Cone of Silence

1960's "Trouble in the Sky" (British title "Cone of Silence") is an excellent airplane drama featuring as fine a cast as could be found in British films that year. At the center of it all is future 'M' in the James Bond series, Bernard Lee as Captain George Gort, who is found guilty of pilot error after a recent crash of the new Phoenix resulted in the death of his co-pilot. Captain Edward Manningham (Andre Morell) leaves Gort's fate in the judgment of examiner Hugh Dallas (Michael Craig), whose subsequent test is passed with flying colors, enabling Gort to continue his career, having logged more miles in the air than all the other pilots combined. One such pilot is Captain Clive Judd (Peter Cushing), who believes in Gort's guilt, conspiring to undermine him and have him reassigned to a ground position. Gort's rock solid convictions are so trustworthy that we too believe him to be innocent of any negligence, so it's quite a shock when similar circumstances result in an identical crash, this time killing the dedicated pilot. By now, Dallas too is convinced that the fault lies elsewhere, with the comeuppance of the arrogant Judd a key factor in finding the truth. Based on the actual 1953 case of the DeHavilland Comet, Britain's first passenger jet airliner, the remainder of the cast comes off like a Who's Who of vintage 60s cinema: Gordon Jackson, Charles Tingwell, Noel Willman, Marne Maitland, Jack Hedley, Charles Lloyd Pack, Anthony Newlands, Gerald Sim, and Geoffrey Bayldon. Of special mention is the supporting presence of George Sanders, coming off the heroic "Village of the Damned" and the villainous "Bluebeards Ten Honeymoons," here in more typical form as smarmy attorney Sir Arnold Hobbes, his damning courtroom highjinks convicting the innocent Gort. As for second-billed Peter Cushing, he makes just one appearance before the film's second half, beginning a string of nine consecutive non genre features in a failed effort to avoid the horror typecasting that Christopher Lee also feared.

Just as jet engine-powered aircraft were starting to take to the skies, veteran "Capt. Gort" (Bernard Lee) is involved in a near miss trying to take off in his new, state-of-the-art "Phoenix" aircraft. At the subsequent inquiry, he faces thinly veiled criticism from "Sir Arnold" (George Sanders) but is nonetheless cleared to keep flying by his senior colleague "Dallas" (Michael Craig). This earns both of them the chagrin of fellow pilot "Judd" (Peter Cushing) who's convinced of operator error and makes no bones about expressing his suspicions about "Gort" - especially when a landing at Calcutta reveals some foliage in the undercarriage. Thing is, both "Gort" and "Dallas" are convinced they are following the rules, to the letter, so what's wrong? When a tragedy ensues, the most convenient solution would seem to be to simply blame the pilot, but perhaps the foliage might reveal more clues as to what actually went wrong? There's a rather unnecessary romantic sub-plot with Craig and Elizabeth Seal's "Charlotte", but otherwise this is quite tautly directed thriller that uses some decent photography to illustrate the perils of the pilots and the claustrophobia of their tiny cockpits. The setting in India also presents us with an almost palpably hot and humid scenario for these airborne shenanigans. Cushing delivers best, I thought, as the man who comes across as jealous, or concerned, or ambitious or maybe all three? It's a simple story well acted and told and maybe isn't a film to watch if you have the slightest fear of flying (or, indeed, want one!).

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.

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.

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.