Film 2014 : The Night My Number Came Up (1955)
So, Ealing again, Michael Redgrave again, and another film constructed around a character describing a dream which starts to come true. The dreamer is a well-cast Michael Hordern, a naval commander who has had a vision of a routine trip from Hong Kong to Tokyo turning into a disaster - electric storms, equipment failure, hysterical passengers, and when the fuel runs out a crash landing over mountains, past a lighthouse and not far from a small Japanese village. First-time director Leslie Norman puts together a vivid, well edited sequence of the last few minutes of the Dream, with some credible miniature work (not all of the model effects on display later on will reach this standard. )
Hordern’s character feels obliged to recount this vision when he finds himself at a dinner party with at least three passengers that he recognises from the dream - Michael Redgrave’s Air Marshal, a young Denholm Elliott, his a-d-c, and Alexander Knox, a civilian with a high ranking role in the Hong Kong government. (Knox’s calm authority later gives way to a fixation on whether the dream will come true - this authority / obsessiveness reminded me vividly of how good he was as Control in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.)
Unlike the dreamer in Dead of Night, Michael Hordern is not part of the events himself - he won’t be on board the flight. Indeed, after take off, the movie probably has more in common with another film R C Sheriff scripted, No Highway in the Sky (1951), than Dead of Night.
Incidental pleasures of watching movies from this period and this studio is seeing a rep company of regulars turn up - so here’s Nigel Stock, juvenile love interest in It Always Rains on Sunday eight years earlier, but here in the middle of a run of roles as naval / RAF / military officers, and very good he is too, playing the pilot of the Dakota. Bill Kerr, Alfie Bass and Ealing stalwart Victor Maddern are also on board. The movie is a watchable mix of aeronautical mishaps and in depth discussion about pre-destination and Chinese spiritual beliefs, with some striking location footage of Hong Kong and some convincing performances. A shame about the ending, which is a bit flimsy, and also a shame that A Canterbury Tale’s Sheila Sim (Mrs Richard Attenborough) is given so little to do.
Next Episode : The First of the Few
Hordern’s character feels obliged to recount this vision when he finds himself at a dinner party with at least three passengers that he recognises from the dream - Michael Redgrave’s Air Marshal, a young Denholm Elliott, his a-d-c, and Alexander Knox, a civilian with a high ranking role in the Hong Kong government. (Knox’s calm authority later gives way to a fixation on whether the dream will come true - this authority / obsessiveness reminded me vividly of how good he was as Control in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.)
Unlike the dreamer in Dead of Night, Michael Hordern is not part of the events himself - he won’t be on board the flight. Indeed, after take off, the movie probably has more in common with another film R C Sheriff scripted, No Highway in the Sky (1951), than Dead of Night.
Incidental pleasures of watching movies from this period and this studio is seeing a rep company of regulars turn up - so here’s Nigel Stock, juvenile love interest in It Always Rains on Sunday eight years earlier, but here in the middle of a run of roles as naval / RAF / military officers, and very good he is too, playing the pilot of the Dakota. Bill Kerr, Alfie Bass and Ealing stalwart Victor Maddern are also on board. The movie is a watchable mix of aeronautical mishaps and in depth discussion about pre-destination and Chinese spiritual beliefs, with some striking location footage of Hong Kong and some convincing performances. A shame about the ending, which is a bit flimsy, and also a shame that A Canterbury Tale’s Sheila Sim (Mrs Richard Attenborough) is given so little to do.
Next Episode : The First of the Few