Jet Storm (1959)

A disparate group of passengers and crew are aboard a jet airliner flying from London to New York. Among the passengers is a mentally unstable man (Richard Attenborough) who has planted a bomb on the plane in revenge for the death of his 7 year old daughter by a fellow passenger (George Rose). Since he thinks all human beings are despicable, it doesn't concern him that everyone on board will also die. Directed by Cy Endfield (ZULU). If this all sounds familiar, this film is a British version of those "passengers in peril" disaster films along the lines of AIRPORT, SKYJACKED and THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY. The various passengers reaction to facing death varies from hysteria to calmness, from humor to violence. The film manages to whip up a suitable amount of tension until the film's last 10 minutes when it turns into sentimental twaddle (though some might call it child abuse). I've a fondness for the genre so I enjoyed it until it collapsed at the end. There's a ghastly title song over the opening credits that has to be heard to be believed. The massive cast includes Stanley Baker, Diane Cilento, Mai Zetterling, Dame Sybil Thorndike, Harry Secombe, Elizabeth Sellars, Hermione Baddeley, David Kossoff, Jocelyn Lane, Virginia Maskell, Patrick Allen, Neil McCallum and Megs Jenkins.