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From my favorite movies..

A different way of telling a story

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

By 1957 standards, this is a rather exciting suspense film. Passengers often worry about what might go wrong when they board a plane. This movie captures those fears well, but it does not play to panic. The only real hysteria that is shown is when the jet crashes down and the lights go out. But we know Dana Andrews has landed the aircraft safely and the crisis has been magnificently averted. The writing for Zero Hour! is carefully laid out. The storytellers do not rush to get to the danger, and they do not hurry the ending, either. Of course, we know the passengers will survive, but the characters change in a life-threatening situation and rise to the occasion, and that is what makes the picture fascinating to watch. Mr. Andrews does particularly well as a haunted pilot who overcomes his demons, taking a flight into death back to life.

I think it is very difficult to give a fair review of this movie, as everybody knows it is the basis for the parody "Airplane!". I saw the similarities all the time, sometimes the dialogue was exactly the same for example, and it was impossible not to giggle - although this was of course not what the makers of "Zero Hour" had intended at all.What makes it even worse, is the dated style of most Hollywood movies from the 1950:s. The acting is too exaggerated, the dialogue is too dramatic and pompous, all the women are too young and pretty with perfect hair-styles and make-up at all times, and all the men too handsome and masculine with strong jaws and a cleft in their chins... It simply is not realistic. One cannot relate to it.And to the above, comes the difference between technical effects now and then: all the exterior scenes of the plane in the air, for example, were so obviously a small model plane hanging in threads and filmed against a back-drop...All these things make the movie look very silly today, and I am not surprised that there was a parody made of it! The bottom-line is that I cannot say this was a good movie, because it was not for ME, now, in 2012. If this is unfair against the makers of this movie, because they did the best they could with the technology available and the accepted acting style etc. of that era, it cannot be helped.

Nowadays, Hall Bartlett's "Zero Hour!" will probably only seem significant because it's the inspiration for "Airplane!". Indeed, some of the lines from "Airplane!" are lifted straight out of "Zero Hour!", except that the spoof expanded them. While watching the original, I kept throwing out lines from the spoof while expecting Leslie Nielsen to pop up and tell people not to call him Shirley.Anyway, this version casts Dana Andrews as the man who has to become the pilot, Linda Darnell as his estranged wife, Sterling Hayden as his former commanding officer, Elroy Hirsch as the pilot, Geoffrey Toone as the airplane doctor, Jerry Paris (Jerry Helper on "The Dick Van Dyke Show") as a passenger, and Peggy King as the flight attendant. Nothing special about the movie, but it's still pretty fun.So yes, Joey. Do you like movies about gladiators?

All I can say is, if you saw the comedy hit "Airplane," don't miss "Zero Hour!" on which much of "Airplane" was taken. Of course, this film was intended to be a drama. Thanks to "Airplane," it's almost as much of a comedy as its successor.I doubt "Zero Hour" was a major Hollywood release - it's an independent production in black and white, and by 1957, Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell were no longer the stars they once had been at Twentieth Century Fox. Both suffered from severe alcoholism, and Darnell additionally committed the mortal sin in Hollywood in those days of turning 30. The two play husband and wife, and you know the story - meat or fish? And don't say fish.I tried to decide if I would have liked this film on its own merits. I decided that it is over the top with some bad dialogue. The ending is suspenseful. The actors do what they can with some hokey moments.Surely, the writers could have come up with a better script. And don't call me Shirley.