A rather dull cold war drama with hints of science fiction (mainly towards the end) that ends up a big red herring, or should I say a purple one. It's Americans and Russians working together, reluctantly at first, to discover the whereabouts of a spaceship that has been causing military planes to crash. The spaceship is seen coming out of nowhere as one plane descends, and when it's finally discovered, it seems be just a little bit bigger than a Volkswagen bus.
This was veteran actor Dan Duryea's last film, and features a good ensemble of familiar faces like Lois Nettleton as a tough member of the Russian group, Bob Hastings, James Hong (I recognized that distinguished voice immediately), Bernard Fox (adding in a British perspective to the goings on) and John Ericson. The international ensemble shows what happens when countries who are usually enemies accomplish when they put away their weapons and especially their mistrudy.
There are some intense moments but they are few and far between. Nettleton is very energetic and walks away with the film. It looks rather cheaply made like a TV film shot in color and blown up for smaller movie theaters, and ultimately it seems more talk than action, although one of the plane explosions has eerie elements to it as family members of the pilot realize in horror what's going to happen moments before it does. When the group does end up on the spaceship, it begins to seem like an entirely different film, and 20 minutes of excitement with an hour plus of buildup is a dangerous way to structure a film because some of the audience may have given up before then.
This was veteran actor Dan Duryea's last film, and features a good ensemble of familiar faces like Lois Nettleton as a tough member of the Russian group, Bob Hastings, James Hong (I recognized that distinguished voice immediately), Bernard Fox (adding in a British perspective to the goings on) and John Ericson. The international ensemble shows what happens when countries who are usually enemies accomplish when they put away their weapons and especially their mistrudy.
There are some intense moments but they are few and far between. Nettleton is very energetic and walks away with the film. It looks rather cheaply made like a TV film shot in color and blown up for smaller movie theaters, and ultimately it seems more talk than action, although one of the plane explosions has eerie elements to it as family members of the pilot realize in horror what's going to happen moments before it does. When the group does end up on the spaceship, it begins to seem like an entirely different film, and 20 minutes of excitement with an hour plus of buildup is a dangerous way to structure a film because some of the audience may have given up before then.