that person who likes watching the original versions of things, you might want to pop this one in for a matinee.

Rod Serling was not afraid to mix it up with Alfred Hitchcock when it came to creating suspense. Both were masters of the genre. However, in this film, Serling shows that he can rise to the occasion for the big screen with The Doomsday Flight. The story of a man holding an airline ransom for a bomb he has planted is compelling. The quality here is in the writing; the script and storyline are impeccable. Edmond O'Brien gives a performance highly reminiscent of Burgess Meredith (looks and sounds just like him) and does a great job as psycho man. The supporting cast is fine as well. Recommended.

This is an all time classic in the thriller genre and perhaps the best air flight thriller ever made, although films on this matter tend to always be superb. It's difficult not to make an air flight exciting, especially under a bomb threat. The bomb man here isn't just anyone but Edmond O'Brien in one of his most unforgettable characters, a man at the end of his tether, disqualified, calling himself both a chemist and engineer but reduced to a mechanic, and he sets about for a joy ride that will be his last, although staying on the ground, but he sure will have his kicks out of it.

The second gang leader of the plot here is Van Johnson in also one of his most remarkable characters, although he always makes an impression by highly sustained and sorely tried characters, and here he is in charge of a flight that can't get down. It is doomed to remain hanging in the air forever, reduced to atoms on the way.

But things are happening that neither the bomb man nor the flight captain have no idea of, no control of and totally beyond their wildest imagination. There are many memorable scenes here, but everything is perfectly credible and genuine, the reactions, the individuals, the veteran from Vietnam and the change he is going through although a nervous wreck, the struggle of the personnel, everything is perfectly realistic.

My favourtite scene must though be the long drama at the bar, which never ends and constantly goes from one lucid moment to another. In brief, it's a wonderful film, gilded all the way by a splendid dialogue, - and what fun Edmond O'Brien must have had in making this part!

51 years since it was made and very current. And well done. In fact, any film with Lalo Schifrin's music deserves a view. Schifrin is a living legend, has signed a lot of masterpieces such as "Mission: Impossible" (1966-1973), "Mannix" (1967-1975), "Dirty Harry" (1971), "Magnum Force"(1973), "Charley Varrick"(1973), "Joe Kid"(1972), "THX 1138"(1971), "Kelly's Heroes" (1968), "Once a Thief "(1965), "The Cincinnati Kid"(1965), "Cool Hand Luke"(1967), "Coogan's Bluff"(1968), etc. etc., 212 credits in 2018. William A. Graham was a very good and prolific director, an action and suspense films specialist. The cast includes many great actors: Edmond O'Brien, very good in the role of the bomb maker who place it where nobody not even think it can be, Van Johnson, as the captain of the plane, Edward Asner, John Saxon, Jack Lord, Michael Sarrazin, etc.