James Stewart is an eccentric scientist who is making stress tests on the tail of a new fleet of airplanes. He thinks they’re going to break apart. The movie is based on the 1948 novel by Nevil Shute. In 1957 he wrote the classic “On The Beach.”
In London, Dr.Theodore Honey (James Stewart) is running vibrations tests on the tail of the new Reindeer line of planes. He’s convinced that after 1400 hours in the air it’ll break apart. Honey is a widower with a twelve year old daughter, Elspeth (Janette Scott).
His new boss is Dennis Scott (Jack Hawkins). He runs into a friend who is a pilot and finds out about a plane crash in Labrador. Honey thinks it may be because of the tail breaking off. He goes to Labrador to investigate.
Finding out he’s a scientist a friendly stewardess, Marjorie Corder (Glynis Johns) offers him a tour of the plane. In the cockpit he finds out the plane has a total of 1422 air hours. He thinks it’s going to crash. The pilot agrees to radio London and tell them what he said.
One of the passengers is actress Monica Teasdale (Marlene Dietrich). He tells her what he thinks will happen and then relates the safest place in the plane is the floor of the men’s room. He says he picked her out to tell because he and his wife saw one of her pictures just before she died. His wife really liked it and that made him glad.
Marjorie tries to keep him calm and the plane does an emergency landing in Gander. The pilot says an inspection will be performed. He tells Honey he’s not welcomed back on board and will inform all the other pilots about what he’s been saying.
The plane passes inspection and is going to take off again. Honey goes into the cockpit and takes matters into his own hands. Now he’s branded a lunatic.
Back in London Marjorie moves into his house before her next flight and looks after Elspeth. Can Honey vindicate himself?
It’s a good drama that avoids being soapy and is well worth seeing.
