SOS Pacific – 1959 | 90 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Melodramatic disaster movie that piles on the pressure thanks to vivid characterisations from an exceptionally strong cast led by Richard Attenborough. Director Guy Green sustains the tension remarkably well as he heaps one possible disaster on top of another, allowing himself to gloss over a weak script full of holes and unlikely coincidences. Attenborough sketches another memorable character as informer Whitey, and is solidly supported by Pier Angeli and Eddie Constantine.

On a small Pacific island, petty crook Whitey Mullen(Richard Attenborough) and small-time smuggler Mark Reisner (Eddie Constantine)join a passenger sea-plane captained by hard-drinking John ‘Jack’ Bennett.Whitey is taking the plane to give evidence against fellow-passenger Reisner,who is in police custody and accompanied by a customs officer. The plane strikes trouble once airborne as it is blighted by electronics problems and an electrical storm that forces them to land on a deserted island. Their relief soon turns to shock when they discover they’ve landed on an island adjoining the site of an imminent H-bomb test.