Showing posts with label trouble in the sky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trouble in the sky. Show all posts

Wednesday 8 April 2020

CONE OF SILENCE : PCASUK FACEBOOK WATCH PARTY NOW LIVE!


PCASUK #WATCHPARTY! FOR A BUDGET of just £139,360 about £3,400.00 today, Aubrey Baring Productions got a LOT of film for their money, plus a very good cast! 'Cone of Silence' aka 'Trouble In The Sky', currently LIVE at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE as our latest 'Watch-Party' post,  is a 1960 British drama film that was directed by Charles Frend and starred Michael Craig, Peter Cushing, George Sanders, and Bernard Lee. Quite a big step away from what had occupied Cushing for the past four years at Hammer films, the role of Captain Clive Judd, gives us a view of his range we had not see for sometime. The story centres around an investigation into a series of crashes involving the fictional 'Atlas Aviation Phoenix' jetliner


SHOT AT SHEPPERTON STUDIOS, budget constraints led to the production using some miniatures to depict airfields and aircraft, although principal photography took place at Filton Airport in North Bristol, UK with the cooperation of the Bristol Siddeley Engines Ltd. 'Cone of Silence' is loosely based on 1952 plane crash in Rome and subsequent investigations into the structural integrity of the de Havilland Comet airliner. . and how even the highest skilled of people can sometimes get it all very wrong! Still awaiting a blu ray release, this is a film that would look quite special in monochrome. . . as would many of Cushing's black and white feature films from this period... and why the recent Indicator blu ray release of 'Time Without Pity' looks so impressive! 😀 - Marcus

Saturday 17 March 2012

PETER CUSHING: 'CONE OF SILENCE' / 'TROUBLE IN THE SKY' REVIEW AND GALLERY




CAST:
Michael Craig: Capt. Hugh Dallas. Peter Cushing: Capt. Clive Judd. Bernard Lee: Capt. George Gort Elizabeth Seal: Charlotte Gort .George Sanders: Sir Arnold Hobbes. Andre Morell: Capt. Edward Manningham. Gordon Jackson: Capt. Bateson. Charles Tingwell: Capt. Braddock. Noel Willman: Nigel Pickering.  Delphi Lawrence: Joyce Mitchell. Marne Maitland: Mr. Robinson. William Abney: First Officer Jack Hedley: First Officer. Simon Lack: Navigator. Hedger Wallace: Navigator. Charles Mylne: Steward Howard Pays: Steward. Ballard Berkeley: Commissioner. Charles Lloyd Pack: Commissioner Homi Bode: Controller. Anthony Newlands: Controller.

PRODUCTION CREW:
Director: Charles Frend. Script:  Robert Westerby, based on the novel Cone of Silence by David Beaty. Producer: Aubrey Baring. Cinematographer: Arthur Grant. Editor: Max Benedict. Art Direction: Wilfred Shingleton: Music Director: Gerard Schurmann: Make Up:  Freddie Williamson.


COMMENTARY AND REVIEW:
After his unforgettable second turn as Van Helsing in Hammer’s BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960), cinema icon Peter Cushing strayed from appearing in horror films for a period of a few years. This was on the suggestion of his wife, who feared that his further typecasting in these kinds of pictures was inevitable (he would of course return soon enough to his most famous role of The Baron in EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN), and ultimately it was. Rarely seen, TROUBLE IN THE SKY (aka CONE OF SILENCE) is one of the first of his non-genre efforts from this period, and its supporting cast plays like a “who’s who” of Hammer Films thespians.


Veteran British pilot Captain George Gort (Bernard Lee, several years before immortalization as “M” in the James Bond series) crashes his passenger jet on takeoff, and the blunder finds him in front of a court inquiry. As Gort’s previous flying record is immaculate, he is allowed to continue to pilot, but his peers make sure to keep a close eye on him. Gort’s daughter Charlotte (Elizabeth Seal, VAMPIRE CIRCUS) believes her father to be innocent and totally competent in his job, seeking the help of examiner Captain Dallas (Michael Craig, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, VAULT OF HORROR), who at first mistakes her as a reporter, starting a soon-to-be blossoming romance off on a wrong foot. As Gort continues to pilot aircrafts, a subsequent flight proves even more tragic, but perhaps there is more than human error getting in the way of this airline’s good name.


Somewhat talky with a lot of technical jargon thrown into the screenplay (based on actual events), TROUBLE IN THE SKY is a fairly straightforward drama aided by a top notch cast of familiar Brit character actors. There’s several court room scenes featuring a career-waning George Sanders (whose billing is fairly low on the totem pole) as a lawyer who uses a model airplane to recreate the initial accident and intimidate poor Gort, well played by Lee. Sanders must have shot all his scenes in a day, as they all take place on one set. There’s a bit of (and I mean a bit) of the disaster genre reflected here (a decade before Hollywood’s AIRPORT) when on one of the flights, a hail storm causes a cracking cockpit window to eventually burst, prompting our heroic pilots to isolate it with a cushion! Most of the picture deals with the plight of the aging Gort, and how his mostly stuffy co-workers deal with the controversy, as Captain Dallas puts the moves on his unmarried daughter.


Second-billed Cushing plays Captain Judd, who gets some dirt on Gort through a blonde airline hostess (Delphi Lawrence, THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH), and does his best to out him, as he obviously thinks he’s past it (as they say in Britain). Cushing looks cool in a captain’s uniform, playing the character as a chain smoker with his usual onscreen suaveness, but also an air of superiority that makes Judd somewhat villainous. Also in the very impressive cast is Andre Morrell (PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES), Noel Willman (KISS OF THE VAMPIRE), Charles Tingwell (DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS), Marne Maitland (THE REPTILE), Jack Hedley (THE ANNIVERSARY), Charles Lloyd Pack (HORROR OF DRACULA), Anthony Newlands (SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN) and Hedger Wallace (TORTURE GARDEN). If that wasn’t enough, horror fans with keen eyes will spot Gerald Sim (DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN) and Geoffrey Bayldon (THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD) in very brief bits.



When Universal Pictures released TROUBLE IN THE SKY theatrically in the U.S. in 1961, the picture was short some 16 minutes. Presented on DVD here as part of VCI’s “Best Of British Classics” series, the film is in its uncut 91-minute form. The only downfall is that its 2.35:1 aspect ratio has been reduced to full frame. Although beginning and end titles are widescreen, the rest of the picture has been cropped (with a slight letterboxing) with most of the picture information missing on the sides. Other than that, the black and white image fairs well, with minimal blemishes and surprisingly, not much in the way of grain. The mono English audio track is in fine shape, and there are no extras on the disc, except for a standard chapter menu.

REVIEW: George Reis
IMAGES: Marcus Brooks
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