Zero Hour!
by Hall Bartlett
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DVD details
Actor: Dana Andrews, Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch, Geoffrey Toone, Linda Darnell, Sterling HaydenDirector: Hall Bartlett
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: John F. Warren
Producer: Hall Bartlett
Writer: Hall Bartlett
Editor: John C. Fuller
Producer: John C. Champion
Writer: John C. Champion
Writer: Arthur Hailey
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 81 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-06-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Zero Hour!
DVD Review: Delightful Transcendence
Summary: 4 Stars
You've got to love "Zero Hour!," the 1957 thriller that most likely played drive-ins before heading straight to the blue glow of late-night TV. It's been mimicked so many times you can recite the dialog.
Airplane! (Don't Call Me Shirley! Edition), the 1980 comedy classic, was the most famous spoof, and you see variations in Airport 1975, a few made-for-TV films with Peter Graves or William Shatner, and even Executive Decision (1996). One could argue "Zero Hour!" was the first disaster film, though John Wayne's windy opus The High and the Mighty (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) came out a few years before. The irony is "Zero Hour!," possessing a fraction of that film's glorious budget, is far more exciting. Arthur Hailey wrote "Zero Hour's" screenplay, a precursor to his bestselling novel Airport, which in turn led to the famous 1970 film Airport (Full Screen Edition).
"Zero Hour!" is a time capsule, representing a more innocent time in cinema entertainment. Today, the film would be loaded with CGI effects and include a few deaths, perhaps unlucky passengers sucked out of an emergency exit. Amazingly, everyone survives the day in "Zero Hour," though the bad fish will certainly test their intestinal fortitude. Dana Andrews (what a great, underrated actor he was) is a former pilot suffering from World War II shell-shock. He can't find a job and his wife (the beautiful Linda Darnell) is fed up with his mopey demeanor. She buys a plane ticket to leave town with their son. Dana races through the airport at the last second and catches a ride to try and save their marriage. On board, there's a nice dinner choice of meat or salmon. Well, the fish is bad and, as luck would have it, the pilots (including gridiron star Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch) hungrily consume it and are down for the count.
The plane is hovering on auto-pilot while bouncing through an especially violent thunderstorm when Dana, sweat-drenched with trembling hands, must take the controls and fly for the first time since the war. Naturally, his wife sits in the co-pilot seat while leaving their young son to battle diarrhea alone (hey, the kid has to grow up sometime). Back at the airport, they call in hotshot Captain Treleaven (the burly Sterling Hayden) who likes to hang at the local jazz clubs with swinging babies. He's going to have to talk Dana down, but not before delivering the classic line, "I guess I picked the wrong week to give up smoking." He's not the only one, as everyone in the control tower appears to have cigarettes dangling from their mouths at all times.
I suppose we could laugh at the incredible dialog between Dana and Linda as they sit in the bouncing cockpit trying to work out their marriage. And then those obligatory war flashbacks reducing Dana to a catatonic zombie, causing the plane to plummet nose-first towards snowy mountain tops. Let's not forget Sterling, juiced with a few martinis, screaming spittle into the radio for Dana to straighten up and fly right. The landing strip, of course, is covered with a thick fog bank. A doctor on board, looking for all the world like Paul Drake, announces they must immediately land or risk losing the passengers to the worst case of food poisoning in recorded history.
Sadly, I can't imagine kids watching this film today without rolling their eyes. I saw this as a kid myself, drenched in black and white, and was on the edge of my seat. Viewing "Zero Hour" again after all these years, one can't help but be overcome by how much the world has changed. On the plane, everyone wears a tie and politely goes about their business with the threat of an excruciatingly flaming death hovering over them. It's delightful transcendence with the great Dana Andrews - one of the most dependable professionals in screen history, a man who literally hitchhiked from Texas to California to become an actor - saving the day. "Zero Hour" is like home movies of my grandfather at Thanksgiving. Those days may be gone, but you can still watch the film to remember a more innocent time.
Description of Zero Hour!
Passengers on an airplane become food-poisoned causing a major emergency. This film is what Airplane! is based upon.Runtime: 81 minFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 085391145127 Manufacturer No: 114512Bestsellers in DVD
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