SOS Pacific

I saw this when I was about seven years old from the back of our car at a drive in movie. I thought it was a very exciting movie at the time but that was the only time I saw it, and would like to find a copy of it. I have not been able to find it in DVD or VHS yet, if anyone knows where it is available, please let me know. This movie has an Alfred Hitchcock feel to it, the suspense slowly builds to a climactic ending. I am surprised that it is not more well known as I have found few references to it on the internet. Most of the actors are not familiar to me except for Richard Attenborough whom I also enjoyed in "The Great Escape".

SOS Pacific is directed by Guy Green and adapted to screenplay by Robert Westerby from a story by Gilbert Travers Thomas and Bryan Forbes inputs additional dialogue and scenes. It stars Richard Attenborough, Pier Angeli, Eddie Constantine, John Gregson, Eva Bartok, Gunnar Möller, Clifford Evans, Jean Anderson, Harold Kasket and Cec Linder. Music is by Georges Auric and cinematography by Wilkie Cooper.

When a flying boat encounters mid-air troubles it has to emergency land near an island in the Pacific. Apparently uninhabited, the island, as the survivors are soon to find out, has something shocking in store for all.

A little British cracker, SOS Pacific might be out dated now with its big reveal of theme, but it's a perfect example of how to make a tight thriller on a modest budget. It's very much a film of two halves. The first half plays out as a disaster movie, here we are introduced to the folk who will ultimately make up the survivors on the island. It's a roll call of stock formula characters; a tough copper and his cheeky but hero-in-waiting prisoner, a good time girl, the weasel loose cannon who is also an informer, a prim and proper lady, a German physicist, the stoic and beautiful stewardess and the pilot with a drink problem! Familiar characters to a degree, but well blended and fleshed out by the astute Guy Green (A Patch of Blue) who deftly piles tension on top of tension with each passage of story.

After the back stories involve us we then get the mid-air dramatics and the surprise that's awaiting us all on the island. Once there the characters shift in tone, they have to for various reasons, and then we are treated to heroics, suspicions, sacrifices, fights, hysteria and a thrilling "ticking clock" type finale. Wilkie Cooper's (I See A Dark Stranger/Green For Danger) black and white photography accentuates the sweaty atmospheric mood, and Auric (The Innocents) scores it in 2 x 2 thriller/drama fashion. Cast performances are uniformly good, with the stand outs being Constantine who makes for a good Bondian type alpha male, Attenborough a telling slime-ball and the gorgeous Angeli as the pivotal lady of the piece.

Some of the dialogue is twee and the model work is not high grade stuff, while unlikely coincidences are evident throughout, but this is definitely worth seeking out by anyone interested in tight and taut British thrillers. 7.5/10

A plane full of people encounters trouble in flight and is forced down in the Pacific. Thankfully they are near an island or not, since the island is due to have an atom bomb test go off in a very short time and they have no way of letting anyone know that they are there.

It may sound corny and contrived but this film just works from start to finish. Once the film is underway you just are happy to have a film this involving to drag you along for the 90 minutes that this film takes to get to the conclusion.Why this film isn't better known is mystery since it has everything that a mystery should in spades and then some.

The cast is great, including Richard Attenborough who plays one of the screens great slime balls.Eddie Constantine makes great hero and makes you wonder why he never became a bigger star here in the United States.

Search this film out, you will enjoy it.

Eddie Constantine, American expatriate actor who was a star in French cinema is the hero of SOS Pacific. He's a prisoner in the custody of Clifford Evans when the plane they are on goes down in the Pacific.

The survivors make it to an island but the island is the site of an atomic test. And none of these people would even know how to stop a test if they could. Which is the main weakness of the plot.

Stlll this is an exciting adventure saga and it boasts a really good performance by Richard Attenborough as the sniveling rat coward who puts them all in danger. He also ratted out Constantine on a smuggling rap so Constantine has a personal score to settle.

The whole cast is excellent, but pay close attention to Attenborough. One of the sleaziest most cowardly performances you'll ever see.

I most certainly agree with the reviewer who awarded the film a "10". It does, indeed, well deserve it.

It is one of the most underrated pictures around with good, strong performances, very taut direction by Guy Green, excellent photography by Wilkie Cooper and interesting locations in the Canary Islands. Also worthy of note is the music score which was by the great French composer, Georges Auric.

Just as good, of course, is the story. I wont, of course, give away its great plot but just simply advise people to see it whenever it turns up. I envy the person who bought it on ebay! I, too, hope he enjoys it. It's a must-see thriller of the first order.