The Man in the Sky [Decision Against Time] ** (1957, Jack Hawkins, Elizabeth Sellars, Walter Fitzgerald, Eddie Byrne, Lionel Jeffries, Donald Pleasence, Jeremy Bodkin) – Classic Movie Review 7993

Director Charles Crichton’s 1957 black and white drama The Man in the Sky [Decision Against Time] is Boys’ Own adventure stuff with a brave – some might even say foolhardy – test pilot John Mitchell (Jack Hawkins) testing a prototype transport plane when his engine bursts into flame. Does he use his parachute? No, he does not! His passengers and crew bail out, but he refuses to obey orders to jettison his plane in the Irish Sea.

Though it is very competently acted and skillfully directed, The Man in the Sky [Decision Against Time] is an over-earnest, shallow and only potentially suspenseful drama, despite being written by talented William Rose and John Eldridge. Unfortunately, it would like to be a thriller and it works too hard to keep you on the edge of your seat for too long and ends up being tedious, even though it is short at 87 minutes, and its potential for suspense remains unrealised. Elizabeth Sellars has a thankless role as Mitchell’s wife Mary.

The Man in the Sky [Decision Against Time] must be counted as a rare Ealing Studios misfire. It is based on an original story by William Rose. A fairly costly ($486,000) co-production between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Ealing Films, it was made at MGM British Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, with the flying sequences filmed at Wolverhampton Municipal Aerodrome, Pendeford, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England.

The story here is that producer Michael Balcon ran Ealing Studios on behalf of Rank since 1944 but left Rank in 1956 and set up a new company, Ealing Films, after Rank sold Ealing Studios in Ealing Green, West London, to the BBC in 1955. Balcon made a distribution and production deal with MGM and The Man in the Sky is Ealing’s first production made at MGM-British Studios.

Also in the cast are Walter Fitzgerald, Eddie Byrne, Lionel Jeffries, Donald Pleasence, Gerard Lohan, Jeremy Bodkin, John Stratton, Victor Maddern, Catherine Lacey, Megs Jenkins, Ernest Clark, Raymond Francis, Russell Waters, Howard Marion-Crawford, Esme Easterbrook, Ann Johnson, Anne Dobson, Derek Butler, Gerry Cuff, Reginald Slater, Glynn Davies and Mary Mackenzie.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7993

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