Watch Seven Days to Noon For Free

Redundant and unnecessary.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

More than one movie was made along the lines of this plot – a scientist decides to turn a deadly weapon against the government or society. I recall at least two others, and each of those lead characters had slightly different reasons. "Seven Days to Noon" may have been the first among the number of films of this nature. But, whether it is or not, this is one tremendous movie. The mystery and intrigue are not something that slowly must be unraveled in this film. They soon become clear. Rather, this movie is made to perfection in the way that it builds suspense and takes the audience along for the ride as Scotland Yard purses the culprit. Will they find Professor Willingdon in time? Will they be able to stop his destruction of a huge area of London radiating (no pun intended) out from the seat of government at Westminster Palace?The plot is superb and one can see why the film won the Oscar for best writing of a motion picture story. But the details of camera work, direction, shooting and other technical aspects are all superb in this film. The acting is top notch as well. The film also shows a well- ordered plan for evacuating London with a few days' notice. In true British stiff upper lip fashion, no one panics. One is tempted to imagine a similar film being made in Los Angeles that likely would show hordes of fleeing, screaming people. This is a very fine movie of suspense, human drama, and detailed police work. The script isn't filled with memorable lines, but I did catch one. Scotland Yard Superintendent Folland (Andre Morell) and the professor's assistant, Stephen Lane (Hugh Cross) are riding in a police car, talking about the professor. Folland says, "Repressing of fear is like trying to hold down the lid of a boiling kettle. Something's got to give eventually."The film also gives a look at some lesser-known but very good performers from early English filmdom. Olive Sloane is very good as Goldie. A younger Joan Hickson is very good as the chain-smoking, nervous landlady, Mrs. Peckett. Audiences everywhere would know her later for her portrayal in many films as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. And, Ronald Adam plays the prime minister here – a type of role he filled in many of his later films and in TV series. This is a fine first-rate production that most people should enjoy.

On first seeing this movie in the late 50's, one bomb in a guy's suitcase seemed mild since millions like me were facing full-scale nuclear war from the skies at any moment. At least this anguished soul (Jones) gives a week's warning. Now, of course, the baggage-check bomb looks suddenly prophetic and much scarier. One question to ponder is the logic behind the professor's threat. It's strictly utilitarian—better to lose a few million people than a few billion! After all, that same utilitarian calculus is typically used in wartime without controversy. Just how crazy, then, is this guy. Note that the screenplay avoids mention of this sort of irony or the question of its rationality.It's a tense film, but a curiously unemotional one, considering what's at stake. Perhaps it's the British tradition of stiff upper lip, or maybe the movie functions as an entertaining training film on how people should act during evacuation. But whatever the reason, no one gets very excited despite the apocalyptic threat. I suspect a Hollywood version would behave quite differently. At the same time, as someone who's never been to London, I enjoyed seeing the sights. And since many appear to be landmarks, likely the decades haven't changed much. Anyway, this has to be one of the few films on record to actually gain topicality after a 60- year passage and is well worth catching up with.(In passing— The 49th Man (1953) is the only Hollywood period film I know of dealing with the threat of a suitcase bomb. There, it's foreign agents smuggling A-bomb parts into US for later use. It might be helpful to point out that Soviet aviation was still a year away from a long-range delivery system.)

I was a child in Chelsea, London in 1950 so the scenes of this movie are somewhat familiar to me. I have always liked older British thrillers because they were all made with no nonsense or fat. This movie is another example of that. My complaint with modern British thrillers is that they are full of coarse language, as though this is the common currency in the UK. We don't hear one such word in this fine movie. I would show this to my young son when he gets to be 10.It is wonder to me that the makers were able to show many scenes of London, including a portion of Trafalgar Square as unoccupied by anyone. The characterizations were very good and the movie had a lot of suspense. I thought the professor was very agile to climb out of a back window, and then over walls. I know I would have a hard time doing that. I watch a lot of movies so I am trying to understand how I missed this one. If you want a sensible, suspense-filled, well-thought out film you would do well by watching this movie.

I'm not a big fan of "the people will panic..." films, so prevalent in the 50's. This film conveys a similar message, but manages to do so in a wonderfully understated manner. We see the British going on with life despite the undercurrent of menace. People going to work, dining, drinking, an unintentional precursor of New York after 9/11.A counterpoint to the plot, and in many ways the strongest element of the film, we have these extraordinary images of London, still laden with the ruins of the "Blitz"...bricks, rubble, vacant lots.An earlier comment spoke of the professor's moral dilemma. He is reproached for his willingness to let millions of average citizens pay the price for his conscience. Certainly, other, less fanatical means were available. Ultimately, we see him less as an ethicist but more of a quiet man of genius driven to madness. It is clear, from his actions, that to him, the lives of others are a mere abstraction.Of special note to me, are the glimpses of soldiers sent on a life-or-death mission, acting not as robots, but as very fallible men, taking a drink, a cigarette or skipping a flat. In essence, human.Most striking of all are the views of a deserted London. Eerie, silent, devoid of humans, but chilling. This is a memorable film for its cinematography, its slices of life, and mostly because it cares about people.