The Doomsday Flight *** (1966, Jack Lord, Edmond O’Brien, Van Johnson, Katherine Crawford, John Saxon, Richard Carlson, Michael Sarrazin, Ed Asner) – Classic Movie Review 10,180

Director William Graham’s tense, credible and exciting 1966 bomb threat TV movie crime thriller The Doomsday Flight is written by Rod Serling and stars Jack Lord, Edmond O’Brien, Van Johnson, Katherine Crawford, John Saxon, Richard Carlson, Michael Sarrazin and Ed Asner.

An airline receives a bomb threat from a caller (Edmond O’Brien) who asks $100,000 in small denominations and says the bomb is hidden in the cabin of a Douglas DC-8 airliner that has taken off for New York. There is a bomb on board with an altitude-sensitive trigger a plane that will go off when the plane drops below 4,000 feet unless the ransom is paid. Chief Pilot Bob Shea (Richard Carlson) orders the pilot, Captain Anderson (Van Johnson), to circle around Las Vegas and gets the flight crew to search for the bomb.

It is Serling’s detailed script that makes it so credible, but the NBC network was nervous about its realism and showed it only once, fearing it could inspire copycats. Serling uses elements from his script for the Twilight Zone episode The Odyssey of flight 33.

It is the first TV movie for Saxon and the feature debut for Sarrazin.

It premiered on NBC in the US on 13 December 1966 and was then America’s most watched TV movie, so it was released in cinemas in other countries and distributed by the Rank Organisation in the UK, where, weirdly, it was often shown as the supporting film to Carry On Doctor (1967).

A copycat caller claimed to have placed a similar bomb aboard a Qantas Airways flight in 1971. The man did place a bomb at the Sydney Airport, and officials paid him $560,000.

The cast are Jack Lord as Special Agent Frank Thompson, Edmond O’Brien as The Bomb Threat Caller), Van Johnson as the pilot, Captain Anderson, Katherine Crawford as Jean John Saxon as celebrity on flight George Ducette, Richard Carlson as Chief Pilot Bob Shea, Tom Simcox as Flight Engineer, Michael Sarrazin as Army Corporal with PTS, Edward Asner as Mr Feldman, Malachi Throne as Bartender, Jan Shepard as Mrs Elizabeth Thompson, Greg Morris as Balaban, FBI Agent, David Lewis as aviation company Personnel Director Mr Rierdon, and Howard Caine as LA Dispatcher Mack.

The Doomsday Flight is made by Universal Television, runs 93 minutes, is shot by William Margulies, is produced by Frank Price and is scored by Lalo Schifrin.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,180

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