Forced landing ( eng. Crash Landing ) or Rescue at Sea ( eng. Rescue at Sea ) is a low-budget dramatic film “disaster” directed by Fred Sears, and the main roles in it were performed by Gary Merrill and Nancy Reagan (the future first lady of the United States ), and for the latter it was the last film, in the credits it was listed under the name of Nancy Davis . The film premiered on July 1, 1958 .
Emergency landing | |
---|---|
Crash landing | |
Genre | disaster , drama |
Producer | Fred F. Sears |
Producer | Sam Katzman |
Author script | Fred Freiberger |
In the main cast | Gary Merrill , Nancy Reagan , Irene Hervey , Roger smith |
Operator | Benjamin H. Klein |
Composer | Mikhail Bakaleynikov |
Film company | Clover Productions |
Duration | 76 min |
A country | USA |
Tongue | English |
Year | 1958 |
IMDb | ID 0051497 |
The plot tells of an airplane that had an emergency during flight across the ocean, leading to the need to perform a landing in the middle of the high seas; the story itself is based on a real incident that happened on October 16, 1956 with a Pan American Boeing 377 Stratocruiser .
Content
Story
Slogan : “This is the moment when 32 lives are exposed” ( Eng. 32 lives are laid bare )
The large four-engine propeller aircraft Douglas DC-7 of Transatlantic Airways airlines operates a trans-Atlantic flight 627 Lisbon - New York , and there are 32 people on board. The crew commander is Steve Williams - a former military pilot, a hero of World War II, but at the same time notorious among the rest of the crew, with whom he behaves quite powerfully. In addition, among the passengers is his wife Helen and his son, with whom Steve is also in conflict: the child traded the bike he hated for his favorite musical records, for which his father severely punished him, while the mother took the side of his son. Other people on board have problems. The recently widowed passenger Maurice Stanley from first class is trying to strike a relationship with Bernice Willuby, who suffers from aerophobia ; flight attendant Ann Thatcher doesn’t like the wooing of co-pilot John Smithback, and she barely tolerates him; businessmen Arthur White and Calvin Hevelick are partners, but they are in conflict because of different views on the conduct of business; Child Teddy Burton is worried about his dog in the load compartment [1] .
Suddenly, in the middle of the ocean, two engines fail at Douglas, while at one of them the propeller does not want to feather, and working in autorotation mode begins to slow down the plane. The crew understands that they will not be able to fly to New York and will have to get on the water. The American destroyer D 347 responded to the filed distress call and conducted exercises in the Atlantic, after which the airliner went to him. But once near the warship, Williams decides not to risk landing in the dark, but to hover over the water, waiting for the dawn. Until the morning they have a few hours during which people on board will have time to get to know each other better in an emergency, including Steve realizing that he was too harsh with the crew and family, businessmen finally settled the conflict, and flight attendant Thatcher would take a fresh look at Smithback pilot [1] [2] .
Cast
Actor | Role |
---|---|
Gary merrill | Commander (FAC) Steve Williams |
Nancy Reagan | Helen Williams wife of FAC |
Roger smith | co-pilot John Smithback |
Irene Hervey | Bernice Willubi |
Jewell lane | flight attendant Anne Thatcher |
Sheridan Comerate | flight engineer howard whitney |
Richard Newton | navigator Jed Sutton |
Beck Nelson | Nancy Arthur |
Celia Lovski | Mrs. Ortega |
Lewis Martin | Maurice Stanley |
Creation
The story of the splashdown of the Boeing 377 in the Pacific received a wide resonance, so the question of its screen adaptation soon arose. In the 1950s, disaster films only began to conquer the screen, including in 1957 the film Zero Hour was released. Director Fred Sears, in turn, was known for making films in a short time and for a small budget, so producer Sam Katsman entrusted him to create a film with a working title Salvation at Sea , and later the name would change to Forced Landing , since it was more like for comedy. The filming process itself was completed in just 10 days, but during the editing process director Fred Sears died on November 30, 1957, so the film was edited only in 1958 [1] .
The film was created during the Cold War, just at the height of the “ Satellite Crisis ”, so there are scenes in the plot that show the American military from the positive side: several military passengers, Commander Williams was a military pilot in the past (in the real case, the pilot flew civil aircraft), and the victim was assisted by the destroyer of the US Navy (in reality, it was the coast guard patrol ship) [1] .
The main events take place on the DC-7C, in the “role” of which XA-LOD (serial number 45129) took part in the Mexican airline Compañía Mexicana de Aviación , while the name of the airline was simply covered by a canvas; some of the close-up scenes show Douglas DC-6 of American Airlines and Western Airlines , and in the watering scene, the plane completely changes to Lockheed R6V Constitution . Instead of the Lisbon airport , the Hollywood airport was filmed in Burbank ( California ) [2] .
Cultural Aspects
The scene, where the passenger Stanley offers the passenger Willubi coffee, was subsequently parodied in the movie Airplane! .
See also
- " Miracle on the Hudson "
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 David Kalat. Articles: Crash Landing (1958 ) . Turner Classic Movies. The appeal date is April 27, 2018.
- ↑ 1 2 Christian Santoir. Crash landing (fr.) . Aeromovies - Films d'aviation (10 août 2012). The appeal date is April 27, 2018.
Links
- "Crash Landing" (English) on the Internet Movie Database