Crash Landing

Oh how the mighty have fallen. And by mighty I mean Hollywood.

America used to be able to produce movies which were OK. Just search "ww2 instructional video" on YouTube and you'll find tons of good quality cinematographic material.

This movie comes from such an era. An era, when movies used to be well tailored and well crafted. This is down to the roots kind of thing. There is something romantic and mysterious about a commercial flight plane. A bunch of people stuck in limited space, fighting for survival under the leadership of the crew. This movie didn't capture it, this movie created the whole genre.

Crash Landing (1958)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Sam Katzman produced this Columbia "B" movie that's title pretty much tells you all you need to know. A plane loses a couple engines over the Atlantic on a trip from Lisbon to New York. The tough pilot (Gary Merrill) must decide to land and at what point would be best for survival. Before the landing can take place the film must flashback so that we can get to know the pilot as well as other passengers. The disaster genre has always been one of my favorites and this entry here is pretty cheap but in the end it's not too bad. No one is going to mistake this picture for one of the bigger entries like THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY but there's enough nice melodrama as well as suspense to make it worth viewing. Director Sears and producer Katzman worked quite a bit together during this period with the best known of their work being THE WEREWOLF and THE GIANT CLAW. This film has the same charm of those two as we get a pretty interesting story mixed together with cheap thrills. The outside shots of the plane make it look obviously fake and I'd almost put the quality of the shots on the same level as THE GIANT CLAW but thankfully those here aren't as ugly. The character drama isn't too bad as we get a nice performance from Merrill who really sinks his teeth into the tough-as-nails character. I thought he did a very good job at showing off the toughness of this character and sometimes you can't help but want to dislike him, although we do get a decent story of why he's this way. The other characters are pretty standard for this type of film as we have the chance lovers, a young boy with a dog, a preacher, a couple Navy guys and a couple beauty girls. None of the side stories are all that interesting but they make for some mild melodrama. What really makes the film work is what we came to see and that's the suspense built around the landing. The actual landing sequence doesn't look too realistic but the drama building up to it works extremely well and I must admit that I was surprised to see how well Sears handled it. Running a brief 76-minutes means we never get too much character development (a major problem with the films from the 70s) and we get to see Nancy Davis (Reagan) during a couple scenes as the pilot's wife.

A late 1950's not bad by-the-numbers plane in peril film. Captained by a stiff-necked pilot who raises his son like he's in the army. While struggling to keep the plane flying until they reach assistance he learns some tolerance and good parenting skills. The plane is filled with the usual stereotypical potential crash victims. A pretty OK time-passer. The Sony Pictures Collection DVD-R is very good quality. Recommended for fans of the genre.

Compared to the budgets he had at Monogram Sam Katzman must have thought he arrived in money heaven over at Columbia Pictures. Crash Landing is a dime store remake of The High And The Mighty with characters not half as interesting.

Gary Merrill is the martinet captain of the airplane who has a lot of issues, but does know his job. He's married to Nancy Reagan and we get treated to a rather pedestrian domestic disturbance between them and their son Kim Charney over him giving away his bicycle and then both of them lying and covering up the real story.

The passenger stories unlike in The High And The Mighty are just not that interesting, they're not developed at all.

What Crash Landing has going for it is the title itself which kind of gives away what's going to happen. Captain Merrill's airplane develops engine trouble and loses fuel. It will not make the completed run from Lisbon to New York and has to ditch in the mid Atlantic. It's a mighty big ocean and the race to see if rescue ships can be in the vicinity of where Merrill ditches. Those scenes are done well if on the cheap.

Crash Landing, a bargain basement The High And The Mighty.

This CRASH LANDING feature lives up to its title. The only fate for this movie is to crash, with Sam Katzman as producer and Fred Sears as director. Both men gave us acceptable film noirs and science fiction- CHICAGO SYNDICATE, INSIDE DETROIT, MIAMI EXPOSE, MIAMI STORY, EARTH VS FLYING SAUCERS.... But here, you already know what will happen, and if you already know AIRPORT movies made fifteen years later, I can advise you to do something else than to lose your time with this waste. However, if you are a Fred Sears hard boiled fan, OK, try it. However, I doubt there are plenty of Fred Sears' fans in the world. The latest's best stuff are the movies evoked above and CELL 2455 DEATH ROW. Forget the rest.