''Delayed Flight'' is a 1964 British low-budget 'B'

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by Tony Young, and starring

Helen Cherry Helen Mary Cherry (24 November 1915 – 27 September 2001) was an English stage, film and television actress. She was born in Worsley, Lancashire, and brought up in Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire. Marriage Whilst working at the Arts Thea ...

and Hugh McDermott. The screenplay was by

Dail Ambler Betty Mabel Lilian Uelmen (née Williams; 11 January 1919–6 September 1974) was a British journalist, screenwriter and pulp fiction writer who used the pen names Dail Ambler and Danny Spade. She was also known professionally as both Betty Wi ...

Plot

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

as Helen Strickland * Hugh McDermott as Lieutenant Colonel Calvin Brampton * Paul Williamson as Shentor *

Neal Arden Neal Arden (born Arthur Neal Aiston; 27 December 1909 – 4 June 2014) was an English-born actor and writer who appeared in films, television shows, theatre productions and radio programs. He was born in Fulham, London. In 1928, Arden moved to ...

as Hicks * John Watson as Dooley *

Hector Ross Hector Ross (1914-1980) was a British stage, film and television actor. Partial filmography * '' Night Beat'' (1947) - Don Brady * ''Bonnie Prince Charlie'' (1948) - Glenaladale * '' The Man Who Disappeared'' (1951) - Dr. Watson * ''Happy Go L ...

as Styles * Totti Truman Taylor as doctor * Patrick Jordan as Carter * Ross Hutchinson as Haines * Jessie Barclay as receptionist * Keith Rawlings as Police Inspector * Nicolette Pendrell as air hostess

Production

''Delayed Flight'' was filmed in March 1964 at Bray Studios as a

supporting feature A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

, with the financial involvement of Hammer Film Productions as well as

Bill Luckwell Bill Luckwell (1913–1967) was a British film producer and screenwriter. He founded Bill Luckwell Productions to make supporting features.Chibnall & McFarlane p.130 Selected filmography Producer *''Miss Tulip Stays the Night'' (1955) *'' See H ...

'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'') which he and Young made at Bray Studios, owned at that time by Hammer Films.

Release

The film was intended to be distributed by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

, but was not released in the UK or US. In Australia, it was shown to accompany other Columbia films such as ''

Fail Safe In engineering, a fail-safe is a design feature or practice that in the event of a specific type of failure, inherently responds in a way that will cause minimal or no harm to other equipment, to the environment or to people. Unlike inherent safet ...

'' (1964) and '' The Long Ships'' (1964).

References

External links

* 1964 films British mystery thriller films Films directed by Tony Young 1960s English-language films 1960s British films Films scored by Wilfred Burns {{1960s-UK-film-stub