| Zero Hour! | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Hall Bartlett |
| Screenplay by | Arthur Hailey Hall Bartlett John Champion |
| Based on | Flight into Danger 1956 teleplay onGeneral Motors Theatre by Arthur Hailey |
| Produced by | John C. Champion Hall Bartlett |
| Starring | Dana Andrews Linda Darnell Sterling Hayden |
| Narrated by | William Conrad |
| Cinematography | John F. Warren |
| Edited by | John C. Fuller |
| Music by | Ted Dale Arthur Hamilton |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 81 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $400,764.[1] or $650,000[2] |
Zero Hour! is a 1957 Americandrama film directed byHall Bartlett from a screenplay by Bartlett,Arthur Hailey, and John Champion. It starsDana Andrews,Linda Darnell, andSterling Hayden and featuresPeggy King,Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch,Geoffrey Toone, andJerry Paris in supporting roles. It was released byParamount Pictures.[3]
Zero Hour! was a remake of the Canadian television playFlight into Danger, and was, in turn, used as the basis for the 1980 parody filmAirplane!.
During the closing days of theSecond World War, six members of theRoyal Air Force fighter squadron led by Canadian pilot Ted Stryker are killed because of a command decision he made. Stryker blamed himself for that bad decision, falling into a deep sense of depression and anxiety which impeded his will to fly again. Years later, in civilian life inWinnipeg, Manitoba, a guilt-stricken Stryker goes through many jobs, and his marriage is in trouble.
Stryker finds a note at home: His wife Ellen has taken their young son Joey and is leaving him, flying toVancouver. He rushes toWinnipeg Airport to board the same flight, Cross-Canada Air Lines Flight 714, operated by aDouglas DC-4. He asks his wife for one last chance, but Ellen says that she can no longer love a man she does not respect.
Stewardess Janet Turner begins the meal service, offering meat or fish as the choices. When a number of passengers and the co-pilot begin feeling sick, a doctor aboard determines that the fish is the cause. The pilot also becomes seriously ill and cannot fly the airplane. Before he passes out, he turns on theautopilot.
The stewardess determines that Stryker is the only passenger with flying experience, but he has not flown in 10 years and has never piloted an aircraft of this size. Owing to dense fog, Flight 714 cannot land atCalgary or any other airport east of theCanadian Rockies, but must continue on to Vancouver.
Stryker's superior officer in the war, the tough-minded Captain Treleaven, is summoned toVancouver Airport. Treleaven blames Stryker for the wartime deaths and has no faith in him. He has no choice but to work with him, though, getting him familiarized with the airplane and teaching him how to land. Ellen joins her husband in the cockpit to handle the radio.
As they approach Vancouver, it is shrouded in fog. Treleaven orders him to circle, for hours if necessary, in the hope that it will lift, but Stryker decides to try to land immediately because passengers will die if they do not get medical treatment soon. Stryker makes a rough landing, but no passengers are injured. He has conquered his demons and regained the respect of both Ellen and Captain Treleaven.
Zero Hour! was an adaptation of Hailey's original 1956Canadian Broadcasting CorporationteleplayFlight into Danger, starringJames Doohan as George Spencer, the original name for the Stryker character.[4] Hailey also co-wrote a novel with John Castle based on the same plot titledFlight Into Danger: Runway Zero-Eight (1958), although this is based more closely on the television version than on the film.
Principal photography took place from May 8–28, 1957, with retakes on July 23–24, 1957. The primary filming location wasSanta Ana, California.[5] Nightclub and television performerPeggy King made her feature film debut inZero Hour!, recording the song "Zero Hour" forColumbia Records to coincide with the film's release.[1][Note 1]
John Ashley has a small role appearing on television as a pop star, although the vocals were provided by Duke Mitchell.[6]
The New York Times reviewerBosley Crowther calledZero Hour! an "exciting contemplation of a frightening adventure in the skies" based on a "good terse script ... Dana Andrews as the hero and Sterling Hayden as the captain are first-rate in these roles, keeping them hard and unrelenting."[7]Time, however, called the script a "bloopy inflation of a 1956 television show" and said its "moral struggle comes off fairly well, but the general situation is as patently contrived as one ofWalter Mitty's daydreams."[8]
In 1971, the film was remade as amade-for-television movie,Terror in the Sky, aMovie of the Week special withDoug McClure in the Ted Stryker role (renamed George Spencer, as in the original).[9]Zero Hour! was also used as the basis for the parody filmAirplane! (1980).[10]
Screenplay writer Hailey went on to write the popular 1968 novelAirport, which revisited the air disaster genre and led to afilm franchise that was also spoofed byAirplane! andits own sequel.