If All the Guys in the World...

On a fishing trawler in the North Sea the crew fall ill one after another. The cause is spoiled food, the diagnosis botulism, and the serum has to reach them within twelve hours. The ship’s radio is out, so the captain sends a distress call on a short wave set. Amateur radio operators pick it up, and people who have never met one another form a chain. The line runs from Togo to Paris and on into Germany, passing through Berlin and the Russian zone. In the end a Danish plane drops the serum by parachute. The film tells that solidarity without making speeches, by showing the steps of the work. The hundred and thirteen minutes are given to a single rescue. André Valmy and Jean Gaven take the leads, with Jean-Louis Trintignant also in the cast. Christian-Jaque’s French film was completed in 1956.