Zero Hour!

Hall Bartlett's 1957 film is about a disaster during a flight. In Canada, the crew of an airliner and some of the passengers are poisoned by the fish served on board; with the pilots incapacitated, the only person who can land the plane is a passenger who flew in the war and has not been in an aircraft since. Ted Stryker lost his squadron because of a decision he made during the war and still carries that guilt, and the film describes that weight as much as the suspense. Radio exchanges with the tower, fog and the pressure of time make up its body. The screenplay comes from a television play by Arthur Hailey. Years later the film became the direct source of a famous aviation parody, which is why much of its dialogue now sounds familiar. Who it's for: viewers who like classic disaster and suspense films. Who it's not for: anyone arriving because of the parody; this film is entirely serious.