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Delayed Flight (film)

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Delayed Flight
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTony Young
Screenplay byDail Ambler
Produced byBill Luckwell
David Vigo
StarringHelen Cherry
Hugh McDermott
CinematographyWalter J. Harvey
(as Jimmy Harvey, B.S.C.)
Edited byNorman Cohen
Music byWilfred Burns
Production
companies
Luckwell Productions
Hammer Film Productions
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • 1964 (1964)
Running time
62 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom

Delayed Flight is a 1964 British low-budget 'B'[1] thriller film directed by Tony Young, and starring Helen Cherry and Hugh McDermott.[2] The screenplay was by Dail Ambler.

Plot

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An airline flight lands at an airport in England, where the passengers are told they must be delayed and quarantined for 24 hours due to a smallpox scare. Two of them, Helen Strickland and American Army Lt. Col. Calvin Brampton, escape. A third passenger, a secret agent, also escapes but is fatally shot. Before dying, he entrusts important official documents to Brampton to be delivered to the Prime Minister. Meanwhile, Strickland is also heading to London to intercept a private letter that must not be seen by her husband.

The two team up and are pursued by the police for breaking quarantine, and by the two sinister henchmen who shot the secret agent and who work for an organization that wants the documents in order to instigate an uprising in Africa. After various adventures, Calvin and Strickland achieve their ends and say their farewells. The smallpox scare turns out to have been nothing more than a case of chicken pox.

Cast

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Production

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Delayed Flight was filmed in March 1964 at Bray Studios as a supporting feature, with the financial involvement of Hammer Film Productions as well as Bill Luckwell's own company.

This was the last film produced by Luckwell, and was the second of two thrillers (the other being The Runaway (1964), shot back-to-back with Delayed Flight)[3][4][5] which he and Young made at Bray Studios, owned at that time by Hammer Films.[6]

Release

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The film was intended to be distributed by Columbia Pictures, but was not released in the UK or US. In Australia, it was shown to accompany other Columbia films such as Fail Safe (1964) and The Long Ships (1964).[6]

References

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  1. ^ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 130. ISBN 978-1-8445-7319-6.
  2. ^ "Delayed Flight". BFI Collections Search. British Film Institute. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
  3. ^ Fellner, Chris (15 August 2019). The Encyclopedia of Hammer Films. London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing. p. 95. ISBN 978-1538126585.
  4. ^ Maxford, Howard (15 February 2019). Hammer Complete: The Films, the Personnel, the Company. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 706. ISBN 978-1476670072.
  5. ^ "The Runaway". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  6. ^ a b Clinton, Franz Antony (30 October 2020). British Thrillers, 1950-1979: 845 Films of Suspense, Mystery, Murder and Espionage. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 282–283. ISBN 978-0786410323.
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