2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Izzy Adkins The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

busterggi Okay, its not possible to write an unbiased review,the story and so much of the script are in Airplane that your mind automatically fills in the missing parts and thus it becomes hilarious.It wasn't mean to be, it would be melodramatically over the top for anyone who hasn't seen Airplane because subtleness was not included in this picture. The musical cues alone would push it to the edge.Watch it for a black & white good time.

Scott LeBrun It seems impossible now to review or comment on this suspense favourite without mentioning the comedy classic "Airplane!", which came along 23 years later and quite effectively spoofed this film. In fact, if you're like this viewer and have seen "Airplane!" multiple times, you'll be amazed at how faithful Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker were to the story here, and how many lines are lifted verbatim from this script. Of course, you'll also be conditioned to expect the zingers to happen as well.Still, regardless of whether or not this story *had* ever been spoofed, it really is a tense, effective, and sweat inducing thriller, highly quotable, and appropriately atmospheric. Hall Bartlett - who also wrote the screenplay with producer John Champion and story author Arthur Hailey - does a masterful job with the direction, getting lots of mileage out of a minimum of sets.The acting is sincere all the way down the line as Dana Andrews stars in the film as Ted Stryker, war veteran and former pilot who can't get over his wartime trauma. Teds' fed-up wife Ellen (Linda Darnell) takes off with their young son (Ray Ferrell), and he follows them onto a plane where the flight crew (among them, football great Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch as the pilot) and several of the passengers fall victim to food poisoning. It's up to the neurotic Ted to pilot the plane through a heavy storm to make it to an airport in time to save the afflicted people.One particular element that should be of delight to any Canadian viewer is the fact that this tale takes place in Canada and the air above it. My own hometown is mentioned repeatedly.The solid cast also includes Sterling Hayden as Captain Treleaven, the cranky guy (and old wartime comrade of Teds') who must talk our hero through the situation, Geoffrey Toone as the dedicated doctor, Jerry Paris as passenger Tony Decker, Peggy King as his stewardess girlfriend Janet Turner, Charles Quinlivan as ground controller Harry Burdick, and Steve London as co-pilot Walt Stewart.Highly entertaining all the way through, and at just over 81 minutes, it doesn't go on any longer than it really should, or waste any time.Eight out of 10.

Martin Teller I have no excuse for not watching this sooner. You see, I'm a huge AIRPLANE! fan. I've seen it 30-40 (maybe more) times over the past three decades. When I was a kid, I knew it only as a funny movie, perhaps a parody of all those AIRPORT movies I'd never seen. Eventually I learned that it was a parody of this film, but even then I assumed it was only an inspiration, a jumping off point. Oh no. Almost everything in Zero Hour! is referenced in some way in its spoof. The plot is almost entirely the same (the largest differences being in the Ellen/Elaine character). Many of the lines ("Sluggish, like a wet sponge") and even whole passages of dialogue are lifted from it. Shots and musical cues are duplicated. Even things like Joey's outfit and the casting of a pro athlete in the co-pilot role are here. I'm sure almost everyone else who watched it in the past 30 years did so only because of the connection, and even at the time I doubt many people were familiar with it.That is all to say, it is impossible for me to judge this movie as anything but the blueprint for one of my favorite comedies. In that capacity, it's absolutely hilarious. Every few seconds I was reminded of another terrific gag. But I can try to comment on the film on its own terms. Noir fans might be thrilled to see Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell and Sterling Hayden in the lead roles, but only Hayden brings anything interesting to it. The plot is... gripping, I guess? It's hard to say when you're so familiar with it. There's some terrible use of stock footage, but otherwise it seems reasonably well put together. Oh, I give up. You owe it to yourself to see this if you love Airplane!, and if for some ungodly reason you've never seen Airplane!, watch this first. I have to imagine it can only make both films better.

ackstasis (Please Note: the following paragraph works best if you repeat it in a Rod Serling voice... as do most paragraphs) Flight 714 to Vancouver, Canada. The year: 1956. This ill-fated passenger plane carries 38 people, including a stewardess and two co-pilots. Among the passengers is Lt. Ted Stryker, a former fighter pilot tormented by painful memories of a wartime career he'd rather forget. For dinner that night, two thousand feet above the murky wilds of Canada, Stryker chooses the meat. His young son chooses the fish. The little boy becomes sick, very sick. Other passengers begin to fall violently ill; they also chose the fish. And, yes, so did the pilots. (end Rod Serling voice here)Armed with this nifty little premise, 'Zero Hour! (1957)' manages to be an engrossing, if not entirely heart-thumping, thriller. Certainly, the tagline claiming "The Tensest 50 Minutes in the History of the Screen" is a little generous. Bartlett's film often plays it too straight-faced for its own good, and it's no surprise that Abrahams and Zucker later lampooned the storyline in 'Airplane! (1980)' {which I haven't seen, but I bet I can guess which lines of dialogue were parodied}. No serious film should contain the line "our survival hinges on one thing - finding someone who not only can fly this plane, but didn't have fish for dinner."Dana Andrews is one of his era's most underrated leading men, and he plays the shell-shocked Stryker with empathy and authenticity. Throughout his career, he always excelled at playing the anti-hero, an ordinary man with emotional cracks beneath the surface. No doubt, Andrews was chosen for his role in 'The Best Years of Our Lives (1946),' in which his character similarly experiences a flashback to a war-time dogfight. Linda Darnell, who had previously co-starred with Andrews in Preminger's 'Fallen Angel (1945),' plays Mrs Stryker, a neglected wife who has since lost all respect for her husband. I also loved Sterling Hayden as the cantankerous air-traffic controller who tries to run things from the ground, grudgingly and without conviction.