A pilot wants a life of ease, flying for drug smugglers and looking the other way until his conscience is tweaked by a woman he has misused. The story unfolds in flashbacks as the pilot battles the storm and recalls his failures, including a love affair with the wife of his best friend.
Richard Widmark
Lt. Willard Francis Slattery
Linda Darnell
Mrs. Aggie Hobson
Veronica Lake
Dolores Grieves
John Russell
Lt. F.A. 'Hobbie' Hobson
Gary Merrill
Cmdr E.T. Kramer
Walter Kingsford
R.J. Milne
Raymond Greenleaf
Adm. William F. Ollenby
Stanley Waxman
Frank
Joe De Santis
Gregory (as Joseph De Santis)
Tom Coleman
Bartender (uncredited)
John Davidson
Maitre D' (uncredited)
Ted Jordan
Radarman (uncredited)
Robert Patten
Lieutenant at Desk (uncredited)
Gene Reynolds
Control Tower Operator (uncredited)
Dick Wessel
Taxi Driver (uncredited)
Director
André de Toth
Novel
Herman Wouk
Screenplay
Richard Murphy
December 22, 2023
6
After a brief meteorology lesson on just what causes hurricanes, we start with a pilot coshing his mate and stealing a plane. Sadly, that's about as exciting as this gets as we discover that the pilot is WWII veteran "Slattery" (Richard Widmark) who has been quite happily flying around Florida delivering what needs delivering - regardless of what it is! Anyway, as he powers through the sky and into the path of the eponymous storm, he starts to have flashbacks of just what led him to his current predicament. That's where we come in. We get to share those memories as his fairly selfish behaviour impacted on the lives of "Aggie" (Linda Darnell), "Dolores" (Veronica Lake) as well as on his military buddies led by the typically unremarkable Gary Merrill's "Kramer". There are plenty of windy audio effects and the sound stage sprinkler system was well put through it's paces, but the rather episodic style of the presentation along with way too much verbiage and a really rather lacklustre who did what to whom melodrama really never quite takes off. I always found Darnell to be a bit hit or miss, and here she hasn't loads to work with as the story takes us to where we know we have to end up... It's watchable, Saturday afternoon B-fayre, but I doubt you'll recall it for long afterwards.
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$0.00
Revenue:
$0.00