Atterraggio forzato

Very enjoyable and hilarious in places, although I'm not sure if that was always intentional!

An airplane flying over the Alps has engine trouble and has to land on a glacier. The radio is busted, so they can't tell folks where they are. The passengers and crew try to survive with dwindling supplies and little chance of being found. A fairly typical disaster film scenario where a cast of colourful characters including an actress, a boxer, an opera singer and a man in an iron lung face a crisis. The cast of British character actors unsurprisingly do a fairly good job with the formula.

Enjoyable retread of an archetypal situation generally traced back to 'Five Came Back' in 1939 and best known these days for 'The Flight of the Phoenix'. The British stiff upper lip isn't much in evidence as this lot squabble amongst each other on top of a mountain on which they've crashed in the Alps, which makes an interesting change. (Top-billed Phyllis Calvert also wears her hair far longer and looser in the early scenes than one is used to seeing air hostesses in the movies.)

A small plane crash lands in the snowy, desolate Alps. Luckily, the mostly British passengers and crew survive with nary a scratch. They don't even seem to mind the cold very much. Her fur coat keeps movie star Margot Grahame (as Joanna Dane) warm. But the lack of cigarettes, lipstick and record albums gets some passengers testy. Operatic voiced Francis L. Sullivan (as Perami) plays his surviving vinyl. How to get civilization to notice and rescue them becomes a major concern. Survival and self-sacrifice are themes. These are nicely evidenced by "iron lung" man Grey Blake (as John Barber). Pretty stewardess Phyllis Calvert (as Mary Johnstone) falls in love with heroic pilot James Donald (as Bill Haverton). Their "Broken Journey" is slow and uninvolved, but nicely edited.

***** Broken Journey (4/14/48) Ken Annakin ~ Phyllis Calvert, Margot Grahame, James Donald, Francis L. Sullivan

A plane crashes in the arctic and the film follows the efforts of the survivors to get rescued with a few casualties on the way. There is even a passenger in an iron lung!

The cast aren't worth mentioning because they are all interchangeable and it is impossible to identify with any of them. As regards the story, nothing really happens to hold the viewer's interest. You have to wait about 45 minutes before the first bit of action after the plane crashes. And this is what happens - some bloke slips off a ledge and doesn't fall very far. Then a bit of snow lands on his face. It's hilarious.

There is also a fault with the whole psychology of the film - most characters seem to be quite horrid to each other, when in reality they would all be pulling together.

It's a slow moving film, devoid of any tension or drama and it is just not quite interesting enough. "Five Came Back" from 1939 is a much better film about a plane crash and a group of survivors.