The Riddle of the Stinson

This is one of those films that because it was made for TV it really never got enough screening to give it the credit it was truly due. The acting and directing is superb and the storyline based on fact makes the whole thing riveting from beginning to the end. We are taken with a small group of passengers into a nightmare situation as their light aircraft crashes in the middle of an immensely forested area in Australia's Great Dividing Range. That's bad enough, but to make matters worse the captain had to change course to avoid a storm ahead of them and wasn't able get through on the radio before they went down. Consequently the search and rescue team are looking in the wrong place for the survivors. The hopelessness of the survivors is graphically shown in all its raw detail even to the fact that the forest canopy is hardly marked where the plane went in adding even more to their terrible plight. A truly excellent piece of work by all concerned. I recorded this movie by chance late one night in the early nineties on VHS and have just copied it on to DVD so as not to lose it on an ever-decaying tape. 10 -10