Zero Hour!
Encyclopedia
Zero Hour! is a 1957 movie whose screenplay was written by Arthur Hailey
, starring Dana Andrews
, Linda Darnell
, and Sterling Hayden
, and released by Paramount Pictures
. Zero Hour! was an adaptation of Hailey's 1956 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
play Flight into Danger
. Hailey also co-wrote a novel with John Castle
based on the same premise, titled Flight Into Danger: Runway Zero-Eight (1958).
The rights to the movie were purchased by the makers of the 1980
parody film Airplane!
, and they were able to use the screenplay almost verbatim. In later years, the film was acquired by Warner Bros.
Pictures. The film was released on DVD
by Warner Home Video
on June 26, 2007.
called it an "exciting contemplation of a frightening adventure in the skies" based on a "good terse script"..."Dana Andrews as the hero and Sterling Hayden as the captain are first-rate in these roles, keeping them hard and unrelenting." Time magazine called the script a "bloopy inflation of a 1956 television show" and said its "moral struggle comes off fairly well, but the general situation is as patently contrived as one of Walter Mitty
's daydreams."
Arthur Hailey
Arthur Hailey was a British/Canadian novelist.- Biography :Born in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, Hailey served in the Royal Air Force from the start of World War II during 1939 until 1947, when he went to live in Canada. Hailey's last novel, Detective , is a mystery told from the perspective of a...
, starring Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...
, Linda Darnell
Linda Darnell
Linda Darnell was an American film actress.Darnell was a model as a child, and progressed to theater and film acting as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s...
, and Sterling Hayden
Sterling Hayden
Sterling Hayden was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr...
, and released by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
. Zero Hour! was an adaptation of Hailey's 1956 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
play Flight into Danger
Flight into Danger
Flight into Danger is a 1956 Canadian television film starring Corinne Conley, James Doohan , Kate Reid, Zachary Scott and Philip Gilbert...
. Hailey also co-wrote a novel with John Castle
John Castle
John Castle is an English actor. Castle has acted in theatre, film and television. He is well known for his role as Postumus in the 1976 BBC television adaptation of I, Claudius and for playing Geoffrey in the 1968 film, The Lion in Winter. He also played Dr...
based on the same premise, titled Flight Into Danger: Runway Zero-Eight (1958).
The rights to the movie were purchased by the makers of the 1980
1980 in film
- Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year ....
parody film Airplane!
Airplane!
Airplane! is a 1980 American satirical comedy film directed and written by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and released by Paramount Pictures...
, and they were able to use the screenplay almost verbatim. In later years, the film was acquired by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Pictures. The film was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
by Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
on June 26, 2007.
Cast
- Dana AndrewsDana AndrewsDana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...
.... Squadron Leader Ted Stryker - Linda DarnellLinda DarnellLinda Darnell was an American film actress.Darnell was a model as a child, and progressed to theater and film acting as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s...
.... Ellen Stryker - Sterling HaydenSterling HaydenSterling Hayden was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr...
.... Captain Martin Treleaven - Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch .... Capt. Bill Wilson, Pilot
- Geoffrey TooneGeoffrey TooneGeoffrey Toone was an Irish-born character actor.Most of Toone's film roles after the 1930s were in supporting parts, usually as authority figures, though he did play the lead character in the Hammer Films production The Terror of the Tongs in 1961Toone was born in Dublin, Ireland to English...
.... Dr. Baird - Jerry ParisJerry ParisJerry Paris was an American actor and director best known for playing Jerry Helper, the dentist and next door neighbor of Rob and Laura Petrie, on The Dick Van Dyke Show.-Life and career:...
.... Tony Decker - Peggy KingPeggy KingPeggy King is a pop singer and former TV personality.She is best remembered as the female vocalist on The George Gobel Show. She also appeared in American Bandstand, Maverick, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and The Jack Benny Show...
.... Stewardess Janet Turner - Charles QuinlivanCharles QuinlivanCharles Quinlivan was a film and television actor in the United States in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, best known as the star of the western movie Seven Guns to Mesa, and of the short-lived 1960 TV series Mr. Garlund.-Film career:...
.... Harry Burdick
Reception
Bosley CrowtherBosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
called it an "exciting contemplation of a frightening adventure in the skies" based on a "good terse script"..."Dana Andrews as the hero and Sterling Hayden as the captain are first-rate in these roles, keeping them hard and unrelenting." Time magazine called the script a "bloopy inflation of a 1956 television show" and said its "moral struggle comes off fairly well, but the general situation is as patently contrived as one of Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber's short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", first published in the New Yorker on March 18, 1939, and in book form in My World and Welcome to It in 1942...
's daydreams."