Il ritorno dell'assassino

During the 1950s, there were several very similar airplane disaster films that preceded the HUGE air disaster craze of the 1970s ("Airport", "Airport 1975" and several other spin-offs). "Zero Hour" (1958), "The High and the Mighty" (1954) as well as "Back from Eternity" (1956) are just a few of the films that preceded "Jet Over the Atlantic"--so this isn't exactly the most original of films. But, in spite of this, is it worth seeing?

The plot for "Jet Over the Atlantic" is completely ridiculous. First off, it's not a jet but a turboprop plane. Much crazier is that the plane is deliberately sabotaged by a crazy man on-board (George Macready) and the pilots are overwhelmed by fumes and there's only one man who can fly the plane...a convicted murderer (Guy Madison) who is being taken back to the States to be executed!!! Can it get any more ridiculous?! YES...waiting on the runway is a guy who can provide the killer an alibi and prove he didn't commit the killings!!!!

Despite being utterly ridiculous, the film is quite entertaining and well made. But at times, it seems a bit more like "Airplane" than "Airport"!

Barely worth a rating, due to a dreadful script, and some of the worst acting even allowing for the fact that it was made in the late Fifties. I came across this movie on TCM, and when I saw the names of George Raft and Ilona Massey, I knew it was probably going to be a disaster, but pressed on regardless. Although clearly designed as a B film, the plot was not all that bad, and a last chance opportunity for some oldies like Margaret Lindsay and George MacReady to get some work, but the Director blew it very badly. Raft was wooden as usual, Massey was quite pathetic, Virginia Mayo looked like she was regretting not being back at warner Brothers and Guy Madison was lost without his horse. I gave it a 2 mainly for the chance to see some old stars!

To start off with the title for Jet Over The Atlantic is completely a wrong one. The airliner that our passengers are taking from Madrid to New York is one of those old propeller type jobs. That's a harbinger for things to come with this film. A pity because if the producer, Benedict Bogeaus hadn't been so sloppy, he could have had a classic film on his hands.

George MacReady at his sinister best in this film is an English lord who is upset with his wife Anna Lee and decides to kill her. He puts a bomb in his luggage as the two of them are embarking on a transatlantic flight. Not an exploding bomb mind you, but a device that's an incendiary that sets the baggage section on fire and causes a noxious poison to seep through the plane's ventilation systems. Some on the plane seem to be more susceptible than others for no discernible reason.

Traveling on the plane is Guy Madison being extradited from Spain by FBI man George Raft. Guy's girlfriend Virginia Mayo is also on board as are a host of other passengers from all walks of life. Guy's a former pilot from the Korean War who was convicted wrongly of two murders and we see in the flashback he didn't do it. He's facing the death penalty with his return. But in an emergency, he's the only one on the plane who can help.

I don't think I have to tell you how this ends, but this was a sloppy B film with a lot of holes in the story and in the execution. It's a poor man's The High And The Mighty and it's harbinger of those Airport films to come.

The cast performs well enough and there certainly is a lot of tension in the air. Jet Over The Atlantic could have stood a lot of improvement though, starting with the title.

This airplane disaster film is not particularly well executed and has as hokey and predictable a plot line as you could find. It's strangely watchable, though, due to its cast of players, a fairly impressive one, even if there is no one within the cast that ranks as a major star.

Guy Madison plays a man convicted of two murders (he's innocent, of course) who is being taken back to the States from Spain by FBI man George Raft. Madison's show biz girlfriend (Virginia Mayo), not knowing what's happening, sneaks herself onto the plane as well. There is also an opera prima donna (Ilona Massey), who craves attention, Margaret Lindsay in an almost bit part as a mother escorting her teen daughter, and Argentina Brunetti as a bubble headed, irritating busybody who wants to stage a marriage on the plane between Madison and Mayo.

Best of all, though, there's George Macready, he of the silken voice and creepy demeanor, who has managed to sneak a poison seeping bomb on board, in a stupid way to commit suicide, as this poison will seep through the plane's air system to eventually kill everyone aboard. Macready has killed his daughter we hear through the dialogue (no explanation why) and is now determined to knock off himself and his wife (Anna Lee), along with everybody else.

The most unintentionally hilarious scene in the film is when Macready introduces himself to Lindsay and her teen daughter (who is afraid of the gas seeping in) and asks if he can hold her and comfort her. Now just how many mothers are going to allow a creepy looking stranger with a smooth pervert voice to hold their teenager daughter in his lap? Well Lindsay does smilingly ("Darling, this nice man wants to hold you for a little while,") and the young teenage girl agrees to do so, willingly.

This is a surprisingly entertaining one in spite of all of the nonsense, partially because it is so dumb and partially because of the cast trying to take it seriously. Oh, did I mention the fact that Madison just happens to be a former airline pilot? Now take a wild guess how that fact may work itself into the plot line.

Great shades of much later and better films on air disasters, one serious and one that is surely not serious. I know, stop calling you "surely".

Utterly preposterous low budget quasi-thriller with gaping plot holes and absurd actions but somehow still a fun view.

It's the very absurdity of the story, poison gas floating through the plane that only effects certain people, guns being shot off willy-nilly without regard to the fact that they are aboard a plane, that makes you suspend belief and enjoy it for what it is.

Very much akin to the mega popular The High and the Mighty of a few years previous, you can even hear echoes of the theme song throughout much of the film's musical score, but lacking both that film's budget and sonorous tone. One of the most jarring things is that with the plane practically falling to pieces as they fly along the passengers remain remarkably calm to the point of a feeling of inertia.

The cast like most of these rambling entertainments is composed of stars of various magnitude but none of the first rank with Virginia Mayo probably being the biggest name at the time of production. Following her is Guy Madison and theirs is really the only story with any sort of follow through cohesion. Everybody else pops in for a few minutes then disappear from the narrative either completely or for great periods. The most ignominious is probably Margaret Lindsay a busy leading lady in her Warners heyday stuck in a nothing nearly silent role. The most bizarre is Argentina Brunetti as a overbearing busybody who goes through the film with an idiotic smile plastered on her face.

Even with all its faults this is still more fun than suffering through many other more self important films. Something for a rainy afternoon.