La tragedia del Phoenix

A screen version of David Beaty's novel that like most films made sixty years ago looks better today than at the time, although the model work is a bit obvious. Made by Michael Balcon's company Bryanston, hence the job of directing it going to his former Ealing employee Charles Frend.

Both composer Gerard Schumann and cameraman Arthur Grant also did distinctive work in horror films (as did many of the cast, which includes Hammer Films' Holmes & Watson from 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'), while Tony award-winning dancer Elizabeth Seal plays her only ever film lead as Bernard Lee's daughter.

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.

This is quite a good movie with a cast of familiar faces (Peter Cushing, George Sanders, Gordon Jackson). The screenplay is based on David Beaty's novel which was inspired by actual events. In October 1952 one of BOAC's new Comet jetliners crashed at Rome Airport. The accident was due to a design error that allowed the pilot to raise the nose too high on take off and stall the airplane on the ground. The pilot was blamed for the crash and relegated to flying piston engined freighters. The following year another Comet, on a delivery flight to Canadian Pacific Airlines crashed on taking off from Karachi, Pakistan in identical circumstances. Following this accident, design modifications were made to the Comet to prevent further similar incidents.

The movie follows this scenario quite closely, except that Captain Gort, the pilot blamed for the crash (played by Bernard Lee), continues to fly the fictional "Phoenix" jets and subsequently dies in an identical accident. It is left to the Airline's initially sceptical training Captain (Michael Craig) and Captain Gort's daughter (Elizabeth Seal) to clear her father's name and get the airplane modified in the nick of time to prevent a third crash.

Although made on a smallish budget and with some model shots that look a little shaky today, this is a cut above the typical Hollywood airborne disaster epic. Little seen today, especially in it's original 'scope ratio, this deserves more recognition.

As a former BOAC pilot David Beaty certainly knew his stuff and must surely have been pleased with this adaptation of his novel.

Has the crash of a jetliner flown by Captain Gort in which a co-pilot is killed been caused by a design fault or pilot error? That is the question. Although the captain is hung out to dry by a clever lawyer representing the airline at the tribunal of investigation he is still allowed to fly. As the film progresses it becomes clear that the aircraft designer has not been entirely forthcoming......

Charles Frend is a capable, workmanlike director and has done a good job here with a limited budget and some excellent actors. This was made at a time when there was a wealth of first class English actors upon which to draw. Peter Cushing and Andre Morell were no strangers to each other and had recently played Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. I consider Morell to be a superlative Watson and arguably the best Quatermass. Here Cushing has the showiest part and exhibits his customary style. This film can only work of course if the character of Captain Gort is sympathetic and here the casting of Bernard Lee is inspired. He achieves so much by doing so little. George Sanders is as always immaculate and although he only has two scenes as the lawyer Sir Arnold, undoubtedly pocketed the biggest salary.

It comes as no surprise that the airborne scenes are the most effective and that in which Lee and his crew hit a freak hailstorm is especially gripping.

The culpability of a pilot for an airline disaster was to be depicted in Ralph Nelson's excellent 'Fate is the Hunter' of 1964. Whilst Frend's film has neither the production values nor the starry cast of the later film, it still manages in its own quiet way to pack quite a punch.

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.