View source for Zero Hour!

{{short description|1957 American drama film directed by Hall Bartlett}}
{{Other uses|Zero Hour (disambiguation)}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Zero Hour!
| image          = Zerohourposter.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical poster
| director       = [[Hall Bartlett]]
| producer       = [[John C. Champion]]<br />Hall Bartlett
| screenplay     = [[Arthur Hailey]] <br />Hall Bartlett <br />John Champion
| based_on       = {{based on|''[[Flight into Danger]]'' <br />1956 teleplay on [[General Motors Theatre]]|Arthur Hailey}}
| narrator       = [[William Conrad]]
| starring       = [[Dana Andrews]] <br />[[Linda Darnell]] <br />[[Sterling Hayden]]
| music          = Ted Dale <br />[[Arthur Hamilton]]
| cinematography = [[John F. Warren]]
| editing        = John C. Fuller
| distributor    = Paramount Pictures
| studio         = [[Paramount Pictures]]
| released       = {{Film date|1957|11|13}}
| runtime        = 81 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         = $400,764.<ref name="Notes">[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/96656/zero-hour#notes "Notes: Zero Hour."] ''[[Turner Classic Movies]]''. Retrieved: November 16, 2023.</ref> or $650,000<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/stream/TrashCompactor0205Starbrite/Trash_Compactor_0205_%28Starbrite%29#page/n25/mode/1up/search/%22john+ashley%22|title=The John Ashley Filmography|magazine=Trash Compactor|edition=Volume 2 No. 5|page=26|year=1990|first=John|last=Lamont}}</ref>
}}

'''''Zero Hour!''''' is a 1957 American [[drama film]] directed by [[Hall Bartlett]] from a screenplay by Bartlett, [[Arthur Hailey]], and John Champion. It stars [[Dana Andrews]], [[Linda Darnell]], and [[Sterling Hayden]] and features [[Peggy King]], [[Elroy Hirsch|Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch]], [[Geoffrey Toone]], and [[Jerry Paris]] in supporting roles. It was released by [[Paramount Pictures]].<ref>[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/96656/zero-hour#overview "Overview: Zero Hour."] ''[[Turner Classic Movies]]''. Retrieved: November 16, 2023.</ref>

''Zero Hour!'' was a remake of the Canadian television play ''[[Flight into Danger]]'', and was in turn used as the basis for the 1980 parody film ''[[Airplane!]]''.

==Plot==
During the closing days of the [[World War II|Second World War]], six members of the [[Royal Canadian Air Force]] fighter squadron led by pilot Ted Stryker are killed because of a command decision he made. Stryker blamed himself for that bad decision, falling into a deep sense of depression and anxiety which impede him to fly again. Years later, in civilian life in [[Winnipeg]], Manitoba, a guilt-stricken Stryker goes through many jobs, and his marriage is in trouble.

Stryker finds a note at home: his wife Ellen has taken their young son Joey and is leaving him, flying to [[Vancouver]]. He rushes to [[Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport|Winnipeg Airport]] to board the same flight, Cross-Canada Air Lines Flight 714, operated by a [[Douglas DC-4]]. He asks his wife for one last chance, but Ellen says that she can no longer love a man she does not respect.

Stewardess Janet Turner begins the meal service, offering meat or fish as the choices. When a number of passengers and the co-pilot begin feeling sick, a doctor aboard determines that the fish is the cause. The pilot also becomes seriously ill and cannot fly the airplane. Before he passes out, he turns on the [[autopilot]].

The stewardess determines that Stryker is the only passenger with flying experience, but he has not flown in 10 years and has never piloted an aircraft of this size. Owing to dense fog, Flight 714 cannot land at [[Calgary International Airport|Calgary]] or any other airport east of the [[Canadian Rockies]], but must continue on to Vancouver.

Stryker's superior in the war, the tough-minded Captain Treleaven, is summoned to [[Vancouver International Airport|Vancouver Airport]]. Treleaven blames Stryker for the wartime deaths and has no faith in him. However, he has no choice but to work with him, getting him familiarized with the airplane and teaching him how to land. Ellen joins her husband in the cockpit to handle the radio.

As they approach Vancouver, it is shrouded in fog. Treleaven orders him to circle, for hours if necessary, in the hope that it will lift, but Stryker decides to try to land immediately because passengers will die if they do not get medical treatment soon. Stryker makes a rough landing, but none of the passengers are injured. He has conquered his demons and regained the respect of both Ellen and Captain Treleaven.

==Cast==
{{div col}}
* [[Dana Andrews]] as Squadron Leader Ted Stryker
* [[Linda Darnell]] as Ellen Stryker
* [[Sterling Hayden]] as Captain Martin Treleaven
* [[Elroy Hirsch|Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch]] as Captain Bill Wilson, Pilot
* [[Geoffrey Toone]] as Dr. Baird
* [[Jerry Paris]] as Tony Decker
* [[Peggy King]] as Stewardess Janet Turner
* [[Charles Quinlivan]] as Harry Burdick
{{div col end}}

==Production==
===Writing===
''Zero Hour!'' was an adaptation of Hailey's original 1956 [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]] [[teleplay]] ''[[Flight into Danger]],'' starring [[James Doohan]] as George Spencer, the original name for the Stryker character.<ref>[[Ben Mankiewicz|Mankiewicz, Ben]]. "TCM presentation of "Zero Hour!" ''[[Turner Classic Movies]]'',  July 17, 2010.</ref> Hailey also co-wrote a novel with John Castle based on the same plot titled ''Flight Into Danger: Runway Zero-Eight'' (1958), although this is based more closely on the television version than on the film.

===Filming===
Principal photography took place from May 8–28, 1957, with retakes on July 23–24, 1957. The primary filming location was [[Santa Ana, California]].<ref>[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/96656/zero-hour#film-details "Original print information: Zero Hour."] ''[[Turner Classic Movies]]''. Retrieved: November 16, 2023.</ref> Nightclub and television performer [[Peggy King]] made her feature film debut in ''Zero Hour!'', recording the song "Zero Hour" for [[Columbia Records]] to coincide with the film's release.<ref name="Notes"/>{{#tag:ref|At the time, the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' reported that Harrison Reeder of Robert Alexander Productions attempted to purchase the screen rights to the ''Zero Hour'' story as a star vehicle for actor [[Steve Cochran]].<ref name="Notes"/>|group=Note}}

[[John Ashley (actor)|John Ashley]] has a small role appearing on television as a pop star, although the vocals were provided by Duke Mitchell.<ref name="vagg">{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://diaboliquemagazine.com/the-nine-lives-of-john-ashley|magazine=Diabolique Magazine|title=A Hell of a Life: The Nine Lives of John Ashley|date=December 2019}}</ref>

==Reception==
''[[The New York Times]]'' reviewer [[Bosley Crowther]] called ''Zero Hour!'' 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."<ref>[[Bosley Crowther|Crowther, Bosley]]. [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9801E6DC1138E73ABC4C52DFB767838C649EDE "The Screen: ''Zero Hour'', aviation melodrama at Loew's State."] ''[[The New York Times]]'', November 14, 1957. Retrieved: March 23, 2011.</ref>  [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]], however, 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."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071120120117/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,810170-2,00.html "Cinema: The New Pictures."] ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', December 9, 1957. Retrieved: March 23, 2011.</ref>

In 1971, the film was remade as a [[made-for-television]] movie, ''[[Terror in the Sky]]'', a [[Movie of the Week]] special with [[Doug McClure]] in the Ted Stryker role (renamed George Spencer, as in the original).<ref>Pendo 1985, p. 282.</ref> ''Zero Hour!'' was also used as the basis for the parody film ''[[Airplane!]]'' (1980).<ref name="Commentary">Tyner, Adam. [http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/52551/airplane/ "Airplane! (Blu-ray)."] ''DVD Talk'', September 25, 2011. Retrieved: October 20, 2014.</ref>

Screenplay writer Hailey went on to write the popular 1968 novel ''[[Airport (Hailey novel)|Airport]]'', which revisited the air disaster genre and led to a [[Airport (film series)|film franchise]] that was also spoofed by ''[[Airplane!]]'' and [[Airplane II: The Sequel|its own sequel]].

==See also==
* [[List of American films of 1957]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=Note}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{Refbegin}}
* Pendo, Stephen. ''Aviation in the Cinema''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. {{ISBN|0-8-1081-746-2}}.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|id=0051221}}
* {{TCMDb title|96656}}
* {{AFI film|52458}}

{{Hall Bartlett}}
{{Airport}}
{{Arthur Hailey}}

[[Category:1957 films]]
[[Category:1950s disaster films]]
[[Category:1950s thriller films]]
[[Category:American aviation films]]
[[Category:American disaster films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:1950s English-language films]]
[[Category:Films about aviation accidents or incidents]]
[[Category:Films based on television plays]]
[[Category:Films directed by Hall Bartlett]]
[[Category:Films set on airplanes]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Arthur Hailey]]
[[Category:Paramount Pictures films]]
[[Category:Films set in Vancouver]]
[[Category:Films set in Winnipeg]]
[[Category:1950s American films]]
[[Category:English-language thriller films]]