Four strangers on a plane meet, reluctantly bond, yet are doomed by destiny. The survivor of the plane crash that kills three of them steps in to reach out to their survivors, realizing the next step in his own future thanks to the lessons he learned along the way.
Gary Merrill stars as the embittered lawyer who has left his wife for mysterious reasons, with Shelley Winters, Michael Rennie and Keenan Wynn the three people of different lives who encounter him and let him in on their lives. Rennie seeks legal help for a drunken car accident which killed a colleague; Winters is a failed Broadway musical comedy performer with a vindictive mother-in-law and weak husband; Wynn is an obnoxious and overly jokey salesman who brags about his wonderful sex-pot wife. The truths about them are revealed in different moods that range from touching to comical to a truth revealing final that shows what is on the surface isn't always whats in the heart.
Evelyn Varden, best remembered for her character parts in "Pinky" and "The Bad Seed", is truly a monster as the Sophie Tucker like vaudevillian, once a Palace headliner, who resents daughter-in-law Winters and presents herself as an angel while the truth is the complete opposite. Taking on a really noble small role, Bette Davis is touching as Wynn's widow who reveals her own sins while learning the truth about her husband's inner character that is hidden by his outward brashness.
The flashback scene between Varden and Winters (with Varden clad as if she was the Maharenee from "The Rain's Came") is presented comically with Winters a gum-chewing tramp made to appear crass. It is funny to see the truth really come out as Merrill tells Varden a hysterical lie that ends up exposing her for the crude witch she is in her son's eyes. Rennie's storyline involves a wife who stood by him yet became emotionally distant afterwards, having had to lie to save him from further alcoholic degradation, and deals with a teenaged son who totally misinterpreted the entire situation between his parents. Merrill's participation in the lives of these widowed people may at first seem intrusive, but he ends up giving a Mr. Jordan like assistance to the survivors to help fast forward these people past their grief while using his survival from the crash as a lesson to move on. It is this lesson which helps this multi-tiered story become an enjoyable drama that is both enlightening and entertaining.
Gary Merrill stars as the embittered lawyer who has left his wife for mysterious reasons, with Shelley Winters, Michael Rennie and Keenan Wynn the three people of different lives who encounter him and let him in on their lives. Rennie seeks legal help for a drunken car accident which killed a colleague; Winters is a failed Broadway musical comedy performer with a vindictive mother-in-law and weak husband; Wynn is an obnoxious and overly jokey salesman who brags about his wonderful sex-pot wife. The truths about them are revealed in different moods that range from touching to comical to a truth revealing final that shows what is on the surface isn't always whats in the heart.
Evelyn Varden, best remembered for her character parts in "Pinky" and "The Bad Seed", is truly a monster as the Sophie Tucker like vaudevillian, once a Palace headliner, who resents daughter-in-law Winters and presents herself as an angel while the truth is the complete opposite. Taking on a really noble small role, Bette Davis is touching as Wynn's widow who reveals her own sins while learning the truth about her husband's inner character that is hidden by his outward brashness.
The flashback scene between Varden and Winters (with Varden clad as if she was the Maharenee from "The Rain's Came") is presented comically with Winters a gum-chewing tramp made to appear crass. It is funny to see the truth really come out as Merrill tells Varden a hysterical lie that ends up exposing her for the crude witch she is in her son's eyes. Rennie's storyline involves a wife who stood by him yet became emotionally distant afterwards, having had to lie to save him from further alcoholic degradation, and deals with a teenaged son who totally misinterpreted the entire situation between his parents. Merrill's participation in the lives of these widowed people may at first seem intrusive, but he ends up giving a Mr. Jordan like assistance to the survivors to help fast forward these people past their grief while using his survival from the crash as a lesson to move on. It is this lesson which helps this multi-tiered story become an enjoyable drama that is both enlightening and entertaining.