Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

Hayleigh Joseph This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

JohnHowardReid Jack Palance (Gil Walker), Joan Fontaine (Susan Lane), Corinne Calvet (Nikki), Robert Douglas (Danzer), Marcel Dalio (Goro), Jeff Morrow (Colonel Wier), Richard Shannon (Lieutenant Bill Luzon), Murray Matheson (Franz Kovac), John Doucette (Tirera), John Pickard (Hank Brady), James Anderson (Dullah, Goro's henchman), John Templeton (Luzon's offsider), Peter Coe (Hanrah), Madeleine Holmes (Rosario), John Wengraf (Kalferez), Otto Waldis (spiv who demands money), Jerry Paris (policeman in car), Albert D'Arno, Rene Chatenay, Anthony De Mario (policemen), John George (cart vendor), Eric Alden, Don Dunning (Moroccans), Mark Hanna (corporal at airport), Karin Vengay (Greek girl), Josette Deegan (French girl), Pilar Del Rey (Spanish girl), Rodd Redwing (police orderly). Director: CHARLES MARQUIS WARREN. Screenplay: Charles Marquis Warren. Film editor: Frank Bracht. Photographed in Color by Technicolor and Natural Vision 3-D by Ray Rennahan. Art director: John B. Goodman and Hal Pereira. Set decorators: Bertram Granger and Sam Comer. Special photographic effects: John P. Fulton. Process photography: Farciot Edouart. Make-up: Wally Westmore. Technicolor color consultant: Richard Mueller. Assistant to the producer: Harry Templeton. Assistant director: Daniel McCauley. Music: Paul Sawtell. Sound recording: Harry Lindgren, Gene Garvin. Producer: Nat Holt. Copyright 1 November 1953 by Paramount Pictures Corporation. New York opening at the Palace: 24 November 1953. U.S. release: November 1953. U.K. release: 26 December 1953. Australian release: 13 August 1954. Sydney opening at the Victory. 92 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A chartered plane crash-lands in Tangier. But where is the pilot, where's his passenger and, more importantly, what happened to the money he was carrying? COMMENT: A disappointing 3-D movie on all counts, this "B"-grade pulp adventure in a studio-built Tangiers features acres of talk interspersed with a few mild chases that lazily work up to a feeble, clumsily-handled shoot-out climax. One of the chief problems, alas, is Joan Fontaine. Her role is not only unconvincing, but superfluous. The film would have been tauter and more suspenseful if her entire role had been eliminated. True, she looks very cool and glamorous, but then the whole movie is beautifully photographed. (It's one of the few 3-D attractions lensed in three-strip Technicolor). All the same, Jack Palance doesn't look the part of the hero, and Douglas portrays the villain with little of his characteristic zing.At least Marcel Dalio plays with customary enthusiasm. He is the only one of the leads who seems to benefit from director Warren's constant use of wide-screen close-ups. Warren's pedestrian direction is compounded by both visual (distinctly tacky sets) and aural impediments, including a Mickey Mouse music score with every minor twist of the ridiculously far- fetched but unfortunately ho-hum plot inevitably heralded by ominous chords. All told, this picture rates as a thoroughly "B"-class effort. Only at least fifteen or twenty minutes of skillful trimming could salvage some entertainment from Warren's garrulous, dime-novel script which contemporary critics justly described as "pointless", "old- fashioned" and "seedy".

MartinHafer Apart from being filmed in 3D, there isn't a whole lot to distinguish "Flight to Tangier". It's an action-adventure film with very little action and it's, at best, a time passer. Aside from Joan Fontaine, it's mostly filled with B-list actors and just left me flat.When the film begins, a DC-3 airplane crashes at an airport in the international city of Tangier*. Oddly, however, no bodies are found in the wreck...and two folks, Susan and Gil (Joan Fontaine and Jack Palance) are caught by the police looking through the wreckage. Soon the police are giving them grief...as are some criminals and the pair want answers. What happened to the pilot and why?!It's weird but the film features some chases...and no one runs or really chases. It all seems very low energy and almost slow motion...and the film never rose above the level of mediocre at any point.

Spikeopath Written and directed by Charles Marquis Warren, Flight to Tangier stars Joan Fontaine, Jack Palance, Corinne Calvet and Robert Douglas. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by Ray Rennahan. Tangier airport, and a group of people await the arrival of as plane from behind the Iron Curtain. When said plane crashes and burns, it is found that there are no survivors or indeed any corpses. So exactly where is the missing courier worth $3 million? And just exactly what do these group of people have to do with the crashed plane?Someone somewhere in a big room full of executives at Paramount Pictures thought this was going to be a great Cold War type thriller. A drama awash with spies, black market dastards, shifty femmes and undercover operatives. Unfortunately what follows is immeasurably dull. A bunch of folk stand around musing about politico guff, then there's a half hearted chase sequence, some more politico guff, another lame chase sequence, and on it goes in the same fashion until the inevitable tepid ending closes the whole sorry picture down.Fontaine, looking lovely as usual, and Palance give it plenty of gusto, while the Technicolor is nice to take in. But once the poorly scripted contrivances start to take precedence over character dynamics, and the action scenes begin to bore, you realise you have been cheated and feel the need to strangle one of those Paramount executives. So avoid unless you suffer from insomnia. 3/10

amhnorris Although this film is by no means an AFI classic, I was nonetheless surprised that it hadn't yet received a single comment. For what it is its fine, an enjoyable drama very much a product of its time (Cold War themes, etc.) The sets are laughably unreal, but the acting (and by that I mean Fontaine and Palance) compensates. Joan Fontaine is one of my favorite actresses and was the main reason for my watching this. She does seem to be having fun in a film that is quite a departure from her typical fare. I had never seen Corinne Calvet in anything before and I suppose she does all that is required of her, i.e. look buxom and speak in a breathy French intonation. She is the standard Tart-With-A-Heart character, and its interesting to note (spoiler) Palance's rejection of her attempts at seduction as an interesting indication of 50s morality: sexuality is something to be suppressed, not exposed. Ultimately she pays for her behavior. All in all an entertaining film, and I'm sure those who watch it will realize the type of film that it is going into it.