Flight to Nowhere

Somewhere in the South Pacific there is a large supply of uranium that governments are keen to get their hands on. There is a great poster for this espionage mystery containing the picture of an atomic explosion and a cryptic piece about a ring that holds something valuable. That ring turns out to belong to Cathy (Evelyn Ankers) as a gift from her brother who sponges off her after she has inherited the family fortune. Hobe Carrington (Alan Curtis) is a fresh civilian flying charter flights in his Lockheed plane. He is hired by a 'countess' for a weekend that he had intended to keep for himself but her offer becomes too tempting for him to refuse. She springs other passengers on him at the last moment including Cathy and her brother Claude. The story continues in Death Valley where Hobe gets knocked out a few times as he realizes he is in the company of spies and racketeers. He doesn't know who he can trust which gets worse when his ex-wife turns up and reveals something about the past of the 'countess.' The plot gets untidy which is a pity because there are some sinister characters present who would have become really intriguing in a better production. This one and only release from Golden Gate Pictures has some locational interest going for it. Las Vegas can be seen when it was sparsely populated and there are some desert and ranch scenes filmed on the Iverson Movie Ranch where many famous screen cowboys once roamed.

The film has attractive leads, but the plot of the film is clumsy and confusing. Essentially Alan Curtis is a private pilot who is contacted at the last moment to fly a group of people to Las Vegas. It turns out that the people on the plane are attesting to sell atomic secrets, and it also turns out that Alan Curtis is a retired FBI agent. The film print was quite good considering that the movie is in the public domain, and the film appeared to have been shot entirely on location, no actual film sets at all, giving the film a somewhat low-budget feel. The film has a good leading cast: Alan Curtis, a former model turned actor, and Evelyn Ankers, Universal Studios horror queen. Jerome Cowan also has a good role as one of the crooked businessmen.

Golden Gate Pitchas presents.... Flight to NoWhere. At the very beginning, we witness a murder. don't know what, where, or why. seems to be over uranium. Mysterious lady with an accent calling herself a Countess, hires a charter pilot to bring them to Death Valley. She seems a little reluctant to answer questions. all very mysterious. Story jumps all over the place. Stars Alan Curtis as "Carrington" and Micheline Cheirel, the Countess, who may or may not be who she says she is. Alan Curtis died young at 43... complications from surgery. he played Philo Vance in a couple of the chapters, right after making THIS film. It's all very "B" movie.. the acting, the editing, the sound and picture quality. and the script -- the Countess is scared and asks for help, and suddenly he must kiss her?? where did THAT come from? and Carrington's ex wife pops up out of no-where, and knows the Countess. all pretty random. Directed by William Rowland. he only directed ten films, but seems to have produced many more during his career. couldn't find much info on Rowland or on Golden Gate Pictures... looks like GGP made six films. it's mildly amusing, but quite flawed. Needed a better script, editor, and director.

The film opens in Honolulu (I'm sure it was filmed on location) and some guy gets gunned down. Then we get stock footage of an atomic explosion. That's pretty much all the excitement in the movie, and the opening credits haven't even rolled yet.

Everybody is trying to find a map to a uranium mine. No one is who they seem to be. In other words, you think you are watching actors, but you're not.

Alan Curtis walks around like Al Gore and reads his lines off a teleprompter. He gets cold-cocked twice and makes wisecracks about it. A way-over-the-hill Jack Holt is shoved into several scenes as a government man. Evelyn Ankers doesn't even get a chance to scream. Silent film cowboy Hoot Gibson has a bit as a sheriff. Jerome Cowan is a bad guy. The climax lasts about 20 seconds.

You can fall asleep several times during the film (as I did) and not miss anything.

The temptation is to say simply, "yes it is" or to call it a movie to nowhere, but I won't (nor will I say that it reminds me of a certain filmmaker named Wood in technical skill)

A map containing nuclear secrets has been stolen from a Korean national. Getting information that the map maybe in the LA area, an agent named Donovan springs into action and steers the suspected thieves toward an old friend, and ex FBI agent's charter flight service.Much talk and travel result.

Give the film points for clearly being shot on location and in actual room instead of on sets, however take a few away for being slow and talky and not particularly well thought out. I was over half way into this short film and I had no real idea what was going on as the cast was shunted from place to place. Little of it made any real sense since I couldn't imagine people actually behaving like that. By the time the "action" turned up near the end I was almost asleep.

Not a bad film as such, but an incredibly dull one. One has to think that the film was made to scam hotel rooms from unsuspecting resort owners. Insomniacs need only apply