Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

SimonJack More than one movie was made along the lines of this plot – a scientist decides to turn a deadly weapon against the government or society. I recall at least two others, and each of those lead characters had slightly different reasons. "Seven Days to Noon" may have been the first among the number of films of this nature. But, whether it is or not, this is one tremendous movie. The mystery and intrigue are not something that slowly must be unraveled in this film. They soon become clear. Rather, this movie is made to perfection in the way that it builds suspense and takes the audience along for the ride as Scotland Yard purses the culprit. Will they find Professor Willingdon in time? Will they be able to stop his destruction of a huge area of London radiating (no pun intended) out from the seat of government at Westminster Palace?The plot is superb and one can see why the film won the Oscar for best writing of a motion picture story. But the details of camera work, direction, shooting and other technical aspects are all superb in this film. The acting is top notch as well. The film also shows a well- ordered plan for evacuating London with a few days' notice. In true British stiff upper lip fashion, no one panics. One is tempted to imagine a similar film being made in Los Angeles that likely would show hordes of fleeing, screaming people. This is a very fine movie of suspense, human drama, and detailed police work. The script isn't filled with memorable lines, but I did catch one. Scotland Yard Superintendent Folland (Andre Morell) and the professor's assistant, Stephen Lane (Hugh Cross) are riding in a police car, talking about the professor. Folland says, "Repressing of fear is like trying to hold down the lid of a boiling kettle. Something's got to give eventually."The film also gives a look at some lesser-known but very good performers from early English filmdom. Olive Sloane is very good as Goldie. A younger Joan Hickson is very good as the chain-smoking, nervous landlady, Mrs. Peckett. Audiences everywhere would know her later for her portrayal in many films as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. And, Ronald Adam plays the prime minister here – a type of role he filled in many of his later films and in TV series. This is a fine first-rate production that most people should enjoy.

Robert J. Maxwell Barry Jones is a devoted atomic scientist who gets religion and believes that his entire life has been given over to purposes of evil. He steals an atomic device and walks off with it, then mails the Prime Minister a demand that England stop the manufacture of atomic weapons. If he doesn't get the desired response in seven days, he'll detonate the device near the seat of government. Everything in a radius of twelve square miles will be demolished.The British government is not so easily cowed. The PM decides to remain with his staff in London, while the population of the city is evacuated, and a thorough search is made of London's neighborhoods in pursuit of Jones and/or the sinister black bag he's carrying around.This is a serious and thought-provoking movie with considerable suspense, nicely directed by the Boultings and with solid performances from the cast, particularly Andre Morell as Superintendent G. W. Folland. Olive Sloane has an important supporting role as an aging show-business floozy who puts Jones up for the night -- it's never made clear whether the kitchen is open or not -- and is later held captive by him. However, her chipper character and cute dog probably aren't as amusing as the writers may have thought.There are some amusing moments amid the drama. While the soldiers, in full field kit, are searching all the houses in all the rooms in the city, we get glimpses of one soldier going through a drawer filled with a lady's lingerie, pulling out a pair of what he unquestionably would have called knickers, glancing around, then stuffing the item in his blouse. Another grunt halts momentarily in his search through a pub, long enough to take a healthy swig out of an open bottle.And two soldiers who have been called up to help in the evacuation and search are cleaning one of the trucks. A non-com passes by and snaps out an order. When he's gone, one of the soldiers explodes in a bitter tirade about working hours, in which every other word is a monstrous curse rendered as "flippin'". When the rage is exhausted, the second soldier nods vigorously and comments, "You're flippin' right, Charlie." There isn't much to laugh at in the rest of the story, but there's a good deal to think about. Jones, as a person, is played sympathetically but is written as a hopeless idealist. The PM explains it all for us, the audience. Jones pays the price of all hopeless idealists. He hasn't harmed anyone but the entire city is upset about him, and besides the pet dogs and parrots have had to be abandoned. Nice shots of deserted Trafalgar Square, Westminster Bridge, Picadilly, and other tourist spots. These shots are common in end-of-days movies but I always kind of like them.Despite the graininess it shares with many other post-war British films, it's a professional production all around. And I can't help noticing that, now that the Cold War is finished, Jones' moral position carries more weight than ever. At one point, he quotes Milton: "Dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon." Maybe the chief problem is not the atomic bomb but human nature, which seems intent on wielding it.

dougdoepke On first seeing this movie in the late 50's, one bomb in a guy's suitcase seemed mild since millions like me were facing full-scale nuclear war from the skies at any moment. At least this anguished soul (Jones) gives a week's warning. Now, of course, the baggage-check bomb looks suddenly prophetic and much scarier. One question to ponder is the logic behind the professor's threat. It's strictly utilitarian—better to lose a few million people than a few billion! After all, that same utilitarian calculus is typically used in wartime without controversy. Just how crazy, then, is this guy. Note that the screenplay avoids mention of this sort of irony or the question of its rationality.It's a tense film, but a curiously unemotional one, considering what's at stake. Perhaps it's the British tradition of stiff upper lip, or maybe the movie functions as an entertaining training film on how people should act during evacuation. But whatever the reason, no one gets very excited despite the apocalyptic threat. I suspect a Hollywood version would behave quite differently. At the same time, as someone who's never been to London, I enjoyed seeing the sights. And since many appear to be landmarks, likely the decades haven't changed much. Anyway, this has to be one of the few films on record to actually gain topicality after a 60- year passage and is well worth catching up with.(In passing— The 49th Man (1953) is the only Hollywood period film I know of dealing with the threat of a suitcase bomb. There, it's foreign agents smuggling A-bomb parts into US for later use. It might be helpful to point out that Soviet aviation was still a year away from a long-range delivery system.)

bkoganbing Seven Days To Noon is ironically one of those films that has grown into the times rather than be dated. It's certainly a relevant film given the threat of nuclear terror today. But back in 1950 I don't believe the technical expertise was there so that Barry Jones or anyone else could have put a device like that in a briefcase. Take a look at pictures of Fat Man and Little Boy the code names for the weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those things could not have fit in a briefcase and developments hadn't advanced that far in five years. Now sad to say it actually could be done.Barry Jones is an atomic scientist who is suffering from fatigue and overwork and a questioning mind about what exactly he's developing. His mind snaps and he takes one of the weapons Great Britain has been developing and sends a letter to the Prime Minister. Issue a statement you'll stop the program or he's going to explode his package on Sunday at high noon.That sets up a manhunt for Jones throughout the United Kingdom, but especially of course in London. His note does specify the seat of the government. Andre Morrell as a Scotland Yard Inspector, Hugh Cross as one of his fellow scientists who will have to disarm the device once located, and Sheila Manahan as his daughter lead the search for Jones and the package of destruction he has.Despite the fact that it was a technological impossibility in 1950, Seven Days To Noon is still an effective thriller of a film, worthy of a Hitchcock. It's interesting that they came close to getting Jones a few times before they do catch up. Best in the film is Olive Sloane the frowzy former music hall entertainer who Jones holds as a hostage for a while. She wants to do her bit as well as she's trying to get to Aldershot to entertain the troops.Seven Days To Noon got an Oscar for Best Screen Story. It remains one of the few films that actually grew technologically and became more relevant now than when it first came out.