Broken Journey – 1948 | 89 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Prototype disaster film from the Gainsborough based on a true story. Beautifully shot with some strong performances, this is a claustrophobic tale of the need for selflessness and sacrifice.

A charter plane flies over the Swiss Alps carrying on board a diverse selection of characters. Among the passengers is a film star, an opera singer, a boxer and his manager, an invalid in an iron lung and various others. When the plane suffers an engine failure en-route the pilots, Foxy (Guy Rolfe) and Bill (James Donald), have no alternative but to crash-land on a snowy glacier. They survive the landing and are left stranded to figure out ways to survive both the elements and each other.

The plane provides shelter from the elements but with food running low some of the party venture out in doomed effort to search of help. Attempts to radio for help break down due to damaged batteries, but the patient in the iron lung, Barber (Grey Blake) offers up his batteries and claims he can survive without them – an act of self-sacrifice that results in his demise. Radio contact is subsequently made with the authorities and food supplies are dropped by parachute, but an endeavour to land a rescue plane on the glacier fails. With their predicament looking irretrievably bleak, some of the party set out on a renewed expedition to reach civilisation.