FLIGHT THAT DISAPPEARED (1961)

FLIGHT THAT DISAPPEARED (1961)

Tagline: Terror in The Sky...beyond known flight!

(Sci-Fi, Adventure, Put Your Trays in an Upright Position) [G]

Note: This movie didn't get an MPAA rating, but it likely would have landed a [G] if it did. 

It may be a state of torpor, suspended animation, I’ve seen something like it in hibernating bears. 

This story revolves around Flight 60 which is headed to Washington D.C. rises so high into the atmosphere drawn by a mysterious force, that ground control can no longer keep track of it. What perils await the FLIGHT THAT DISAPPEARED? 

I purposely left the plot vague because there are a lot of unexpected things going on in this film that are better left unsaid unless you have either already seen it, or if you read the description on a website prior to reading this review. I typically don’t care about spoilers for films that are 62 years old, but I had never heard of this one, so I thought may you hadn’t either. 

When I was a kid my dad used to take me to the greyhound races at Phoenix Greyhound Park (which closed in 2009). My dad even adopted one of the dogs. Anyway, one thing I remember about going there when I was younger is that freakin everyone smoked. It was so bad, it made everything smell like cigarettes and I am pretty sure it was highly damaging to my lungs. Having said that, it still made me feel grown up and like a rebel, so I didn’t care. This movie reminded me of those days because they also allowed smoking on airplanes back in the day, so this movie is loaded with smoking. Ahh, the good old days. 

The acting in this movie is top-notch, but in the dialog, we do get some pretty goofy lines. The lead actress is probably Paula Raymond as Marcia Paxton, but there are several women in the film. Paula is solid in this and reminded me a bit of Mara Corday (THE GIANT CLAW). She was in a lot of films, but nothing I’m familiar with. Another stand-out performance comes from Craig Hill who plays Tom Endicott. Tom is a scientist making rockets and gets a decent amount of screen time. We also get Dayton Lummis who plays Dr. Carl Morris who is responsible for coming up with “the Beta Bomb”. I am not going to try and search for that on the internet, because I will get put on some CIA watch list or whatever. So I am guessing it’s made up? 

Pacing wise this is pretty solid, but you do need to pay attention to the dialog. There are a lot of interesting questions asked in this movie. It kind of assumes that common sense and self-preservation are not as common as we think.

Before 2020, I don’t think I ever thought that society could be so easily brainwashed as sway to be one particular way or the other. I didn’t think that the United States for instance would ever just embrace the whims of the few based on media control and shaming people into being one way or the other. Now I see that this movie is frighteningly close to the mark when it comes to what people will gladly accept when you take morality out of the picture. When you start replacing actual morality with perceived morality, you have an atmosphere for disaster. This movie explores those concepts. Sadly, we have no idea how the impact of our decisions will impact the future as morals decay and God is taken out of society on future generations. However, we are starting to see what it’s done so far, increases in suicide, self-worth, addiction, sexualization of children, reduction of consequences for violence, etc., etc... Can we trust the current powers at all? Can we really say the worst isn’t coming our way from the powers of man that we trust?  

Overall this is a pretty thought-provoking film with some interesting questions. I also like that it doesn’t feel forced or preachy. Cinematically it’s fairly rough and utilizes stock footage, but it accomplishes its goals. 

FLIGHT THAT DISAPPEARED gets a 4 out of 7. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF HARVARD FILM AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.