“CLOUDS… DARK… SNOW”

By Raymond Benson

This Ealing Studios thriller was a total surprise to this viewer. It’s always a joy to discover a picture from yesteryear that one hasn’t seen, and The Night My Number Came Up happens to be a solid, riveting piece of work.

The movie is based on a real incident experienced by British Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard, and it was adapted to the screen by R. C. Sheriff. Competently directed by Leslie Norman, Number is a taut aeronautical near-disaster flick about a small Royal Air Force plane that carries thirteen people (eight passengers and five crew) from Hong Kong to Tokyo on a harrowing journey.

One could say that the movie has much in common with an episode of The Twilight Zone due to a somewhat supernatural slant. One day at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport, Air Marshal Hardie (Michael Redgrave), civilian Owen Robertson (Alexander Knox), Secretary Mary Campbell (Sheila Sim), Officer Mackenzie (a young Denholm Elliott), and others board a Dakota to fly to Japan. Unfortunately, weather is poor (“clouds… dark… snow” are the recurring images and dialogue that describe the danger). The plane gets lost and is in danger of crashing. Back at the airport, Commander Lindsay (Michael Hordern) seems to know what has happened. He’d had a dream 48 hours before that illustrated every event leading up to the plane’s take-off, and he believes he knows where the aircraft has gone down. It is up to him to convince the air traffic control officers in Hong Kong to direct their search in the right place—which is WAY off the Tokyo route. The thing is—Lindsay had related his dream to many of the plane’s passengers the night before their departure, so the events that occur do not feel coincidental to them.

The suspense is palpable. At no time does one question the eye-rolling premise of the man who has dreams that pre-determine destiny; the whole thing is played straight, and it works. All the actors are quite good, especially Knox as the superstitious and frankly somewhat cowardly friend of Air Marshal Hardie’s who unwittingly comes along on the flight.

Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray restoration (from StudioCanal) looks and sounds quite good. It comes with English subtitles for the hearing impaired, plus an audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan. The trailer for this and other Kino Lorber titles are also included.

The Night My Number Came Up belongs in the genre that would later spawn such more extreme supernatural fare as Final Destination… and Number was made 45 years earlier! Check it out for a fast-paced armrest clutcher.

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