User Reviews

It's like déjà vu all over again. Until last night, I had never seen Zero Hour!, but I feel as if I've seen it a dozen times. I knew that some of Airplane! (the sick girl and singing nun for example) came from Airport, but I had no idea just how much was taken from Zero Hour! Airplane! is like some weird comedic remake or re-imaging of Zero Hour! - and they nailed it right down to the exclamation mark. And it's not just ideas or concepts that were taken from Zero Hour!, entire sections of dialogue were lifted and used in Airplane! I'm shocked to discover that lines like "I guess I picked the wrong week to give up smoking" weren't written especially for Airplane! The dialogue is so similar that when little Joey visits the cockpit and the captain asks if he's ever been in cockpit before, I kept waiting for him to ask "Have you ever seen a grown man naked?" as he does in Airplane! Even some of the performances in Airplane! are eerily reminiscent of Zero Hour! Take Robert Stack in the role originally done by Sterling Hayden. Amazing stuff! The funny thing to me about this example, however, is that Hayden is actually more intense in the role than Stack could have dreamed.

Giving a rating to Zero Hour! is difficult. Even if you've only seen Airplane! once (and I've probably seen it a couple of dozen times over the years), it's all but impossible to keep a straight face (Who am I kidding? It's impossible not to downright laugh out loud.) when Johnny goes to make coffee or when Stryker straights sweating buckets behind the controls of the plane. It's impossible to take the melodrama of Zero Hour! seriously. So I don't know how I would rate the movie had I never seen Airplane! I would like to think I would have still enjoyed the experience and would have formed a similar opinion. But I have seen Airplane!, so I have that built in bias. In the end, because the movie kept me entertained (for whatever reason) throughout it's brief 81 minute runtime, I'm rating Zero Hour! a 7/10.

Dana Andrews's Zero Hour comes when former the pilot with the Canadian Air Force who lost several crews because of a decision about a mission toward the end of World War II is called upon to fly again because he's the only one on board a commercial aircraft who can.

Zero Hour is a tense thriller of a film without a second of wasted film frame in it. Andrews since World War II had come to an end has been at loose ends himself, drifting from job to job and now loosing his wife Linda Darnell and son Raymond Ferrell. On impulse after getting his wife's 'I'm leaving you' note Andrews boards a Canadian airliner in Winnipeg that is bound for Vancouver that's carrying Darnell and Ferrell. Then the passengers and both the pilot and co-pilot come down with food poisoning, courtesy of some badly prepared fish. Young Mr. Ferrell also becomes ill.

If the plot situations sound familiar that's because the film was written by Arthur Hailey who later cornered the market on these kinds of films with the successful Airport series. Story and screenplay were done by Hailey and while the film doesn't have the Ross Hunter type gloss that the Airport series had, it actually benefits because you're not stargazing among the glittering cast that all the Airport films had.

Although he's only in the last third of the film, Sterling Hayden plays one of Andrews's former Canadian Air Force pilots who knows what happened to him back in the war and who now flies for the airliner. It's Hayden's job to talk him down and give Dana on the job pilot training.

Usually the female role in these kinds of films is to patiently sit and wait while the man does his thing. That's not so in Zero Hour, Linda Darnell pitches right in and operates the plane radio right along side her estranged husband.

Andrews, Darnell, and Hayden all register well in their roles. Unusual in that time that the film has a Canadian setting though the players are mostly American. Probably helped that Arthur Hailey was British and in fact served in the RAF during World War II. I'm betting his source material for the story grew out of his experiences there.

Zero Hour is a suspenseful drama and ought not to be missed, especially if you're a fan of Hailey's Airport films.

It's funny, but despite "Zero Hour!" being an excellent and tautly written movie, I found myself laughing periodically throughout the film--and there's a good chance you will too if you watch this movie. It isn't because it's a comedy (far from it), but because the 1980s comedy "Airplane!" is basically a re-make of this 1957--but with all the insane Zucker-Abrams humor. So many times, you'll notice that "Zero Hour!" says the exact same lines and has the exact same plot you'll find in the later comedy film. It's a shame, really, as some might think the folks remade "Zero Hour!" or poked fun of it because it was a bad film--and it's among the best of the air disaster films ever made. Plus, coming back in the 1950s, it was NOT a cliché--but fresh and exciting...unlike later dreck like "Airport '75" and "Airport '79"--films that truly deserved to be parodied and mocked.

The film begins with a guy named Ted Stryker (yes, the same name as the guy Robert Hayes played in "Airplane!") but this time it's played by the ever-dependable Dana Andrews. Like in "Airplane!", he's a combat vet with PTSD and blames himself for the deaths of six pilots--but it happened in Europe, not Macho Grande! And, like in the latter film, tainted fish cause the crew and many of the passengers to become violently ill. And, like the later film, it's up to Andrews and an old WWII pilot who knows him (Sterling Hayden) to talk him through the landing process.

Despite all these similarities, the film is first-rate. Hayden and Andrews are both two of my favorite actors of the era because neither one was a "pretty boy" and they excelled at playing realistic characters--real guys who rise to the occasion when the need arises. Not macho...just real men with real problems and real grit. The script sure helped as well--it didn't seem ridiculous but managed to create wonderful tension and kept me riveted.

Overall, an excellent and often ignored film. See it yourself and see why it as well as "The High and the Mighty" are two airplane disaster movies that manage to pack a lot of entertainment more than 50 years later.

Arthur Hailey co-scripted this adaptation of his "story" (actually his play, the uncredited "Flight Into Danger") along with director Hall Bartlett and producer John C. Champion about an airliner crippled mid-flight when the crew and most of the passengers are stricken from bacteria-laced fish. Dana Andrews plays a war-scarred ex-fighter pilot haunted by his record in WWII who is the only person aboard adequately prepared to land the plane; he gets his radio instructions via land from Sterling Hayden, who just happened to be Andrews' wartime adversary! Mediocre in all aspects, but still thoroughly engrossing and enjoyable. The plot and characters should be recognizable to fans of the 1980 satire "Airplane!"...however this one is already spoofy as all get-out (though it doesn't mean to be), starting with that grave narration. Linda Darnell's role as Andrews' estranged wife and reluctant co-pilot is a scream (she has no faith in her nervous husband, yet near the finish glows with wifely pride). Andrews and Hayden act it to the hilt, while the dialogue becomes entrenched in a kind of quotable inanity ("He can't land that plane in this soup!"). Nothing to take seriously, but fun nevertheless. *** from ****

Tense drama with Dana Andrews who never forgot his unfortunate incident with a plane at the end of World War 11 is Wiesbaden, Germany.

Fast forward to 10 years later as Ted Stryker, Andrews, is unable to keep a job and his wife, the love Linda Darnell leaves him with her young son. He catches them on the plane only to find an in air situation where he must take over the plane when the 2 pilots fall ill due to eating fish. Other passengers fall ill as well.

Enter Sterling Hayden, who was with Andrews during the war, who will now help guide him down. Hayden is terrific as the chain smoking pilot, who could make anyone nervous by how he delivers his instructions to Andrews and Darnell, who handles the radio.

This is gripping drama at its best.

All I can say is, if you saw the comedy hit "Airplane," don't miss "Zero Hour!" on which much of "Airplane" was taken. Of course, this film was intended to be a drama. Thanks to "Airplane," it's almost as much of a comedy as its successor.

I doubt "Zero Hour" was a major Hollywood release - it's an independent production in black and white, and by 1957, Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell were no longer the stars they once had been at Twentieth Century Fox. Both suffered from severe alcoholism, and Darnell additionally committed the mortal sin in Hollywood in those days of turning 30. The two play husband and wife, and you know the story - meat or fish? And don't say fish.

I tried to decide if I would have liked this film on its own merits. I decided that it is over the top with some bad dialogue. The ending is suspenseful. The actors do what they can with some hokey moments.

Surely, the writers could have come up with a better script. And don't call me Shirley.

Ignore reader comments that say that the movie "Airplane!" by Abrahams, Zucker and Zucker is a "rip-off" of "Zero Hour." Airplane was a SPOOF of Zero Hour - not a rip-off. One would think "Airplane!" was a spoof on "Airport" - and in a way it was, but watch "Zero Hour" and you'll see their real inspiration.

If watch Airplane first, then Zero Hour, you'll find Zero Hour to be a very (unintentionally) funny COMEDY! The AIRPLANE writers even pulled one ridiculous line from Zero Hour, untouched: "The life of everybody on board depends on one thing. Finding somebody on board who not only can fly the plane, but didn't have fish for dinner."

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.

Since every other reviewer here has commented on the relation between 'Zero Hour!' and its latter-day spoof 'Airplane!', let me be the first to contribute a review of 'Zero Hour!' on its own terms.

First, 'Zero Hour!' was obviously shot on a low budget. It uses a lot of stock footage - much of which is badly varied, mismatched as, for example, the airliner in the film is a four-engined DC-4 which, in the film's cuts to stock footage not only appears as a DC-4 in three different airline paint/livery schemes, but it's also represented in still other stock shots by footage of a twin-engined DC-3 and a twin-engined Convair. At the crash landing ending the model used is of a four-engined airliner which is not a DC-4 (it looks like a post-WWII British airliner whose maker/name/identification escapes me at present). Another key to the low budget is the film's inexpensive (I'm trying to be charitable) sets; and at one point a close-up of the plane's instruments are not airplane instruments at all, but a cheaply mocked-up row of three generic panel lamps above which is hand-painted LEFT-NOSE-RIGHT to represent the cockpit's landing gear lock-down indicators. One of the aerial shots of the DC-4, which appears in the film as the aircraft is on final approach, also presents a gaffe: in this stock shot the airliner's Number 4 engine's propeller is feathered - stopped! - which is absurd because in the plot the DC-4 suffers no engine failures.

Worse, though, than 'Zero Hour!'s' jumble of airliner stock footage are the obvious models used for the film's introductory combat sequence. The credits open over fine stock footage of early WWII Spitfire Mk I's in formation. But this footage gives way to models-on-wires "bathtub" shots, and I believe most, if not all, of these shots of model Spitfires and Messerschmitts were simply lifted from an earlier film (which may have been 1956's 'Reach For The Sky'). Worse still, some of the close-ups of what are supposed to be the Canadian squadron's Spitfires actually show actors (who are unrecognizable in their face-covering goggles and oxygen masks) seated in the cockpits of full-size Messerschmitt models! In one egregiously inaccurate (and thus confusion-making) small-model shot a Messerschmitt in Nazi insignia actually represents the crash of a Canadian Spitfire. But this sequence gets even worse than that: at one point it cuts to a model shot - of static-suspended models wobbled by off-screen fans - of a radial-engined Curtiss Hawk 75 painted in French Air Force camouflage and insignia (which, we are supposed to believe, is one of the in-line engined Canadian Spitfires!) "pursuing" a Messerschmitt model! The acting here is not bad - some of it is actually quite good, especially from the splendid, but chronically under-appreciated and underrated, Dana Andrews. It's the cheesy Arthur Hailey dialogue that's the real culprit that robs 'Zero Hour!' of enduring appeal (and which, I'd argue, together with the unintentionally comical plane-switching stock footage, most inspired the later spoof movie); but the cheesy dialogue's not helped, at a few points, by rapid, hectic, less than first-class editing that also betrays the low-budget on which 'Zero Hour' was produced.

The score isn't great, yet it's actually rather good - especially for a suspense film of its time. Some of the makeup is overdone - especially the excessive perspiration on the faces of the ill and the panicking aircrew and passengers and on the anxious ground controllers, which was apparently applied with a surfeit of zeal. Women's hairstyles here are reserved, but expertly done; and the costuming is quite good for a low-budget effort. Also, one of the airline office men begins the film, before he's been through any of the suspenseful trials that ensue, already wearing much more than a five o'clock shadow of whiskers: in 1957 this was most definitely not a tonsorial custom, especially for airline/technical employees - in those days a man's boss could and would call him on the carpet for having had the bad manners to have come to work so direly unshaven.

Former pro football star Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch is a trifle stiff as the captain of the airliner; but then a lot of athletes-turned-actors of that day were also rather wooden in their acting (Chuck Connors comes foremost to mind, especially in his earliest, bit parts). The rest of the supporting cast is comprised chiefly of Canadian talent who do a solid job (notwithstanding that they too labored under the often cheesy lines they were given to read) of moving the story forward and fleshing it out as well as can be expected in a low-budget film.

On its own terms, then, on the IMDb house scale of ten, I believe I have to give 'Zero Hour' 6 stars.

Nowadays, Hall Bartlett's "Zero Hour!" will probably only seem significant because it's the inspiration for "Airplane!". Indeed, some of the lines from "Airplane!" are lifted straight out of "Zero Hour!", except that the spoof expanded them. While watching the original, I kept throwing out lines from the spoof while expecting Leslie Nielsen to pop up and tell people not to call him Shirley.

Anyway, this version casts Dana Andrews as the man who has to become the pilot, Linda Darnell as his estranged wife, Sterling Hayden as his former commanding officer, Elroy Hirsch as the pilot, Geoffrey Toone as the airplane doctor, Jerry Paris (Jerry Helper on "The Dick Van Dyke Show") as a passenger, and Peggy King as the flight attendant. Nothing special about the movie, but it's still pretty fun.

So yes, Joey. Do you like movies about gladiators?

This is an exciting film which is well acted and directed with all the tension needed to keep you sitting bolt upright throughout the climactic finale. Perhaps the rushed narrated intro is just a little too over-dramatic but it does not detract from the quality of the rest of the film.

I am well aware of the film's relation to "Airplane!" (which is hilarious) and some moments are impossible to watch without one being reminded of their parody versions (the reference to quitting smoking especially). Nevertheless, it still works as an exciting piece of cinema.

I defy anyone to watch this film on its own terms. You sit down in front of the TV with the best will in the world, and then Crazylegs Hirsch asks the little boy if he's ever been in a cockpit before, and suddenly you're rolling on the floor.

What's amazing is how many of the jokes in *Airplane* work even though they parody specific moments in this movie (which fairly few people had seen).

"How about some coffee, Johnny?" "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking." "He's a menace to himself and everything else in the air!" "Stewardess? I think the man sitting next to me is a doctor." "It's a different kind of flying altogether."

I do wonder why they dropped the Jerry Paris character, who seems like he would have been a rich subject for parody.

Famously parodied as Airplane in 1980, it gets forgotten just what a rollicking good thriller Zero Hour! is. Dana Andrews is the airman scarred by an incident during the war who has to battle his demons when the crew and passengers of the jumbo jet he is aboard fall victim to food poisoning. Sterling Hayden is down on the ground smoking loads of ciggies and having no faith in trying to talk Andrews down safely.

One of the first disaster aeroplane movies, it follows what we now regard as the staples of the genre. Troubled protagonist, family strife, calm characters, panic characters, lovely ladies, square jawed men, raging weather conditions and an aeroplane in serious danger of plummeting from the sky and killing all on board. It's sometimes hokey and one dimensional in terms of plot developments, but it commits to the drama and grinds out a suspenseful last half hour that can have you edging towards the edge of your seat.

A must see for fans of such fare. It's OK to love Airplane! and prefer its comedy smartness, but it's also OK to doff a respectful pilot cap towards Zero Hour! as well. 7.5/10

If you can put aside all those AIRPLANE! moments based on the clichés found in a series of "Airport" films, you can enjoy some of the standard disaster story ingredients that appear throughout ZERO HOUR!

DANA ANDREWS is an ex-pilot trying to forget the horrors of his WWII flying experience when he was at the controls of a plane crash that killed all of his comrades. His lack of faith in himself as a pilot becomes the struggle he must overcome when the plane he and his wife (LINDA DARNELL) are on, suddenly loses its pilot and co-pilot to food poisoning. At the urging of a doctor aboard the plane, he is forced to take the controls during a bad storm. The suspense, of course, lies in whether or not the landing will be a safe one.

Based on a story by Arthur Hailey, this is by no means anything more than an efficient sky adventure briskly directed and acted competently enough by most of the cast. Linda Darnell has little more to do than look worried when she joins Andrews at the controls, so it's Andrews who has to keep the suspense as taut as possible and the story focused on the plight of the passengers aboard the plane--the usual cardboard cut-outs in supporting roles.

STERLING HAYDEN as the Canadian ground controller who helps the nervous Andrews accomplish his mission does a fine job with his assignment.

What hurts the film now are all the parodies that have spring up over the years, a factor which keeps many fans from enjoying the film on its own merits.

Despite its link to AIRPLANE, many forget that ZERO HOUR was the blueprint behind Arthur Hailey's acclaimed AIRPORT (1970) and for that matter, any disaster in the air movie that followed. Hailey was also associated with this production, so the end result does not come as too much of a surprise! You can also include links to the John Wayne classic, THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY, minus a substantially higher budget! If you're old enough, you probably remember this rerun forever (and in glorious black and white) because it is suspenseful, well cast and written. Here Dana Andrews, the ex-WW II pilot with a checkered past, is summoned to assist the ill pilots of a plane that could crash. Blame food poisoning for making everybody sick, and Andrews has to take hold of the controls in mid air OR ELSE! Of course, there's a sub plot with Linda Darnell as his wife (who wants nothing more to do with him!) and there's gruff Sterling Harden as his old war buddy. It took awhile, but the film has finally been released on dvd for all of us sentimental late, late show addicts who can't get enough of this stuff!

OK, I know this is a minority report, but this film deserves to be taken seriously and enjoyed on its own merits. I hate that the makers of the spoof "Airplane!" have apparently ruined this film for most viewers. If you like the more famous parody, which I do not by the way, I suppose it is hard to keep from comparing this film to its spoof--and that is a pity since this film is actually pretty good for a tense little B-picture. And no, it is not full of clichés because although it seems clichéd now, it was actually pretty fresh at the time it was made. While it's not the first of the airplane disaster genre--actually that honour might go to "Five Came Back" (1939)--and it very well could have been trying to cash-in on the A-list "The High and the Mighty" (1954), it certainly predates all the big "Airport" movies of the 1970s which at some point did become clichéd. Any way, this film is not inherently funny--neither intentionally nor non-intentionally. True, it doesn't even come close to being the greatest film ever made, but it is a nice little suspense film and deserves to be taken seriously in that respect.

Please, please, only watch this movie AFTER seeing "Airplane!" You will be rolling on the floor laughing. There are so many duplicate lines. Other than the chance to laugh hysterically, I see no other merit in this film. The overacting is outrageous and the melodrama is over-the-top, which is probably what inspired the scriptwriters to create "Airplane". At one point, all of the characters start to sweat in unison, including the pilot and his wife. I was expecting the sweat to begin running down their faces and getting their clothes wet, until I remember that this was not "Airplane!" but the film that inspired it.